Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker inks NIL deal with Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville

Hendon Hooker has become the latest college football quarterback to sign an NIL deal with a local car dealership.

The Tennessee quarterback has inked a partnership with Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville. As part of the agreement, the Heisman favorite will promote the dealership on his social media channels. The first ad hit his Instagram on Thursday night.

On top of that, Hooker has signed a lease for a Mercedes-Benz GLE 53, sources told On3. The dealership initially made contact with the Spyre Sports Group before it was handled by the quarterback’s representation.

Tennessee took the No. 1 slot in the first College Football Playoff rankings release earlier this week. The Vols have five victories against ranked teams. Much of that is thanks to Hooker. The quarterback has been nearly perfect this season, completing 71.2% of his passes for 2,338 with 25 total touchdowns. He’s thrown just one interception, too.

The one-time Virginia Tech quarterback has Vols fans feeling like it is the late 1990s. And he’s turned on-field success into NIL dollars. Hooker was set up with a substantial NIL package when he signed with Spyre back in February.

And just this week, he promoted a new partnership with Mark Wahlberg’s brand, MUNICIPAL, which calls itself a sport utility company. He also was featured in an endorsement for AT&T Fiber last month next to Lady Vol basketball players Tamari Key, Sara Puckett and Jordan Walker. 

Entering this weekend, Hooker and Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud are still going head-to-head for Heisman favorite. But if the Vols can leave Athens with a win over Georgia, it’s going to be hard to argue any other player is more deserving of the award.

His signing with Mercedes-Benz of Knoxville goes to show what on-field success can mean for NIL opportunties.

Hendon Hooker’s massive On3 NIL Valuation

The Tennessee quarterback currently has a $1 million On3 NIL Valuation. His social media following has seen a major uptick this season, now sitting north of 129,000. Most of that is thanks to his 91,000 followers on Instagram. He also has a per-post projection of $2,100.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.

Hendon Hooker’s evaluation ranks No. 21 in the NIL 100,  which is the first of its kind and defacto NIL ranking of the top 100 high school and college athletes ranked by their On3 NIL Valuation. The valuation also ranks No. 12 in college football.