This isn’t going away. Everyone knows the New Orleans Saints will be looking at quarterbacks in 2023, and the upcoming draft class brings them opportunities. But one prospect has been linked to the Saints more frequently than many of his peers, and in spite of a season-ending injury: former Tennessee Volunteers passer Hendon Hooker.
Hooker landed with the Saints in a recent 2023 mock draft from Luke Easterling over at Draft Wire, going off the board at No. 36 overall. He’s consistently being connected to the Saints early in the second round of mock drafts from around the NFL media landscape, and there’s a lot to like about Hooker as a prospect. He throws an accurate ball, he avoids turnovers, and he can make plays with his legs.
There are also areas of concern on Hooker’s scouting report. NFL teams will fret about his age (he’ll be 25 in January, old for a first-year pro), his experience in the Vols’ offense full of half-field reads, and his injury. He won’t be able to throw at his pro day or go through predraft workouts, and some teams will be hesitant to draft him highly because of it. But there’s plenty to like, too. They’ve got dozens of games to watch and study, and that should be enough to build his case, but teams overthink these things all the time.
So what about that injury? Hooker tore his ACL on a non-contact play while executing a read-option in mid-November. He’s on a similar recovery timeline to Joe Burrow in 2020 and Deshaun Watson in 2017, each of whom suffered ACL tears in November but were ready to start the following season. He won’t run the 40-yard dash or go through drills at the combine like other prospects, but he should be ready to work at training camp next summer in preparation of starting Week 1.
Now, whether he’ll be ready to start in the NFL right away remains to be seen. Especially in a complicated offense like New Orleans’. Tennessee’s system didn’t ask Hooker to do a ton of work pre-snap, instead relying on timing and a sense of urgency to quickly run plays before the defense can sub out personnel in response. And that’s fine. Teams win like that every week in the NFL. If the Saints draft Hooker, they’ll need to change things to get the most out of him. But to be honest they should be changing things this offseason anyway.
So will Hooker even be on their radar? We’ll have to wait and see, but he should be. He’s an accomplished prospect at their biggest position of need, and he’ll likely be available once they’re on the clock. But we’re months out from anything real on this front, so for now all we can do is speculate and compare mock drafts. And the only certainty right now is that the Saints are widely expected to be in the market for a new quarterback in 2023.
