Locked On Colts - Daily Podcast On The Indianapolis Colts - Indianapolis Colts: Could Hendon Hooker Be an Option?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Could Hendon Hooker be the answer to the Colts quarterback questions? We'll answer that today on Locked On Colts. Let's get to it. You are Locked On Colts, your daily Indianapolis Colts podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast your first listen of the day. This is your daily podcast covering your Indianapolis Colts, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. This episode is brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, official sportsbook of the NFL. Make every moment more. Visit fanduel.com slash locked on to get started.

Starting point is 00:00:56 Now, guys, I have Jonathan Hagler here with me today, so you guys know exactly what we're doing today. We're talking quarterbacks. You know, Hag is going to be the QB expert for you guys. That's what you're going to associate him with, because I bring him on here to talk quarterbacks, but you know, we technically have one more of the big four quarterbacks to talk about, and that's Bryce Young. And we want to talk about Bryce Young. It's just, you know, the vibe's not there. We think he's going to go to, to, to the Houston Texans or maybe one to the Carolina Panthers. I don't think he's going to go to, to, to the Houston Texans or maybe one to the Carolina Panthers. I don't think he's going to be there for the Colts. We might still, you know, mix them in, but let's talk about a quarterback who, even though it's not

Starting point is 00:01:34 very realistic, might be a little bit more realistic than Bryce Young. And that is the scenario where the Colts take a Will Anderson or Tyree Wilson or Christian Gonzalez or whoever at four, right? Or Jalen Carter, whatever you want to go with. And then they trade up in the late first, or they just take Hendon Hooker at 35, whatever. We're going to talk about Hendon Hooker. We're going to go into this game that he, that he is. And I know we talked about it earlier this week, me and Jake did on the podcast and I was fairly harsh on Hendon Hooker and it's not on Hendon Hooker as the person or the player just on the Colts taking him but we're gonna we're gonna do this whole episode the way that we've been doing it guys where the first segment we talk about the positives of Hendon

Starting point is 00:02:13 Hooker second segment we talk about the negatives and third how he could fit in the NFL so to kind of start off with Hendon Hooker I know Hag you're you're pretty high on him comparatively to the rest of the draft world maybe not Mike Tannenbaum level high where you're where you're having him go fifth overall to the seahawks but i will say one thing about hendon hooker before i kick it to you is i know the colts value this and i know that a lot of other teams do but when you have a player who transfers right teams are really weird about that where they sometimes love it sometimes hate it but one thing they do like is when a player transfers up in competition. You know, when you go from a school like Virginia Tech, who good program, like they've been on the downturn the last couple of years, but good program, the ACC.

Starting point is 00:02:55 And instead of going to like the SCS or going to like Houston or something, you know, like one of those schools where you can throw for a thousand yards and and look good against easy defenses he went to the sec and he didn't go to lsu or alabama where it's a little bit easier he went to tennessee who has some talent but it's not like again you're not talking alabama talent you have some good talent you have some good talent tennessee don't get me wrong a lot of first round guys around him but he goes to tennessee to compete in the sec and his game explodes so when i'm looking at hendon hooker and i'm looking at a transfer player i love that a player went to a tougher conference against tougher competition and his game kept getting better oh yeah no doubt i mean i think hendon hendon does a lot of things really well he has a lot of positives about his

Starting point is 00:03:41 game and i think when you evaluate him no it's easy to see why people are trending up on him. Right. From a court of pure quarterback standpoint, I like his release. I like his arm. You know, it's a strong arm. It's a it's an athletic arm. You know, I mean, it's not it's not flat. Things like that.

Starting point is 00:03:59 Yes. Plus athleticism. He's a he's a dual threat quarterback, but he's very he's passed first. Don't get it. Don't ever get it twisted. He does a lot of things from a technical standpoint well. I think he's had time

Starting point is 00:04:11 to clean those things up, given his age. But Hinton's a clean quarterback from a pure prototype standpoint. There's going to be knocks on the system and things like that. We'll get that later but i like the arm i like the athleticism um i like the the processing um and it obviously we'll get into it like i said uh but he's he's

Starting point is 00:04:37 he's very decisive i feel like in in most moments and those are things i like most about his game and you know he brings a lot to the table. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, a lot of things that we look at, too, as evaluators and look at when it comes to the college game, I know this is something that you look at, is how do these guys perform in the big moments against big teams? And when the moment is too bright, do they crumble or do they step up? And, yes, against Georgia, he had some rough moments

Starting point is 00:05:02 and not some great moments. It was raining. It was raining. That's all it was there. But, you know, it's a tough game, obviously, against Georgia, he had some rough moments and not some great moments. It was raining. It was raining. That's all it was there. But, you know, it's a tough game, obviously, against Georgia's defense. But against Alabama this year, he came to play. And he was chucking it against Alabama. And that was kind of his Heisman moment before it got derailed later in the season with his injury.

