Hendon Hooker 2023 NFL Draft profile: Full scouting report, NFL comparison, Fantasy Football & Dynasty outlook

Four days before the Falcons shocked the Vikings and advanced to Super Bowl XXXIII, Alan Hendon Hooker was born in North Carolina. His father, Alan Hooker, was a former quarterback for North Carolina A&T and was actually the 1986 National Black College Offensive Player of the Year. So not surprisingly, Alan taught Hendon how to play quarterback when he was four years old. Sure enough, Hendon Hooker turned into the starting quarterback at James B. Dudley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he won two state titles and set the school’s passing yards record. Hooker also played basketball and was a three-time All-Metro conference selection while scoring over 1,000 points. He was a four-star recruit from 247Sports and chose Virginia Tech over Notre Dame, North Carolina and Clemson.

The Hokies went 8-5 in Hooker’s second year as a starter (2019) but slipped to 5-6 in 2020. Following the 2020 season, Hooker transferred to Tennessee desiring a school where he “could communicate well with my coaches — my offensive coordinator, my quarterbacks coach and also my head coach.” He began 2021 as the backup behind Joe Milton but Milton got hurt in the second game, opening the door for Hooker to take over. The Vols went 7-6 in 2021 but soared to 9-1 under Hooker in 2022 until he tore his ACL at South Carolina in mid-November.

Age as of Week 1: 25 | Height: 6-foot-3 5/8 | Weight: 208 | 40-time: n/a

Comparable body-type to: Josh Dobbs

We’re breaking down everything you need to know about Young from a Fantasy manager perspective, including Dynasty outlook, measurables, scouting report, key stats and an NFL comparison.

Dynasty outlook

Hooker has potential to be a real good source of stats, but he’s the oldest quarterback in the class and coming off of a torn ACL. Believe it or not, the ACL is (for now) less of a concern than his age — he may find himself cleared for football at some point in 2023 but stuck behind a starter for multiple years. If that’s the case then Hooker may have only a short shelf life in Fantasy. Could there be a rosier scenario? Certainly: A team could potentially draft Hooker and pair him with a stop-gap quarterback. That would put the prospect on a much quicker path to playing time and, hopefully, a longer window of helping Fantasy managers. His draft destination is obviously critical, but Fantasy managers should assume he won’t play much, if at all, in 2023. That takes him off of redraft rank lists, but his long-term view could result in anywhere from the fourth QB taken to the seventh in Dynasty leagues. Expect him to fall past 20th overall in one-QB rookie-only drafts no matter what.  

Scouting report

Strengths

• Good height for the position
• Excellent, well-trained footwork and throwing mechanics with a quick release. NFL coaches will like that he’s not a project here.
• Maneuvered well in the pocket, stepping up into throws and, when he sensed it, avoided the pass rush and reset his feet to make a throw or take off and run.
• Good arm strength with verified throws of 45, 46, 47, 49 and 50 Air Yards in 2022. 

• Pass velocity was also good, capable of firing spirals when the ball needs to reach a target in a hurry.
• No complaints about general accuracy of his throws. Very capable of passing with anticipation before a receiver breaks on his route.
• Certainly ran a simplified offense at Tennessee but did as he was instructed to by his coaches. Utilized play-action off zone-read a good amount of time and was fine at reading defenses pre-snap and manipulating safeties post-snap with quick (potentially pre-designed) scans to one side of the field before throwing to the other. At Virginia Tech he worked in a less exotic, more traditional offense where he consistently went through his progressions and made reads. His learning curve might be steep, but he should be able to eventually run an NFL offense.
• Has annually completed a high percentage of short throws (9 Air Yards or fewer).
• Loved to air it out and excelled on passes of 20-plus Air Yards. In 2022, Hooker completed 30 of 68 (44.1%) for 1,219 yards and 13 touchdowns with one pick. He threw a touchdown on 19.1% of such throws. Every stat you just read was top-10 among qualifying QBs save for the attempts, which was 17th most.
• Just five interceptions over his past two seasons. Only two quarterbacks in the FBS threw fewer (and on fewer attempts). Absolutely unheard of. 
• Usually a savvy runner. Excelled on zone-reads with good speed to pick up chunks of yardage. Knew when to take off for ground gains and when to surrender before a hit arrived. Play-fakes on zone-reads were also effective most of the time.
• Tough. When he did not surrender, or when he was rocked by an unexpected hit, he usually popped right back up.
• Known as a leader on and off the field at Tennesse and Virginia Tech. Won state titles in high school and helped push Tennessee to a big-time bowl berth in 2022. 

