With the Saints and the other 31 teams officially in offseason mode, it’s time for mock draft season. While there is still a lot of time between now and the 2023 NFL Draft, it’s always good to check around the league and get a sense of what the teams might be up to. In Mike Kashuba’s latest mock draft, the Saints find their potential quarterback of the future in Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker.
New Orleans Saints Select Quarterback Hendon Hooker in Mock Draft
Prospect Evaluation
On paper, Hendon Hooker has everything you need to succeed at the professional level. The Tennessee product checks every box on the list when it comes to tools, as he has an NFL-caliber arm, above-average athleticism, and most importantly, takes good care of the ball. Hooker finished the final season of his collegiate career with a 27:2 TD:INT ratio, and that wasn’t just due to dumb luck. He’s incredibly accurate with the football and isn’t the type of guy that will singlehandedly lose a football game.
Yea this Hendon Hooker guy definitely would be a waste of a draft pick for the #Saints
smh!!! Don’t know what some of you are watching. I definitely would draft this guy. pic.twitter.com/pCZ4c78Btl
— TJAY Jones (@tjayjones8) February 16, 2023
Of course, there is a reason that a player with Hooker’s skills at such an important position is still on the board at the back of the first. Hooker took a while to break out and, at age 25, was quite literally a man among boys by the time his final year of college came around. To put his age in perspective, Tua Tagovailoa, a quarterback that declared for the 2020 NFL Draft, is younger than him. Advanced age isn’t a kiss of death at the quarterback position, but the fact that he’s this old already implies that there isn’t much room for him to grow.
This could be a problem because there are a few glaring weaknesses in Hooker’s on-field play. The Tennessee product is a one-read quarterback, and if his first look isn’t available, he just takes off. He’s a good enough athlete to get away with that in college, but it might not work against NFL-caliber competition. Additionally, Tennessee had some incredible receivers and quarterback-friendly schemes, so Hooker rarely had to read and manipulate a defense. This doesn’t mean he can’t do it if he has to, it just means that we don’t know if he can, which is a bad thing.
How Hendon Hooker Fits the Saints
This Saints mock draft assumes that Derek Carr will not join the team. Seeing as he’s still a free agent, this is a smart assumption to make, and if he does sign elsewhere, then Hendon Hooker is the best quarterback New Orleans can realistically get. As mentioned above, the raw skills are all there, but he might not be ready to start in Week 1. Throwing a raw prospect to the wolves is rarely a good idea, especially when that prospect is recovering from a season-ending knee injury.
In this scenario, the Saints should also bring in a cheap bridge quarterback that’s good enough to start for a short while, but isn’t so good that he’ll keep Hooker indefinitely sidelined on the bench. Andy Dalton fits this description to a tee, and he is already familiar with the offense. Re-signing Dalton on a one-year deal might not be the most exciting move, but he would be a perfect choice for this type of role. Alternatively, the team could spend up a bit for somebody like Jacoby Brissett, who offers more upside but still wouldn’t prevent Hooker from winning the starting job if he proved capable.
Main Photo: Jeff Blake – USA Today Sports
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