Starting point is 00:05:19 So, again, tough kid, good kid, has continually improved, transferred up to higher competition, and then beat Bama. Like, beat Bama. I know this wasn't the Bama team like years past, but it's still Bama. It's still Bama. As an Alabama guy, he beat Bama. Like, trust me, it's a big thing. At the moment, I was sitting there like, oh, they're going to pull it off. And then I just realized they hit me and they're carrying a goal post out of the

Starting point is 00:05:46 stadium and I'm just like I honestly don't remember the last time Tennessee beat Alabama I was so young I remember I was in Little League but Hinton Hook is a gamer and that's the best thing about him I think he's a gamer he's been very confident

Starting point is 00:06:02 throughout the draft process he's been killing it for an an injured guy for injured quarterback his stock has been going up in a weird way because the way he's had the interview process the way he worked indy you know he's had the process great so shout out to him and his team uh they've been killing it on the on the uh the draft process yeah and the biggest thing with hendon hooker that we have to acknowledge is and he and he i i think he knows this cause he's selling himself this way. He is selling himself to every human being that covers football, watches football,

Starting point is 00:06:32 any person associated with the NFL. Hey, I'm the next Jalen Hurts. You know, I'm the high character guy, the experienced guy who, you know, had a rough start to the college career,

Starting point is 00:06:41 but improved over time and put the stats together late. And you want to bet on my upside and my character to kind of make me to you know help me turn it and i honestly think that you know like if he were younger and there were like there was more upside and stuff like that with it i could totally see the jalen hurts conversation because it is fairly similar you know he goes to an offense that kind of accentuates his skills a little bit lets him kind of feast on spacing and and a lot of certain things there at the college game the stats look better he looks like a better passer he's more than just that runner late in his career and then you're betting on that character because i mean when you look at hendon hooker this is a high character guy really really well spoken dude great leader i mean obviously again he's an older

Starting point is 00:07:24 quarterback but he carries himself like an older person like an older quarterback and player like he carries himself like an nfl player and that's something you're buying with him oh yeah no in my head in my head him is the cool uncle yeah yeah draft process and that's been the best part about it when you talk about like jaylen thing, the thing that stands out about Jalen Hurts is the maturity. It's the type of person he was when he transferred, right? And this is a guy that had a ton of success. Like, you know, I think the media had done a good job of trying to act like Jalen didn't have success early, but he definitely had adversity.

Starting point is 00:08:02 Because he was an SEC Offense Freshman of the Year, led Alabama to the National Championship, led Alabama back to the National Championship. Or did he get knocked out? No, he had a rough game against Clemson, right? And so this is a guy that experienced adversity after having success. And that's the thing with Hendon that I love because he transferred. It wasn't like he just lit it up right away.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Right. You know what I mean? He had his success, new coach coach new weapons around him like you said it wasn't an lsu it wasn't an alabama it wasn't a georgia but he made that offense work and just to speak on some of some more of his strengths when you talk about being in control of an offense he was in control from a a past pro standpoint from a identification because i mean the offense is what it is but you still have to make the reads and make the throws. And he did that to a tee all year long.

Starting point is 00:08:49 Yeah, yeah, for sure. And some other couple notes here that I know you've hit on a lot of things here, but with Hendon Hooker, I do think he has a pretty good pocket presence. Now, he does get because, again, the stupid offense that we're going to talk about in the next segment here, he's not taking traditional drops and reads and three-step drops or five-step drops. So the footwork does get a little statuesque at times just because he's not moving his feet to start every single play.

Starting point is 00:09:13 But when he does get that feel that he has to move from the pocket, it's not just spin around, run out the back every single time and let me get sacked. He will climb up through the junk. He will move forward and create yardage when there could have been a sack or a negative yardage play. I do think there are a lot of positive things to build.

