Vikings Have Everyone Convinced They are Drafting Hendon Hooker

The Minnesota Vikings still have a lot of work to do on their 2023-24 roster this offseason and the NFL Draft is their next task at hand. Kwesi Adofo-Mensah & Co have just five picks currently available to them and plenty of immediate holes to fill.

Vikings want Hendon Hooker?

But around the league, more and more people/entities believe the Vikings have more interest in drafting their future quarterback in the first round, instead of addressing immediate needs at CB, WR, DT or LB. Not just a quarterback, though. One quarterback. 25-year-old Hendon Hooker out of Tennessee.

Hooker — who isn’t the first QB the Vikings have been linked to — suffered a torn ACL at the end of last season, which, along with his age, has caused him to fall down the quarterback draft board and right into the Vikings’ lap. At DraftKings, Minnesota’s (+350) odds to draft Hooker make them far and away the favorites. The next most likely teams tote odds — (+900) Seattle (+1000), Tennessee (+1100) — around 3x lower than the Vikings.

Fanduel isn’t as confident that Hooker will be drafted by Minnesota but they are still tied with Seattle as (+600) favorites. But it isn’t just the sportsbooks that are betting on Hendon Hooker landing with the Vikings later this month. ESPN has a cool draft tool called the “NFL Draft Predictor”, which takes well thought of mock drafts, betting odds and other information from across the internet to try and predict where each prospect will go.

And guess what? Hendon Hooker is, once again, a big favorite to land in Minnesota. His 11% chance is is much greater than the ~8% likelihood that (CB) Deonte Banks, (WR) Jordan Addison or (WR) Zay Flowers will soon be in a Vikings uniform.

Who is Hendon Hooker?

Hendon Hooker has one of the best on-paper resumes of any quarterback prospect in the draft this year, piling up over 6,000 yards passing, over 1,000 yards rushing, 58 passing touchdowns, 10 rushing touchdowns and just 5 total interceptions during his junior and senior seasons at Tennessee.

That production, along with the obvious talent you see when watching his film, should make Hooker one of the top picks in the draft. But if O’Connell believes Hooker to be a future stud, his blown ACL and old age should make him available to the Vikings at pick 23.

Some Hendon Hooker highlights while we wait on FA News. He may be an older prospect, but sometimes QBs just have their lightbulb moment and find it. If not for his ACL injury he’d be talked about more as a 1st Rounder. Hooker is the QB sleeper of this draft. pic.twitter.com/A0Ag4PTn5p

— Kyle Lindemann (@LuckIsMadeFF) March 13, 2023

The Vikings would prefer to have their next QB sit behind Kirk Cousins for one year anyway, which again, makes Hendon Hooker a logical connection. We’ll how interested Minnesota actually is, come draft day, but there’s no doubt they have everyone convinced that the former Volunteer is their guy.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan