ESPN NFL Draft experts weigh in on Hendon Hooker as possible first-rounder

ESPN aired a SportsCenter special breaking down NFL Draft analyst Todd McShay’s recently released NFL mock draft on Tuesday evening, delving into some of the selections McShay has projected. One drew significant interest from the rest of his ESPN cohorts: Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker going No. 23 to the Minnesota Vikings.

McShay explained why he made the projection.

“A little bit of a surprise, fifth quarterback, Hendon Hooker, going to the Minnesota Vikings,” McShay said. “[Chris Mortensen] can tell us more on this, but I’ve heard a lot of quiet whispers about the Vikings doing a lot of homework with this year’s quarterback class.”

Hooker didn’t get a chance to go through quite as much of the pre-draft process as his peers after suffering a torn ACL late in Tennessee’s season.

But he’s apparently been impressive nonetheless.

“So Hendon Hooker’s sitting there coming off a phenomenal year,” McShay said. “He was second in the nation in terms of QBR. He’s got mobility, a live arm and the football intelligence has really come through. Talking to teams when meeting with him, they not only have gone back to his Tennessee tape, they’ve asked him about the verbiage, the play-calling, what he was looking for at Virginia Tech, and they say he recalled it like that (in a snap).

“So even though he’s coming off the ACL and he hasn’t been able to work out, he’s done a great job during this pre-draft process showing the football intelligence that you need.”

Mel Kiper disagreed with the Hendon Hooker projection

Mel Kiper, the yin to McShay’s yang, chimed in saying he didn’t think Hooker was worth a first-round pick on merit or skill alone.

“He shouldn’t be as far as grade. I have a late second-round grade on Hendon Hooker,” Kiper said. “What Todd’s saying, from a mock standpoint, he may well be.”

In other words, if enough teams have needs at quarterback, Hooker might go higher than he otherwise would in another year. But Kiper based his late grade on Hooker on a few factors.

He broke them down.

“I just look at him as a system quarterback,” Kiper said. “Josh Heupel‘s quarterback-friendly offense allowed for a lot of that success. Get to snap and let the ball go, got the ball out of his hand in fast fashion, didn’t throw on the move. Think about Joe Milton came in after Hooker got hurt and lit up Clemson in their bowl game. This offense allowed for that success. In no way did he have to deal with anything resembling what he’ll deal with in the NFL at Tennessee.

“I think it’s way too high for Hendon Hooker. He could in a mock and he should possibly, he could possibly, on draft day, go this high, but I have a late second, early third-round grade right now on Hendon Hooker.”

Chris Mortensen backs Todd McShay’s assessment

The final one to chime in on the Hooker topic, ESPN’s Chris Mortensen essentially backed up that what McShay is hearing is accurate on multiple fronts

“It’s mixed, like it is every year on quarterbacks for the most part,” Mortensen said. “But this is one smart guy, he’s done well in interviews. I know teams that really like him, and I’d say yes the Vikings are definitely looking at him and they want to take a quarterback. They have resisted extending Kirk Cousins’ current contract, so they’re looking at quarterbacks and word is that Hooker is one they’re certainly looking at closely to take, exactly where Todd says it is.”

One other possible motivation for Minnesota in the first round?

“There could be another thing here, you get a fifth-year option when you take a guy in the first round,” Mortensen pointed out.