Starting point is 00:09:30 And obviously, again, when you talk about the athleticism, you look at him with read options and RPO type stuff, and he's pretty efficient with it. Like, I do think there is a way you could build an offense with him to work. And I do see, at times, I see some Jalen Hurts to him. I do see some Geno Smith to him i do see some geno smith to him too like where he's efficient down the field efficient deep i can also move a little

Starting point is 00:09:50 bit but does get a little stiff in the pocket at times i do see some geno smith so yeah i think there are a lot of good things to build around with him it's just again not character wise but when you're looking at all the red flags and all the things that lead you to think why he might not succeed in the NFL, he's a terrifying prospect in like round two or especially in round one. Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, you look at Gino coming out, right? Yeah. At one point when Gino was at West Virginia, he had more intercept, I mean, touchdowns to incompletions. Right. It was, it was, it was insane.

Starting point is 00:10:19 Gino was a thing like, and people forget because like, he's had success this past year. Right. But Gino was a talented passer that kind of fell out of favor in the NFL. Didn't have the weird jaw incident where he got his jaw broke and all this craziness, right? But you look at how he's handled it with the maturity and he still had the ability to play at a high level. Ending hooker may not be good right away or the second year or

Starting point is 00:10:45 third year. He may have his best season at 29-30. You know what I mean? It's not unlikely, but the problem is going to be which team is going to be patient enough to allow him to do that. Right, exactly. That's the big thing we talked about with Will Levis, the big thing we talked about with Anthony Richardson. And unfortunately, Hooker doesn't have as much time, but that's going to lead us into our next segment here where we talk about some of the weaknesses, some of the concerns with Hendon Hooker. But first, the NCAA tournament is closing up. It's almost at the end, guys,

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Starting point is 00:11:52 So to throw out a couple concerns here, to start with Hendon Hooker, the ACL tear, he's going to miss a lot of spring ball. I know that he said he's going to be ready for like OTAs and stuff like that and be ready for a lot of the off season stuff. But even if he is completely ready, you're still gonna have to be working up the acl working up confidence you never know how players are going to respond to an acl injury you know some players are better yeah it's all mental i actually had a

Starting point is 00:12:14 player the other day explained to me the whole process that he went through after he tore his acl and how you know he had to get his leg to like 90 degree angles at certain times at night and stuff like that and and then it became the on-field stuff so it's it's a crazy process and my fiancee she told her i was in college so i've seen it up close and personal yeah yeah so he's going through that again he i mean he's older than he's like our age hag like what year was your class what year did you come out? High school. My draft class when I came out was 2018 because I registered and did the whole deal. I spent the full five.

Starting point is 00:12:52 He's close to our age, man. He's close to our age. That's what I tell people. I couldn't imagine playing college football at 23, 24, 25. It's cheating. I made it through college without surgery, right?

Starting point is 00:13:08 I probably would have had one or two if I played a year or two or more. But I can't imagine. It's – you're so much more mature that one or two years later, understanding playbooks, concept, things like that, doing work, doing schoolwork from an F-step is a lot easier, dog. I promise. So, yeah, so you got a 26-year-old quarterback coming off the ACL injury. And honestly, I don't really care as much about those two things.

Starting point is 00:13:33 Yeah. But when you put it into the – when you talk about him with that offense. Yep. Let's talk about that offense here, Hag. I don't think people properly understand why this offense is so awful when it comes to transitioning to the nfl so hag you know put on your your uh your scheme hat here and talk about why this offense is just tough to to translate to the nfl it's it's tough to translate to the nfl because it's very vanilla right it's so simple uh and that's why the numbers

Starting point is 00:14:03 are gaudy that's why you see Hyatt not being – who went into Thorpe and lined college football up statistically. People don't respect it because he's not a defined route runner. He's not a route salesman because he wasn't required to be. It's run a slant here, option route here, run a wheel route here. You know what I'm saying? Things like that. And those are the reads that he's making.