Concerns

• Already 25 years old. Justin Herbert, Jalen Hurts, Trevor Lawrence, Tua Tagovailoa, Mac Jones, Trey Lance, Jordan Love and Justin Fields have each played multiple NFL seasons and are all technically younger than Hooker. NFL teams may not be willing to be patient with him beyond 2025.
• Lean body frame and lean legs could open him up to unnecessary injuries. 
• Has 10 1/2-inch hands but fumbled an unheard of 39 times out of 1,461 collegiate plays where he either attempted a pass, a run or was sacked. That’s a fumble once every 37.5 plays! Of those 39 fumbles, 22 came in his past two seasons at Tennessee (one every 41 plays, an improvement). 
• Because Tennessee’s offense was filled with half-field reads, Hooker often stared down his first reads a good amount. He also didn’t try a lot of difficult throws.
• The specific ball placement on his passes was only solid and certainly inconsistent. While he’d nail down deep throws he also struggled on intermediate passes and even threw to the wrong shoulder on WR screens that cost his intended targets a step.
• Ninety-seven percent of his snaps were out of shotgun in 2022. Attempted two passes from under center. Teams must know he needs some experience working from under center. 
• Has displayed long-term inconsistency with intermediate throws of 10-to-19 Air Yards. That includes a 54.1% completion rate on such throws in 2022.
• May also have a learning curve when it comes to throwing every route. Tennessee’s 2022 offense had him specialize in only certain routes including 46 to wide receivers on screens.
• Inconsistent ability to sense pressure — sometimes he felt it and correctly stepped up in the pocket, sometimes he took off and ran when there was no one near him, and sometimes he stood in the pocket and got walloped by an unchecked pass rusher. Overall, he felt like he was pressure-sensitive.
• Suffered a torn ACL in November 2022, likely jeopardizing his chances of playing most of the 2023 season. Had a heart issue in 2020 that may have been improperly diagnosed.

Stats breakdown

	G	Cmp%	PaYds	Yds/Att	PaTD	PaINT	RuAtt	RuYds	RuAvg	RuTD
2022	11	69.6%	3135	9.5	27	2	104	430	4.1	5
2022 v Top-25	6	69.7%	1738	9.4	14	2	80	291	3.6	2
Career at UT	24	68.8%	6080	9.6	58	5	270	1046	3.9	10

Advanced stats to know

• Completion rate by year on throws of 9 or fewer Air Yards: 82.6% in 2022 (led the nation), 76.9% in 2021, 72.2% in 2020, 67.7% in 2019.
• Completion rate by year on throws between 10 and 19 Air Yards: 54.1% in 2022 (48th-best in nation, 26.2% deemed off-target), 65.4% in 2021, 57.1% in 2019, 61.9% in 2018.
• Completion rate by year on throws of 20-plus Air Yards: 44.1% in 2022 (10th-best in nation), 37.7% in 2021, 50% in 2019, 37% in 2018.
• ADOT of 11.48 was second-highest in the nation in 2022.
• Had a 14.1 yards per attempt average and a 15.5% TD rate on throws of 10-plus Air Yards in 2022, second- and first-best, respectively, among all FBS qualifying quarterbacks. 
• Of his 329 attempts in 2022, 76 were hitches, 46 were WR screens, 35 were go routes, 33 were slants and 30 were in routes. Those five routes — three of which were typically shorter in distance than the others — made up 66.9% (220 of 329) of his attempts.
• Tennessee offense was WR-heavy, so a whopping 76.1% of his targets went to wide receivers over the past two seasons. In two years at Virginia Tech, Hooker threw 57.4% of his targets to wide receivers, 23.1% to tight ends and 12.5% to running backs.
• Deemed off-target on 14.6% of his throws in 2022, 18th-highest among qualifying QBs. It’s his highest mark since 2019 (16%).
• 72% completion rate when NOT pressured in 2022 (20th in nation tied with C.J. Stroud and 0.1% better than Bryce Young)
• 51.2% completion rate when pressured in 2022 (11th-best in nation)
• An insane 13 of his 27 touchdowns in 2022 came on pass plays of 20-plus Air Yards.
• One interception over 116 career red-zone pass attempts including zero in 2022.
• 52.4% career TD rate on passes thrown inside of 10 yards.
• Eliminating kneel-downs and sacks, Hooker ran for 466 yards on 99 carries (4.7 average) with five touchdowns, four of which from 8 yards or closer to the goal line.

NFL Comparison

If you ask Hooker who his game is modeled after, he’ll tell you Deshaun Watson. I see that to a degree — both are slighter than desired in build, both have strong arms and both are playmakers. But Watson, complete with his accuracy and gamebreaking skills, was the more NFL-ready prospect. Hooker isn’t there. Is it too big of a drop-off to compare him to the 2022 version of Geno Smith? The Seahawks quarterback had tremendous downfield accuracy, ran a little bit and definitely was inconsistent when dealing with pressure. It wouldn’t be a shock in the least to see Seattle spend pick No. 20 on Hooker as their future quarterback, and it’s because he’s already close to doing what Smith just did.