Hendon Hooker responds to critics at 2023 NFL scouting combine
Hendon Hooker will not participate in on-field workouts at the 2023 NFL scouting combine as he recovers from a torn ACL.
Hooker still attended the event and participated in team interviews and media sessions.
One common criticism Hooker addressed is Tennessee’s offense consisting of simple, quick passing concepts.
“Just control the offense,” Hooker stated about his command of Tennessee’s offensive system. “As you can see on film, a lot of time I make the protection calls. Make a lot of checks at the line. You can see run to pass, pass to run, and then I can make every throw.
“The way that we run our offense, the wide splits, those are all grown-man throws. I’m not throwing any five-yard outs.”
Hooker continued to discuss the Vols’ offense, detailing the complexity.
He gave credit to Tennessee’s wide receivers and their ability to get open downfield throughout the season.
“A lot of these questions about one-sided reads and stuff, we have pure progression routes,” Hooker said. “It’s not my fault my first read is getting open, but we have pre-snap looks, one-high, two-high. We have pure progression with an alert, with an option.
“Any of these questions, they’re cool and all, but if you really dig into our offense and watch the film, then you would understand it’s elevated to a whole other level, and how fast we’re going. I have to process a lot of information at the same time and communicate with everyone.”
Despite Hooker recovering from a torn ACL, the 2022 SEC Offensive Player of the Year is receiving a first-round projection for the 2023 NFL draft.
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