Starting point is 00:14:24 He's reading one single person, and it's inside zone or it's slant or i'm gonna throw this fade up and the splits are extremely wide so the field is really really spaced out so a lot of college teams that want to run zone and things like that all you have to do is be a capable thrower and be able to process simple information and hendon can do that at a high level. Right. And that's why he picked defenses apart because what he'll pull in those guys did for him was, Hey, just don't be bad. You're going to throw for 35 yards. And that's the problem with the offense. And I, like I studied it,

Starting point is 00:14:59 went through it and it reminds me a lot of the Baylors, things like that. And like, you remember the Corey Coleman's, and RG3 was incredible. But there was things that people didn't love. If he wasn't such an elite athlete, he would have had a lot more knocks on his game. But people get on the Baylor receivers for never producing in the NFL because they were running in, like, 10-yard windows, and they were all 4-4 guys, Jalen Hyatt. That's the problem with the offense and

Starting point is 00:15:25 transition to the nfl and having to make reads and windows are a lot tighter the dbs are a lot better the coordinators are a lot i won't say smarter but they're a lot more capable because it sounds like i'm knocking the coordinators in the acc yeah but you get out there it's it's another level on the nfl and nothing is vanilla or simple in the NFL yeah yeah I mean in the NFL look you're making multiple reads per snap you're making multiple reads pre-snap yeah as well like the big I mean if you think about just an NFL defense they are rotating safeties constantly they are you know you were reading you could read before the snap oh this is middle of the field open you know two safeties back uh they're up in press okay so we know what we have here and we're gonna throw this beater over the middle or

Starting point is 00:16:07 something like that or maybe like a quick slant or something because the linebackers splits are in or something like that right you have that and then right when the snap happens they could rotate down into a middle of the field closed and then they can have the safeties bailing and you're gonna be facing cover three zone you're like oh my gosh what am i going against here it's crazy so like you sit there and in college at no point with all the talent that sec has what are you going to do when your primary receiver that's being read is being shadowed by denzel ward or jire alexander or any of those guys or just whatever it may be now he's gone right you're reading that guy now what if you can't hand that inside zone off and that's one of hendon's weaknesses right whatever it may be. Now he's gone, right? You're reading that guy.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Now what if you can't hand that inside zone off? And that's one of Hendon's weaknesses, right? Because we talked about the age, the injury, the offense. He's very one read driven because that's what he knows. What happens when you have to come off that read? Right. What happens? Are you going to force a bad error? Because he lets balls sail at times.

Starting point is 00:17:06 He's not the best quarterback thrown on the run. Like you said, he gets kind of statuesque a little bit. But that's because he's comfortable with sitting in the pocket and making those throws, making those layups. It's not going to happen in the NFL. The blitzes get a little bit more exotic. They get the read on you. They know what you do well, what you don't do well.

Starting point is 00:17:24 It's not black and white anymore. It a it's very great it's very yeah i know it's a big concern especially again with those splits it's so much half real half read stuff you know half field reads you're either hitting that inside zone or you're throwing the wheel or you're throwing the you know the pump action wheel the wide receiver screen the quick slant like you said yeah and it's just it's it's just not how the nfl works and again the slant like you said yeah and it's just it's it's just not how the nfl works and again the splits too like you mentioned these guys are all standing outside the hash marks right the hash marks are a lot more in they're outside look jaylen hyatt lined up a yard from the from the out of bounds line nobody's doing you're not doing it in the

Starting point is 00:18:02 nfl no they're not doing it in the nfl it's just not gonna happen yeah and this is us trying to emphasize that look will levis with all his issues he's playing in a pro style offense so he's an older quarterback but two years in a pro style offense but you could go to anthony richardson and say like oh he's going to be as behind as hendon hooker is as well okay he's he's 20. Hendon Hooker's 26. Like there's a big difference. A little bit over half a decade. Yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:18:30 There's a big difference there. So when you're comparing Hendon Hooker to these two guys, you could say right now Hendon Hooker is a smarter quarterback, better whatever, better this, better that, more mature, all that stuff. But when you factor in his age and his – I mean his injury is a little – I don't really care too much about the injury, but his age and his i mean his injury is a little i don't really care too much about the injury but his age and that offense putting him behind mentally and you guys still factor in you know the footwork has some issues the one read stuff the statuesque thing like i said beginning like that's terrifying it's a terrifying profile you know and and i think

Starting point is 00:19:02 we don't talk about profiles enough as evaluators and stuff because, you know, evaluators had these things with athletic testing alone where it's like, hey, you have to hit this 120-inch broad jump for me to draft you or something at some positions. Or you have to hit this 4-5 or we can't draft you. They also have these profiles for every player. You know, statistically, the quarterbacks that make it in the NFL are 21-year-olds with this kind of arm, this kind of athleticism, this kind of production, stuff like that. Hendon Hooker is is a scary profile. It's a scary profile. And if you're an evaluator risking your job on a quarterback pick, Hendon Hooker is not a guy you're taking in round one, maybe round two, like mid round two, lateround two, just because you're betting on that character. But profile-wise, this is definitely the most concerning profile of anybody in that top four, top five, top six range in this class.

