Why Hendon Hooker to Vikings in Round 1 Doesn’t Quite Make Sense
Dustin Baker
|
Pull up any NFL mock draft from the last two weeks, and there’s around a coinflip’s chance that the Minnesota Vikings will be mock-drafted Hendon Hooker at No. 23.
The Tennessee Volunteer is 25 years old, will be 26 when the 2023 regular season ends, and is recovering from a torn ACL suffered in November. But because Hooker looks the part on the field and might be a Top 5 pick if he wasn’t “old” and injured, his name is becoming engrained in the 1st Round of mock drafts.
Why Hendon Hooker to Vikings in Round 1 Doesn’t Quite Make Sense
Via Will Brinson’s CBS Sports mock draft Friday, the Vikings were unsurprisingly gifted Hooker in Round 1. Brinson wrote, “Let’s get weird!!!! Kirk Cousins fits the scheme, knows the scheme, knows the coach, etc, etc. But he’s 34 years old and has one year left on his contract. Hooker’s coming off a torn ACL so the timeline is pretty outstanding to grab a leader/scheme dependent type QB to run this KOC offense. It gives the Vikings some pretty good leverage if there’s mutual interest in running it back for 2024 and it should motivate Cousins this year. The only question is if they’ll let him know.”
And here’s the deal: if the Vikings want to draft Hooker at the end of the month — great. Fabulous, even.
But it won’t happen in Round 1.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah is the general manager of the Vikings, and he could be planning the exit ramp for QB1 Kirk Cousins as early as now. The strategy would be wise, selecting Hooker, Will Levis, or Dorian Thompson-Robinson to effectuate the proverbial “watch and learn” system for one year. However, the young executive talks about one item ad nauseam — value.
Injured and old-by-rookie-standards quarterbacks do not present value in the 1st Round. They just don’t. One signal-caller in the Super Bowl era older than Hooker was chosen in Round 1, Brandon Weeden, to the Cleveland Browns in 2012 at age 28. Like many Browns quarterbacks during that timeframe, he didn’t work out, and general managers revived the philosophy of shying away from old rookies.
One month ago, Hooker was the sexiest thing alive — in the 3rd Round. That’s a reasonable spot for a 25-year-old quarterback with a torn ACL. If the man was 21 with a bum knee, a 1st-Round prognosis would satisfy an astuter argument. But one cannot dice it any other way; 25 is old for a rookie quarterback theorized to lead a franchise indefinitely.
Hooker may turn out as sensational, and hindsight will allow nobody to care about where he was drafted. Yet, for now, plopping him on the Vikings in Round 1 is the absolute antithesis of Adofo-Mensah’s value speech. Round 3 drips value for Hooker; Round 1 is the opposite.
Mock drafts enthusiasts are on to something with Hooker in Minnesota. But the relationship should not — and will not — begin at pick No. 23.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. He hosts a podcast with Bryant McKinnie, which airs every Wednesday with Raun Sawh and Sal Spice. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ and The Doors (the band).
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment.