Hendon Hooker ended up with 'a much better situation with a much better team' after falling in the NFL Draft
The talk of Hendon Hooker potentially being a first-round pick in the NFL Draft didn’t end up having any substance on draft night. The first round came and went without Tennessee’s star quarterback hearing his name called. So did the second round.
But falling to the third round, where the Detroit Lions picked Hooker at No. 68 overall, might not be a bad thing moving forward.
“He gets to learn from Jared Goff who is there for a year,” ESPN’s David Pollack said of Detroit adding Hooker to its quarterback depth chart, “get that knee fully healthy. Sometimes when you slip, I would argue you get to a much better situation with a much better team. There is no quarterback that got drafted … that is a better situation than Hendon Hooker.”
Hendon Hooker at Tennessee: 6,080 pass yards, 58 TDs, 5 INTs
Hooker tore his ACL in November, ending an incredible two-year run at Tennessee that saw him pass for 6,080 yards and throw 58 touchdowns against just five interceptions. Last season Hooker threw for 3,135 yards, 27 touchdowns and two interceptions, completing 69.6 percent of his passes, in 11 games before suffering the season-ending injury.
He was a Heisman Trophy frontrunner before the injury but ultimately finished fifth in the voting for the award. He led Tennessee to an 8-0 start and a No. 1 ranking the first College Football Playoff Top 25 of the season in November, too.
“You saw the amazing season he had,” Pollack said, after calling Hooker his favorite pick on Day 2 of the NFL Draft, “the Heisman Trophy (talk), got his team all the way to No. 1, the unfortunate injury toward the end of the season. He falls all the way to the third round, but he goes to the Lions. He goes to an offensive lines that is one of the best in football, a team that is physical, that is tough, that is on the up and up.”
Hooker was the fifth quarterback taken in the NFL Draft and started a run of four Vols taken in the third round over a span of nine selections. Jalin Hyatt (No. 73, New York Giants), Cedric Tillman (No. 74, Cleveland Browns) and Byron Young (No. 77, Los Angeles Rams) followed shortly after Hooker finally heard his name called.
Lions GM on Hendon Hooker: ‘We’re excited about his upside’
Lions general manager Brad Holmes said his team picked Hooker in part because of his standout performance in the win over Florida in September, which Holmes saw firsthand at Neyland Stadium.
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“Regardless of background and all that, he’s just a good football player,” Holmes said. “And if he wasn’t, we wouldn’t have acquired him. But he’s a good person, he’s smart, he’s very talented, he’s had a unique journey. And he has overcame.”
“He just has to get healthy,” Holmes added. “I believe we have the right situation for him where he can just sit back, develop, get healthy. But we’re excited about his upside.”
That’s exactly what Hooker is ready to do. Get healthy and start the development process, working behind Goff, to become a franchise NFL quarterback.
“To come in and learn everything, every nuance, how to be a pro,” Hooker said. “Then just admire (Goff). He’s been in the league for a long time and he’s been doing a great job developing every year to get better and better. That’s all you can ask for.
“So I’m definitely going to be picking his brain whenever I can. I’m going to get annoying to him a little bit. But I’m just that type of person. I just want to get in and do my job, especially, and continue to get better day by day.”