Starting point is 00:19:51 Yeah, I think Hendon, I would want him on my team. What I'm giving, I come on my team with multiple twos. I think he's a guy that I would take if I need a backup, if I have an older quarterback that I can, I mean, he's not that young, but get a younger guy, you know, get him ready. You know, I think I'll be okay with him because he can do a lot of things well physically. Like I said, he has athleticism, he has an arm, but I'm not going to sit there and,

Starting point is 00:20:18 and risk that in the early first round when I can go get an elite corner or an elite edge rusher I just think they'll bring more value to my team long term um that the hidden will then in the will and like I said I like him like I like him I wouldn't be mad if he's on if he if he gets picked a little earlier than people say I just don't think he's a top 10 guy no I don't think he's a top 10 pick at this point okay prospect prospect, but like you said, it's a risky prospect, risky player to draft, especially high in the first round. Yeah, high in the first round.

Starting point is 00:20:52 Even late in the first round, I think it's kind of concerning. The thing that messes it up is Kyle Trask. Yeah. You know what? That's fair. Look, if Kyle Trask can go round two, I'm all – and you know what? Yeah, 100%.

Starting point is 00:21:04 If Kyle Trask went round two, Hendon Hooker early round two, not for the Colts but for some other team. Yeah, wherever Kyle Trask went. I think Kyle Trask was the last pick of the second round. Yeah. So that's okay. Yeah, that's okay. But I'll take Hendon Hooker above that then.

Starting point is 00:21:18 Like if they're in the same class for sure. Like I'm taking Hendon Hooker over Kyle Trask. Like that's an easy decision. But, yeah, no, I'm just concerned about the profile like and and i think when you're a team like the colts where you're drafting this next guy to be your guy you know you're you're not you're not in a situation like the vikings where if you take hendon hooker you might be moving on from kirk next year so why not get a young-ish quarterback to get ready. It almost seems like a joke, but we're not. He's going to be 26 at the start of the season. That's not young at all for the NFL.

Starting point is 00:21:52 We talk about not for long. To put it in perspective, someone said on Twitter to me not too long ago, he said, he reminds me of a younger Jalen Hurts. He's older than Jalen Hurts. He's older than a lot of guys like we talk about joe burrow tua lamar jalen we can keep um who else started as a young as a young he's only a year he's only a year younger than the cult than the cult's current starter gardner minchu feels like he's been in the league forever how old is my home's 27 28 yeah 27 28 so we're on they're close to the same age too so it's

Starting point is 00:22:25 just like we're not trying to make jokes about it because again these quarterbacks they can play till 40 so you could get like a 13 14 year career out of him but when he's already behind the learning curve it's tough but guys coming up we're going to talk about where hendon hooker can succeed in the nfl either with the colts or with another team coming up right now. All right, so Hendon Hooker, when I look at him again, you have to, you kind of have to draw up a way for him to utilize half field read stuff, utilize things where he's not processing too much information. Again, I think he can get to that point someday and can be like, like Jalen Hurts, for instance, again,

Starting point is 00:23:02 we keep bringing up this Jalen Hurts stuff here, but Jalen Hurts coming out was not a great processor you know he did some better things with Oklahoma he was getting the passing game up a little bit but he wasn't a great processor so Shane Steichen and the Philadelphia Eagles kind of got him in some more comfortable areas where it's a lot more focused on his legs letting him run getting defenses down into that single high look so they have to have that safety and defend a really good run game and then pulling it out occasionally for some play action passes down the field I think that's a way he can succeed and this is not my endorsement of getting him into Shane Steichen offense but I do think that kind of style for him where you can let

Starting point is 00:23:39 him do some half field read stuff or let him dominate off play action where he's just reading you know a conflict defender or something like that i think he can succeed at that early on and then grow from there but outside of that i don't really know if he's going to be ready to play from day one because again that offense puts him so far behind the needle yeah no i mean i don't think he's a day one starter in the nfl i think he's a transition guy like you said when you mentioned minnesota earlier i think he's that type of person where you said, when you mentioned Minnesota earlier, I think he's that type of person where you look at a team that, like I say, he does go in the second round.

