How Hendon Hooker’s health, Anthony Richardson’s production could impact Joe Milton’s draft stock

Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton is among the most physically gifted football players around, but his draft stock will be shaped by much more than a cannon arm and big frame. Even the performance of some other quarterbacks in the NFL could mold how Milton is perceived as a prospect.

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman discussed how the early returns on Hendon Hooker and Anthony Richardson will affect how NFL decision makers view Milton on the “Moves the Sticks” podcast with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks. Good work from Richardson and Hooker would be a good sign for Milton.

“People are going to go, ‘OK, this thing is like, it translates better than we thought it did,'” Feldman said.

The issue in regards to Hooker doing that is his health and the timeline for his return to the field. Hooker tore his ACL in November 2022 and was drafted in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions. With Jared Goff set as the starting quarterback, the Lions don’t need to rush Hooker back.

That could obviously hurt Milton, as NFL evaluators want more of an idea of how the extreme, spread out passing attack at Tennessee translates to the NFL. If Hooker can provide some solid data points, it will only give Milton another leg up.

As for Richardson, it’s more of a direct comparison in terms of physical prowess and the idea of betting on traits and abilities more than production when making a quarterback pick.

Milton, like Richardson, will be coming into the NFL Draft will not much more than a season’s worth of starting experience.

“Anthony Richardson is just, to me, way twitchier than those guys in terms of just as a dynamic runner. And he’s younger, certainly. But maybe that could be the Josh Allen comparison,” Feldman said. “Different offenses they’re going to play in. I’m really interested to see how it goes. Because I think after what we just saw with Josh Heupel and Hendon Hooker, obviously different quarterbacks, guys transferred in with different skill sets, Hendon Hooker looked great in that offense and we’ll see what Joe Milton does.”

Brooks observed that a high draft slot for Milton could be another step toward the NFL drafting more like the NBA.

“As much as we talk about Joe Milton not necessarily being Anthony Richardson, but how Anthony Richardson can help him is if he plays well in Indianapolis, given the numbers that he didn’t necessarily put up at Florida, it then encourages more guys to start looking at the prototypical traits, size, athleticism, arm talent, as opposed to the production. And then it becomes more of an NBA draft at the position as opposed to an NFL draft,” Brooks said.