Packers Hosting ‘First-Round’ Quarterback on Predraft Visit

The Green Bay Packers will be hosting Tennessee star Hendon Hooker later this week, according to ESPN.com’s Matt Miller.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2008, with the Green Bay Packers transitioning from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers, the late general manager Ted Thompson drafted Brian Brohm in the second round and Matt Flynn in the seventh round.

With the Packers transitioning from Rodgers to Jordan Love in 2023, could history repeat itself?

Perhaps. According to ESPN’s Matt Miller, the Packers will be hosting Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker this week.

Hooker is one of the most talented quarterback prospects in this year’s draft. If not for the torn ACL sustained against South Carolina on Nov. 19, he’d be mentioned alongside Florida’s Anthony Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis in the second tier of quarterbacks behind Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young.

Without the ACL, Hooker is “first round all the way,” a scout said recently.

So, why the visit? Hooker’s talent, obviously, has the Packers intrigued. And they need a backup to Love with Danny Etling – with zero passes since entering the NFL in 2018 – the only other quarterback on the roster. The visit will serve as an extensive getting-to-know-you session for the coaches. It also will allow the team’s physicians an opportunity to track Hooker’s progress from the injury.

Even with the injury, Hooker might go in the first round. It seems unlikely the Packers would take him at No. 15 but, if he tumbles into the second, the Packers will be prepared.

Box score scouting is a dangerous business but, in the case of Hooker, the stats tell a story. During his final season, he completed 69.6 percent of his passes with 27 touchdowns vs. just two interceptions.

In two seasons with the Volunteers – he spent his first three years at Virginia Tech – Hooker threw 58 touchdown passes vs. five interceptions and added 10 rushing touchdowns.

While the Tennessee scheme made some things easy for him, those numbers speak to a quarterback who’s accurate and made sound decisions in an up-tempo offense.

“Everybody can throw the ball and everybody is a great quarterback, but my consistency and accuracy, as you can see on film,” Hooker said at the Scouting Combine. “I completed 69 percent of my passes, so if I can continue to be accurate and get my playmakers the ball, that's the main goal.”

With plenty of arm strength and athleticism, Hooker has the goods. The timing of the injury, though, couldn’t have been much worse. While Hooker said his “plan (is) to be healthy and 100 percent” for the start of training camp, that would be an ambitious timeline of about nine-and-a-half months.

That could make 2023 the equivalent of a redshirt season for Hooker. Then again, 2020 was sort of the same for Love due to COVID and the cancellation of the preseason.

Fortunately, Hooker is the studious sort.

“I spend countless hours in the facility or at home,” Hooker said. “Me and roommate, Joe Milton, spend a lot of time watching film. I spend a lot of time watching film with coaches, by myself. My preparation is ridiculous. If I sat here and told you my whole weekly process, we'd run out of time. My preparation is huge. I want to be prepared for any and every situation.”

At the NFL meetings last week, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst spoke of adding a veteran quarterback. That pool, however, has been hit hard in free agency.

If football doesn’t work out, Hooker could become a full-time author. Hooker and his younger brother, North Carolina A&T quarterback Alston Hooker, have written a book called “The ABC’s of Scripture for Athletes.”

“Growing up in the church, faith is big in my family,” Hooker said. “(I’m) trying to instill that in my little cousin, Landon Hooker, he’s 6-years-old. All he wants to do is play ball all day, so we’re trying to encourage him a little bit more, so we made kind of a more appealing book to kids, but everyone can indulge in some scripture for sure.”

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