Hooker makes case to be No. 1 QB in draft class
Mike Florio and Chris Simms break down Hendon Hooker's potential at the NFL level when healthy and discuss where he'd rank for the 2023 NFL Draft if he weren’t recovering from a torn ACL.
Video Transcript
MIKE FLORIO: Here we go.
CHRIS SIMMS: Oh.
MIKE FLORIO: Here's the top six quarterback prospects. Hendon Hooker at number three-- Hendon Hooker would take issue with Chris's characterization. Hendon Hooker thinks he should be number one. He recently said that to "USA Today."
And I got no problem with that. Guy's got to be confident. He's got to have self-confidence in yourself, Chris, as you would say, and others, since that phraseology is catching on.
But I can't help but wonder-- alternate universe, he doesn't tear the ACL last year, how high is he if he's not coming off of that torn ACL?
CHRIS SIMMS: He's up there. He's, without a doubt, I think, a top-five pick. I really don't-- again, Mike, I think the teams that, you know, you look at, like, OK, Bryce Young's not our cup of tea, right?
You take, you know, those teams, man, gosh, I talked to a lot of teams, and Stroud and Hooker were the two favorite quarterbacks on the board as far as the film. Again, I don't get into off-the-field psychological testing, all that.
I got into it a little this year, I mean, this past weekend, because I, of course, was talking to people around the NFL. And, you know, CJ Stroud, where is he gonna land and all that became a thing. So, you know, I got into it.
But Hooker-- I mean, when you want a guy that's a good decision maker and a pinpoint thrower in the pocket and then, of course, can make special throws and then has better mobility than he's given credit for it, yes, Mike, I think he'd be a top-five quarterback.
I still think there's a very good chance he's top 10, top 12, you know, because, again, he's a guy that I think the NFL values-- big, good arm, good release, throws under pressure, and a good athlete and a good leader. And all those things usually mean success.
MIKE FLORIO: There are plenty of things about the draft that are disconnected from the reality of the NFL. It's one of the things I've learned over the last 23 years. We get so caught up in all the incoming players. And we see the great things they did in college, which qualifies them for the conversation regarding who the great players are going to be.
And we focus on that. And more often than not, because we really don't know-- people who do what we do for a living focus on the positives. You very rarely have somebody who goes out on a limb and says this guy's just gonna suck, and here's why, because we just don't know.
If you're gonna err on one side or the other, err on the side of being positive about the guy. But the reality is once the draft is over, once the dust settles, and we pay attention to maybe five names in 2023 during the football season of guys who were taken in that 250-plus-person class, we are gonna eventually have guys who work out, guys who don't work out.
And one of the things I've been trying to say in this run up to the draft, Chris, there are so many factors that go into it. We just don't know. And factor number one is where you get drafted, how quickly they push you on to the field, what kind of support you get.
Are you gonna land with Andy Reid, or are you gonna land with the exact opposite of Andy Reid? And you got no control over it.
Bryce Young was great last week. I mean, he just submits.
CHRIS SIMMS: Right.
MIKE FLORIO: I mean, what can you do?
CHRIS SIMMS: Right.
MIKE FLORIO: What can you do? I asked him, hey, if you got to choose, wouldn't you like to choose where you got to go? You went to USC, and then you went to Alabama.
And he kind of gave a knowing laugh. Well, you know, really, I don't have much of a choice. But that's a key factor for all these guys.
Hendon Hooker's entire career may hinge on which team puts his name on the card on Thursday night-- one path, superstar, Hall of Fame, Super Bowls. Other path-- washed out of the league in three years.
And, yes, it can be that simple. The problem is we can't go back and start over and see how it would have worked out somewhere else. And I'm not suggesting Josh Rosen would have worked out somewhere else.
But there are other guys who haven't worked out. Zach Wilson-- if he hadn't played right away, maybe he'd be on path to being a better quarterback than he currently is. We just don't know, and we'll never know.
CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah. Situation's huge, to your point. It's bigger in this sport than in any other sport. It is. The support system is crucial.
