With each passing hour, it’s looking more likely that the Minnesota Vikings are going to take a quarterback in the NFL Draft. Even more so, it’s looking like Hendon Hooker is going to be that quarterback.
NFL Mock Draft Database logs Hooker as the most popular pick in the week leading into the draft. It’s clear the Vikings have done their homework on all of the QBs, but none more so than Hooker. The discussion reached a fever pitch on Sunday when ESPN’s Matt Miller said he’s heard from evaluators over the past 10 days to “Watch the Vikings for Hooker.”
The Vikings could take Hooker with the 23rd-overall pick and live happily ever after. Hooker could also be a bust. Either way, taking Hooker is the wrong move because the Vikings don’t just need another quarterback. They need “The Man” under center.
Like most debates surrounding the Vikings, it all starts with Kirk Cousins. Cousins is an adequate starter, but the Vikings don’t view him as a long-term solution. While some are eager to buy his ticket out of Minnesota, it’s easy to see why he brings a sense of comfort.
Since 2018, Cousins ranks fourth in completion percentage (67.8%), fourth in passing touchdowns (153), and fifth in passing yards (20,934). He’s coming off a season where he tied an NFL record with eight fourth-quarter comebacks. He’s not going to throw the ball into triple coverage, and he’s not going to get arrested at Wendy’s. Cousins is just fine – and that’s why the Vikings want to move on.
Game-changing quarterbacks dominate the current NFL landscape. Patrick Mahomes has a pair of Super Bowl rings in Kansas City. Joe Burrow is one of the game’s most exciting superstars. Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, and Trevor Lawrence aren’t far behind, and it’s caused other teams to try to catch up.
This has led to teams “going Full Rams” – as Kwesi Adofo-Mensah put it – to solve their quarterback issues. The Los Angeles Rams traded two first-round picks to acquire Matthew Stafford. The Cleveland Browns doled out three first-round picks and $230 million for Deshaun Watson. The Denver Broncos gave up two first-round picks, three players, some late-round selections, and $161 million guaranteed for Russell Wilson.
Out of these teams, only the Rams have won the Super Bowl. But the trend isn’t ending soon. The New York Jets may join this group when they acquire a 39-year-old former MVP who may or may not be on drugs. Even the Tampa Bay Buccaneers held on to Tom Brady until he physically and mentally ground into dust, signaling the power of the quarterback position.
While all of this has happened, the Vikings have chugged along with Cousins, accepting his flaws and saying, It could be worse! But this regime is looking for an upgrade, which is why their connection with Hooker is strange.
There’s a lot to like when evaluating Hooker. He has a strong arm that can push the ball downfield. He threw 80 touchdowns to 12 interceptions during his collegiate career. Hooker completed 68.8% of his passes over the past two years at Tennessee. And he even adds a degree of mobility that Cousins doesn’t have.
That sounds great to some Vikings fans. But when looking at Miller’s description of Hooker, it sounds awfully familiar.
Hooker will need to adjust to the spacing of the NFL after playing in the tempo spread [offense] at Tennessee, but he’s accurate and mobile and he throws a beauty of a deep ball. As for Hooker’s ceiling, one quarterbacks coach I spoke to said he believes he can be a top-15 starter. ‘Look at [Jared] Goff, Geno Smith [and] Cousins…he has better all-around tools than those guys.’ The right system will help, but from a talent perspective, he can be the top-half-of-the-league guy.
Stop right there. Think about those words. “Top-half-of-the-league guy.” Doesn’t that sound familiar? Because it’s exactly what people say about Cousins.
Perhaps the Vikings think that by taking Hooker, they can get a quarterback similar to Cousins without paying $35 million a year. If Hooker can produce at the same level, the Vikings can use the cap savings to bolster the roster in a way they haven’t been able to do with Cousins. That would elevate Hooker and catapult them into contender status.
But the thing about the rookie quarterback window is that it doesn’t matter if the quarterback isn’t – as we’ve defined it – “The Man.”
The New York Giants were in a similar situation when they took Daniel Jones to succeed Eli Manning in 2019. After a year behind Manning, Jones took over and led the Giants to a 12-25 record over his first 37 games as a starter. But Jones took off under Brian Daboll last season, leading New York to a playoff win over the Vikings and positioning himself for a contract that pays him $40 million per season.
To recap, the Giants went 21-31-1 during Jones’s rookie contract window and are now dealing with a $40 million albatross while constructing their roster.
The same thing could be said for the crosstown Jets, who have repeatedly tried to live in the rookie quarterback window but compiled a 24-58 record under Sam Darnold and Zach Wilson.
You can argue that the Vikings have a better infrastructure in place with Justin Jefferson, Christian Darrisaw, and T.J. Hockenson. But those players won’t be at their best if Hooker isn’t better than Cousins.
While that isn’t outside the range of possibility, it’s more likely that Cousins represents Hooker’s ceiling. Like Cousins, Hooker comes out of an offense that taught him to minimize risks and lock in on their first read. Additionally, Hooker is 25 years old – one year older than Cousins was coming out of Michigan State.
It’s a lazy argument to solely focus on Hooker’s age, but it’s important to note that Washington selected Cousins in the fourth round of the 2012 draft. If the draft buzz is correct, the Vikings would be selecting Hooker with the 23rd-overall pick or – even worse – trading into the top 20 to get him.
Think of it like trading in your 2000 Astrovan with 200,000 miles on it for a 2005 model with 100,000 miles. Sure, it feels like a new car. But if the old one runs fine, what’s the point in upgrading?
It’s similar to the 2021 draft, where the Vikings took a third-round flier on Kellen Mond. It caught everyone’s attention when they made that pick. But he was never a threat to become “The Man,” let alone a threat to Cousins. Even if the Vikings were to make a similar pick on UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson or Stanford’s Tanner McKee, it wouldn’t be a serious attempt to upgrade on Cousins.
There’s also no guarantee that Anthony Richardson, Will Levis, or C.J. Stroud would be a direct upgrade from Cousins. But a trade up to get one of those players would at least be an attempt to find “The Man.” Hooker would be an attempt to just find another guy.
It’s exciting and terrifying at the same time. Nobody will know what the Vikings’ plans are until they’re on the clock Thursday night. But there are few quarterbacks that have become “The Man” for the Vikings, and if they’re serious about moving on from Cousins, they need to take a bigger swing than reaching for Hooker.
