Saints land electrifying Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker in 2023 mock draft

john sigler

Thu, Oct 20, 2022, 3:33 PM·2 min read

It’s increasingly looking like the New Orleans Saints will be on the hunt for a quarterback again in 2023. Jameis Winston has played too much mistake-prone football and missed too much time with injuries to be a viable long-term solution, and Andy Dalton isn’t long for New Orleans either as he approaches his 35th birthday. Taysom Hill’s days as a full-time quarterback are behind him. It’ll be hard for the Saints to get their guy without a first round pick next year, but it’s not impossible.

Yahoo! Sports columnist Charles McDonald shared his take on the 2023 draft class, with an interesting pick for the Saints: Tennessee Volunteers quarterback Hendon Hooker. Here’s what he had to write about the match at No. 44 overall, midway through the second round:

“It’s about time for the Saints to just start taking dart throws at quarterback. Hooker has had a breakout season for Tennessee and might be what the Saints are looking for in terms of big-play ability.”

Hooker was impressive last season after transferring to Rocky Top from Virginia Tech, completing 68% of his attempts while scoring 31 touchdown passes against 3 interceptions (adding 616 rushing yards and 5 touchdown runs to his total). But he’s taken a big step further through six games in 2022, improving to a 70.0% completion percentage while scoring 15 touchdown passes against a single interception, posting the highest yards per attempt average (10.7) of his career. Hooker has also stepped up as a rusher by clocking 4.9 yards per attempt (he’s averaged 4.1 in his college career).

That hardly means he’ll be successful in the NFL, and Hooker could flame out as the Vols’ season continues, but there’s a lot to like at first glance. He’s a consistent playmaker in the country’s most competitive conference who just slew a giant in Tennessee’s big Alabama upset last weekend. There aren’t many college players with more juice than him right now, and it’s exciting to think about what he could do with the Saints. It helps that New Orleans has a strong record of finding talent at Tennessee: former Vols like star running back Alvin Kamara, wide receiver Marquez Callaway, defensive tackle Shy Tuttle, cornerback Alontae Taylor, and defensive back Bryce Thompson litter the roster.

Sure, he’s on the older side for a soon-to-be rookie (he’ll be 25 when the 2023 NFL season starts) but we’ve seen older prospects like Kenny Pickett and Ryan Tannehill (both 24 when they were picked) be drafted highly and find success. To be frank, the Saints are quickly approaching “beggars can’t be choosers” territory. Neither Winston nor Dalton inspire much confidence, and New Orleans lacks the draft capital and salary cap resources to make an earth-shaking move — on paper. They were all-in on Deshaun Watson earlier this year, so maybe they surprise us again in 2023.