Kelly: Why the Dolphins Should Draft Hooker If They Have the Chance

The Miami Dolphins are committed to Tua Tagovailoa, but they shouldn't pass up the opportunity to add a dynamic young quarterback

Hendon Hooker is my favorite quarterback in the 2023 NFL draft.

If a torn ACL hadn’t ended his senior year at Tennessee prematurely, this dual-threat quarterback likely would have been a first-round selection.

Maybe even a high first-round pick.

Hooker’s ability and resume are worthy of him still being rated a top 50 talent in this draft class despite the injury.

So if this 25-year-old is there when the Miami Dolphins are on the clock with pick number 51, someone should encourage General Manager Chris Grier to do what the Dolphins franchise has shied away from doing since the early Bill Parcells days, and that’s add competition to the quarterback room.

I’m on the record as a believer in Tua Tagovailoa, and have been since 2019, the year when I was a driving force behind the “Tank For Tua” movement.

Concussion concerns and all, I still believe in Tagovailoa, and feel 2023 will be his official breakout season, the year he takes a seat as one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks, if he can stay healthy.

But what if he can’t?

That’s where Hooker comes in.

I’m aware Miami signed Mike White in free agency to serve as Tagovailoa’s backup for this season, and possibly next season despite none of his $3.5 million salary being guaranteed that year. I’m fond of White, who was a man crush list alum for me in the 2018 draft class.

White has the talent to keep the season afloat if Tagovailoa is sidelined for an extended period.

But Hooker, who accounted for 11,053 yards of total offense during his collegiate career, completing 632 of 944 passes (66.9 percent) for 8,974 yards and scoring 80 touchdowns with 12 interceptions, has the talent to become a franchise quarterback.

THE GREEN BAY EXAMPLE AND THE PAST DOLPHINS MISTAKES

If the Dolphins followed former Green Bay Packers General Manager Ron Wolfe’s approach of taking a quarterback every year, we might not have spent the past two decades riding the mediocrity merry-go-round.

The last time the Dolphins hedged their bets at the quarterback position was during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 drafts. During that stretch, Miami selected BYU quarterback John Beck in the second round. The next year Parcells took over as the franchise's top executive and picked Michigan quarterback Chad Henne in the second round, and followed it up in 2009 by taking West Virginia's Pat White in the second round.

Even though Henne was a starter for three seasons, none of those quarterbacks was the answer to the riddle that has puzzled the Dolphins since Dan Marino retired in 2000.

In my opinion, the mistake Miami made, and keeps making, is they didn’t keep picking quarterbacks during the Henne and Ryan Tannehill eras.

Don’t make the same mistake during the Tagovailoa era, especially with his durability concerns looming.

Who cares how you found a franchise quarterback, or what you used to get him as long as your team has one, and I believe Tagovailoa and Hooker have the talent to be franchise quarterbacks.

Five years from now, we’ll look back at this draft class and ask ourselves, “How did Hooker end up in the second round?”

That’s the type of player Miami should be taking with pick number 51, if the Dolphins have Hooker rated as a top 50 prospect on their board, and he's still available to Miami in the second round. Or even the third with pick number 84.

Hopefully Grier doesn’t shy away from selecting another quarterback early in the draft because he and the organization fear the message it would send to Tagovailoa, and the Dolphins fan base.

I've never understood the thought process that young quarterbacks shouldn't have to compete, especially if they still have question marks.

This franchise has wasted too many seasons paralyzed by what people say and think about their quarterback decisions, choices, and in my opinion the biggest reason the Dolphins are where they are is because they rarely ever have hedged their bets at that critically important position.

Say Tagovailoa does ascend to become a quarterback worth a $200 million contract this season, or the next. What’s the harm of developing Hooker for the next two to three seasons, and then potentially packaging him for a draft pick the way the Patriots did Matt Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett during Tom Brady’s two-decade reign over the NFL?

If the Patriots didn’t shy away from drafting and developing quarterbacks with Brady on the roster, what's the harm in following New England’s lead if the best player available when Miami is on the clock Friday happens to be Hooker?