Cowboys Country

Cowboys Target Hendon Hooker: 'Best QB in NFL Draft! Says Ex GM

The Cowboys are looking at Tennessee's Hendon Hooker. .. a player who former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum will eventually prove to be "the best QB in this year's draft.''

Harrison Reno

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The NFL Draft is just weeks away, and the Dallas Cowboys are finalizing their board ahead of the three-day extravaganza. Could the Cowboys be looking to take a quarterback through those seven rounds at some point? 

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones all but promised that his franchise would take one this year and the club has looked at Tennessee's Hendon Hooker. .. a player who former NFL GM Mike Tannenbaum will eventually prove to be "the best QB in this year's draft.''

Yes, the Cowboys are committed to Dak Prescott as their franchise quarterback and brought back experienced backup Cooper Rush. But as Jones learned when he took Prescott, it can never hurt to take a flyer on a quarterback in case of injury.

Hooker is a name that has been on the rise despite having his senior season in Knoxville cut short due to an ACL tear. 

According to the NFL Network's Jordan Palmer, some believe that Hooker is the third-best quarterback in this draft. 

“You want to hear what teams think of Hendon Hooker? There are plenty of teams that have him above the bottom two ... [Anthony Richardson and Will Levis]," Palmer said. "There are plenty of teams that have him third on their list, right below those top two ... Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud,” 

If Palmer is correct and any of those teams have a need at quarterback, then that could see Hooker selected well before the Cowboys would even contemplate taking him. 

Third-best? Absolute best? This is becoming one of the big stories of this draft.

Yet, if Hooker is still on the board heading into Day 2, which seems like the most likely scenario, then maybe the Cowboys have to consider how badly they want an understudy. 

The ex-Volunteer has drawn comparisons to Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith after showing athleticism and accuracy in college. Hooker looked like a Heisman finalist in his last season of college ball leading Tennessee to a 9-1 start, which included a road win over Alabama and their only loss coming to Georgia before he tore his ACL in the loss to South Carolina. 

Hooker has wowed analysts with his precision in the passing game, completing 68.8 percent of his passes in two seasons as the starter for Tennessee. But Hooker also got it done with his legs, rushing for 10 touchdowns in that same time. 

His 6,080 yards with 58 touchdowns and just five interceptions as a Volunteer looks like video game numbers, and in some circumstances someone probably worthy of a first-round pick based on those stats. But there are concerns about how Tennessee's offense translates to the NFL. 

The Athletic's Ted Nguyen called him a "difficult" prospect to evaluate because much of his film shows a Tennessee offense where he is only reading half of the field, which is how head coach Josh Heupel designed it to be.

Any franchise that decides to take him will potentially have to go through the growing pains of a young quarterback still trying to pick up on the intricacies of an NFL offense, making him a gamble. ... but for the Cowboys, maybe a worthy one.

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Harrison Reno
HARRISON RENO

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