NFL Execs Have Eyes on Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker

Plus more notes on Week 7 of the college football season, including a note on older prospects, a receiver at Boston College and more.

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The last few years, my Six From Saturday notes have been included at the bottom of my MMQB column on Monday mornings. This year, they’ll be published as a separate post each week. Here are my thoughts on this weekend’s college action, geared mostly toward what should be of interest to NFL fans.

1) Saturday’s stage was a big one for Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker. He crushed it against Alabama, and he’s one prospect the NFL already had its eyes on. Age is one knock against him—the sixth-year senior, who played four years at Virginia Tech before transferring over, will be 25 on draft day. Another is the offense he’s coming from, where receivers line up very, very wide (like they would in Art Briles’s offense at Baylor), so the Vols can run at light boxes and give Hooker big passing windows to throw into (he rarely has to throw receivers open). That said, Hooker’s got physical ability along the lines of a Case Keenum or a Geno Smith, who played in similar offenses in college and were better athletes with bigger arms than people gave them credit for.

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“He’s a really good college quarterback,” said one NFC exec. “I’m just not sure how much more there is to him than we’ve already seen. He’s older than most other players, in his sixth year, and you wonder if this is as developed as he’ll get. But he’s gotten a lot better over the course of his career. He’s fun to watch. He’s productive; they’ve done a good job with him. … I think he’s the kind of a guy who can definitely be a quality backup, and when he starts, he looks good, but when teams get more tape on him, he levels off.” Which is to say, at baseline, he’s got a great chance to stick in the league. And maybe do more than that.

2) The age thing is one that’ll be a factor in this year’s draft, and will continue to be a factor until all the kids who got the extra year of eligibility for playing through the COVID-19 season of 2020 filter out of college. Along those lines is Utah TE Dalton Kincaid, who’ll be a 23-year-old rookie and have played five seasons of college ball—the first two at San Diego, and the last three as a Ute. Kincaid went wild in Saturday night’s upset of previously unbeaten USC, with 15 catches for 217 yards (the most by a Utah player at any position in 34 years). And that’s building on the All–Pac-12 honorable mention season he had as a junior. A viable two-way tight end playing in a physical offense, he’s got a great shot to go inside the top 100 or so picks, so long as teams can, well, get past how many years he’s spent on the planet.

3) Boston College isn’t exactly having a vintage season, but receiver Zay Flowers is making the most of his decision to come back, with NFL folks saying his stock is rising. His story is also outstanding. “He’s a smaller receiver, like a [Terry] McLaurin, that type of guy,” said an NFC scouting director. “He can fly. He’s a highlight reel. Probably a second-rounder, might sneak in first if he runs real fast [at the combine]. But just a great story—dad’s a truck driver, has 14 kids, and this kid is super close to his dad. Had pressure to leave, get out of Boston College, was too good for the school, get tons of NIL money. He turned down some big offers.”

First, Flowers decided to eschew the NFL draft. Then, as the Jordan Addison story was unfolding at USC, two schools, I’m told, came with half-million-dollar offers. Flowers and his dad discussed it, and his dad implored him to stay—telling him the school’s loyalty, and the fact that BC was first to offer him, should be meaningful to him, as should a BC degree. Flowers has repaid the loyalty handsomely, with 42 catches, 556 yards and five touchdowns through six games, and, suffice it to say, his draft stock has benefitted in the process.

4) Matt Rhule’s availability will make things interesting. The expectation is he’ll be atop Nebraska’s list, right there with Kansas’s Lance Leipold, and that the Huskers are willing to spend big on the hire. Whether Rhule wants that job is another question, and Nebraska won’t be the only suitor. So … could his alma mater, Penn State, be one? It’s at least worth pondering. Word last fall was that well-heeled Nittany Lion boosters were loading the war chest to try to pry Rhule from the NFL, in the event that USC or LSU poached James Franklin. Franklin leveraged that interest into a 10-year, $75 million contract to stay at Penn State that runs through the 2031 season. Thing is, Franklin’s coming off 4–5 and 7–6 seasons. And while this one started 5–0, Penn State couldn’t have looked more overmatched in losing to Michigan on Saturday and has Ohio State at the end of the month. Could a collapse lead the Nittany Lions to eat that much money and hire Rhule? I don’t think so. But this is a new world in college sports, with the latest sets of television contracts changing things significantly.

5) Saturday night won’t be one to remember for Florida—a 10-point home loss to a good-not-great LSU team to drop Billy Napier to 4–3 in his first year in Gainesville. But the more you keep your ear to the ground on this stuff, the more love you hear for Anthony Richardson. And the Gators’ QB had another solid effort in both phases of the game, rushing for 109 yards and a touchdown, and throwing for another 185 yards and a touchdown on 15-of-25 passing. The main thing is that he seems to be steadily improving, and Napier’s offense is showing him doing NFL things, in making him go through progressions and read the field. Could he use another year in college? Absolutely. But if he’s going to be a first-round pick, and he might be one, it’s tough to get a kid to go back to school.

6) Saturday was such a great showcase for college football. I love the NFL, but there’s nothing like the kind of chaotic Saturday we got this week. And there aren’t scenes like we got in Knoxville in any other American sport. Here’s hoping the powers that be figure out the NIL mess, the transfer rules and all the rest of it, and keep this sport what it is, which is as great as anything we’ve got in sports in this country.