You could be the best player in the NFL at a lot of positions, and nobody will ever know if your team's crap. It's hard to stand out. It's hard to show your value as a guard if, you know, the tackle never blocks the right guy, the center never blocks the right guy.
Now you look like a mess because you got their guys in your lane and whatever else. There's a million different issues. Oh, hey, I'm an awesome running back. Wait, but there's never a hole. So how awesome can I be?
I mean, again, look, we just saw Saquon Barkley, a little hole this year, rockets up his butt everywhere. No holes two years ago-- can he still run? What's going on?
That's what's crazy about football, to your point. That's where it's brutal. It really is. And situation is definitely-- yeah, it's dictated more in this sport than-- hey, baseball, yeah, you still to get up to bat by yourself and show everybody what you got.
Basketball, it's still one-on-one on the wing, and we know one guy can make a team go from, like, the 20th-best to, whoa, I think they might win the championship this year-- just not that way in football. And that's where it's really tough, to your point.
MIKE FLORIO: Yeah. I often think back, and I can't believe it's been 24 years. The 1999 quarterback draft--
CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah.
MIKE FLORIO: --with Tim Couch at number one--
CHRIS SIMMS: Right.
MIKE FLORIO: --Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith--
CHRIS SIMMS: Akili Smith, right.
MIKE FLORIO: I mean, you take those three guys, OK? Whichever one lands with Andy Reid, is that the guy that becomes the 10-year franchise quarterback, and the other two wash out in Cleveland or Cincinnati? You just reshuffle those three like a shell game?
Tim Couch, Philadelphia-- 10-year franchise quarterback. Akili Smith, Philadelphia-- 10-year franchise quarterback. The other two that go to Cincinnati and Cleveland, it just doesn't work, and they're out of the league.
That's the one example that keeps coming back to me, that that's the-- and, look, we didn't know that Andy Reid was gonna become a great quarterback whisperer. That was his first year with the Eagles.
But he did. He did. He had it. He was a great quarterback coach and is a great quarterback coach.
Couch or Smith end up there in Philly-- and, again, we just-- you can't go back and redo it. But it's entirely possible it would have been a different outcome.
CHRIS SIMMS: Well, yeah, definitely. I mean, I don't disagree. I mean, Donovan McNabb will tell you, of course, he's gonna go, no, it's me. And, of course, Donovan McNabb had big-time talent.
MIKE FLORIO: Yes.
CHRIS SIMMS: Yeah, we know that. I mean, he had big-time talent. But to your point, and I think, again, it's real is yes, the way he was brought up and taught and the support system and the creativity of the offense and formulating a plan to him that made sense at that time, yeah, all helped his development.
Again, I mean, yeah, I mean, if Tom Brady went to the Chargers, do I think Tom Brady would be Tom Brady? Absolutely freaking not. No. No, I don't, you know? It was the perfect situation, you know?
And to your point-- and this is back to Deion Sanders' point, for the most part, most people can't overcome that, right? There's a few special ones. Lawrence Taylor, Deion Sanders, right, Aaron Donald-- it doesn't matter what team you put those guys on. You'd know about them.
But that's a very, like, very numbered few, or a few number-- what, am I saying that right?-- in the history of the league. Numbered.
MIKE FLORIO: Why you hate Tom Brady? Why you got to hate on Tom Brady on a Monday morning?
CHRIS SIMMS: I wasn't hating on him.
MIKE FLORIO: Barry Sanders, prime example-- prime example of a guy--
CHRIS SIMMS: Right.
MIKE FLORIO: --you don't block for him, he's still gonna get his yards.
CHRIS SIMMS: Exactly.
MIKE FLORIO: He's got no linemen, he's still gonna get his yards.
CHRIS SIMMS: Right, right. But then you also go, damn, what would he have looked like if you put him behind the '92 Cowboys' O-line? What would that have been? How many yards would he have ran for behind that O-line? That's where you have fun with that conversation a little bit.