Starting point is 00:24:10 Say the Vikings go grab another receiver, whatever they choose to do. Say they don't feel like there's a value in the first for drafting a QB, and then they pick up Hendon later. And then they move on, they give him a year, give him some elite weapons to throw to, give him a good running back to hand the ball off to um and like you said offensively like you can tailor some things to them because you have talent right like we talked about we've talked about this whole this whole um series of episodes it's a lot more important about where

Starting point is 00:24:38 you go and what's around you than how high you go you know because every quarterback isn't a franchise saver that's just just not – everyone is. Some need to be saved. They just need a captain to steer the ship. And everybody doesn't have to go out there and be Patrick Mahomes. Everybody doesn't have to go out there and be Joe Burrow. And I think that's what Hendon Hooker is. I think he's a Kirk Cousins type of player.

Starting point is 00:25:01 I think he could be a Derek Carr type of player. You know what I mean? And very, very good, successful. I know they get a lot of crap, but very successful players. you know a player i think he could be a derrick carr type of player you know what i mean and very very good successful i know they get a lot of crap but very successful players i think that's his ceiling though i think he's a person that can make a lot of throws he can make himself a lot of money in his nfl career but i think he's a captain not necessarily a leader of a nation so to speak you know he's the guy you get to steer the ship yeah Yeah, I'm 100% with you. If the Colts were to select him and maybe make him a starter day one, because look, if you're taking a 26-year-old quarterback

Starting point is 00:25:31 in the early second round, late first round, you've got to start him at that point, I think, if you're the Colts. If you don't do it right away, you've got to do it soon. Yeah, so let's say the Colts do the crazy scenario. They take Will Anderson at four, Their defense is fun and awesome. And then they take Hendon Hooker at 35. You're going to need that running game to get back. You know, you're going to need that Jonathan Taylor running game to get back to what it was with Carson Wentz in 2021. Because if it's not like that and you're asking Hendon Hooker, like you said, to be more than just that captain of the ship,

Starting point is 00:26:02 to be the guy who pulls the ship on his back, that's just not going to be him, especially from day one. Again, you need a tailor so much to make this offense simplistic for him. And if you're making your offense simplistic for your offensive players, you're making it simplistic for the other team playing against you as well. Zach, the thing is, okay, because there's a guy at Ohio State. There's a guy that we, you know, we talked about. It's OK. He's waiting. But, you know, continue. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off.

Starting point is 00:26:48 OK, but here's the thing. Here's the thing. If you take Hendon Hooker at 35 and it leads to you being in a position to draft Marvin Harrison Jr. next year, you're not taking Marvin Harrison Jr. You're taking one of the other two. You're taking Caleb Williams. You're taking Drake May. You're taking if Quinn Ewers, whatever the heck his name is, has a good year. You're taking one of those guys high. You're not taking Marvin Harrison Jr. And that's the thing, again, with Hendon Hooker. The problem with Hendon Hooker here, actually,

Starting point is 00:27:05 we should have touched on this last one. So much of quarterback success in the NFL, and we talked about this with Will Levis, is how much commitment you're getting from the team. Hendon Hooker is not going to get any commitment from the team. Maybe he goes round one, he gets a little bit more than what we expect, but if he goes outside of round one with his age and where his draft capital is going to be he's not going to get like any time like he just needs to get lucky and

Starting point is 00:27:29 get on the field first and then hope that the success comes early because no team is going to wait around and say we have our franchise guy with this 26 year old 27 year old 28 year old i mean we even saw with geno smith this past year the seahawks being a little cautious with that because he's an older quarterback even though he has no tread on the tires. He had to light it up to get that execution. Like, he's talking about one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL this season. Like, he had to do that, you know, with minimal buy-in, with, you know, saying they got – I don't think they got lucky,

Starting point is 00:28:01 but had an incredible rookie at running back and some elite weapons around him. That's what he needed to be successful. But like you said, quarterbacks need buy-in. If I'm a quarterback being drafted by a team, I want no part in a team that's not buying into me. The Eagles bought into Jalen Hurts. Yes. They completely bought into him, and good things happened.

