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Hendon Hooker 'right on track' with ACL recovery ahead of NFL Draft

On3 imageby:Dan Morrison•04/27/23•

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Hendon Hooker
© Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

At one point during the 2022 football season, Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker looked like he would be a Heisman Trophy finalist. Then he tore his ACL against South Carolina and everything changed.

Now, ahead of the NFL Draft, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport has given an update on Hooker’s recovery from that ACL injury.

“A milestone day for Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker, really one of the draft curiosities here,” Ian Rapoport said. “Certainly, a potential first rounder and someone whose health, I know, has been a focus for teams. He was able to drop back and pass for the first time today.”

Hendon Hooker has even shown off his mobility during recovery on Twitter, proving that he is moving steadily forward in the process.

“First day of dropping back during this mornings session… feels great to move around again,” Hooker tweeted with multiple videos.

Overall, Hooker looks comfortable working out there and that is going to make a lot of teams more confident that he is going to be good to go, come next season.

“This is a sign that he is right on track, probably where he needs to be, for those quarterback needy teams,” Rapoport continued. “And as far as Hendon Hooker goes, again, this is an interesting one because I know everyone talks about him being the fifth quarterback taken, and I would say that probably is the case, but there certainly are some teams that view him maybe as the third quarterback.”

On top of that, it was recently also reported that Hendon Hooker’s surgeon sent a letter to all 32 NFL teams saying that he is on pace to be fully cleared by the first weekend of the NFL season.

Josh Heupel says Hendon Hooker is in a great position to transition

One person who believes in Hendon Hooker’s NFL future is Josh Heupel, his head coach at Tennessee. According to Heupel, he’s in a great position to transition to the NFL.

“I’m not sure anybody in college football had more on their plate than Hendon did. And then you throw in the tempo we play at? You’ve got to be a quick decision-maker, you’ve got to recognize defensive structure extremely quickly. He controlled some of our run game, he controlled the RPO game. [Hendon’s] making a decision on every snap. He’s got loaded box checks, he’s got alerts, he’s got kills,” Heupel said.

“He controlled the entire game on every single play. I think that puts him in a great position to be able to transition to the next level, handle all that’s coming at him, and be able to handle it at a really high level.”