Starting point is 00:28:20 The Bills bought into Josh Allen. You know what I'm saying? Those type of things happen in order for those raw prospects to have success. And that's what Hendon would need. Like you said, I just don't think he's going to get it. Right. I think personality-wise, so bring this full circle and get to my final points on Hendon Hooker. I think personality-wise, it is easy to buy into this guy.

Starting point is 00:28:40 Awesome dude, great speaker, mature, really smart guy. And I do hope he has success in the NFL. It's just the profile is so scary, and I just don't think he's going to be successful. The gaudy numbers in college are great. He lit up the SEC. It's awesome. Like, you lit up the SEC.

Starting point is 00:28:56 He was a Heisman candidate. It's just, it's a fake offense. It was a tough offense to evaluate. It's not just making excuses. What it was, you know, it's the Bryce Petty thing. I mean, RG3 obviously was a tough offense to evaluate. You know, it's not just making excuses what it was. You know, it's the Bryce Petty thing. It's the, I mean, RG3 obviously was a special athlete, but it's that kind of thing.

Starting point is 00:29:10 You know, it's those Baylor offenses. So Hendon Hooker for me is a guy where I'm betting on that character. I'm betting on that human being. I'm just not betting on that player. And I would not bet on that player with one of the Colts picks. I would bet on a Levis profile in character.

Starting point is 00:29:25 I'd bet on a Richardson profile in character up higher than I would on a Hendon Hooker one at 35 or even at 79 because I just don't think it makes sense for the Colts. Yeah, and they don't have to. That's the thing. If they did it, if they took him, like you said, obviously you wouldn't go four, but are they at five? They're at four. They're at four four and they have four, 35 and 79.

Starting point is 00:29:48 So if you go at four, obviously that, I feel like that's reaching, like extremely reaching, like you're going to have a lot of anchorage. At 35 for me personally, it's still a little too rich for him. But like we talk about those premium positions always get pushed up. They always get pushed up. So when you talk about quarterbacks, you talk about edge guys, you talk about tackles and corners, they all get pushed up just a little bit higher, probably 10 or so picks higher than they're supposed to.

Starting point is 00:30:13 And that's why we have to talk about it because it is a possibility. If he's there, we don't know how they have him graded. We don't know how his interviews went with them. They may love him. You know what I'm saying? From a physical standpoint, he can do all the things that they want him to do. Right? But like you said, it's going to be the offense.

Starting point is 00:30:29 It's going to be can Jonathan Taylor get that running game back going. It's risky. It's risky business there. It's always risky business for the quarterback, but that's why we have these episodes to talk about these guys in detail. Now, if you guys want us to do a Bryce Young episode, throw it in the comments. Let us know. We will do one. It's just I want it to be something you guys want us to do a Bryce Young episode, throw it in the comments. Let us know. We will do one.

Starting point is 00:30:46 It's just I want it to be something you guys check out, even though it's not an actual possibility, probably. If you guys don't want the Bryce Young one, throw it in the comments. We might actually do a cornerback episode. Just talk about corner options for the Colts. We won't talk about Gonzalez or Witherspoon because they're probably not. But we'll talk about some guys after that. Hag, I know for some reason you really like those two guys but we'll yeah yeah well yeah all right all right we'll talk about some other corners so you guys let us in the comments what you want next week some

Starting point is 00:31:12 cornerback talk or bryce young video we'll do either one for y'all but that's all we have for today guys we'll be back with you guys tomorrow to keep the draft preparation going more pro day stuff uh speaking of hendon hooker this was the perfect time to drop this episode because his pro day is going on today, Thursday, when you guys are watching this Jake Arthur, my normal cohost will actually be down there to, to speak with Hendon hooker,

Starting point is 00:31:33 to look at Hendon hooker and see exactly what he's doing down there. So make sure you're following him at Jake Arthur NFL at locked on Colts at Zach Hicks too. And obviously at John Hagler, CR the goat has been jumping on here and talking quarterbacks. Also subscribe to locked on Colts on YouTube, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And thank you guys for making locked on Colts.

Starting point is 00:31:51 Your first listen every day. Now make your second listen locked on NFL scouting with the draft dudes. From free agency to the draft, the salary cap management and more joint NFL experts, Kyle Krabs and Joe Marino, as they take you through what it's like to build a successful NFL franchise every Monday through Friday. Find Locked on NFL Scouting with the Draft Dudes wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube.

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