Hendon Hooker's two seasons at the University of Tennessee contained the labels of transfer quarterback, backup quarterback, starting quarterback, record-setting quarterback, injured quarterback and All-Southeastern Conference quarterback.
Could being a franchise quarterback in the National Football League be next for the 6-foot-4, 218-pounder? Daniel Jeremiah thinks so.
The NFL Network's top draft analyst considers Alabama's Bryce Young, Florida's Anthony Richardson, Kentucky's Will Levis and Ohio State's C.J. Stroud as the four quarterbacks who have separated themselves from others, but Jeremiah has Hooker as a strong fifth choice. Strong enough, in fact, to be a franchise quarterback.
"They all have concerns," Jeremiah said on a recent conference call. "It's not one of those years where you have Trevor Lawrence, Joe Burrow or Andrew Luck. These guys all have warts and flaws, but I have it Young, Stroud, Levis and Richardson, and for me it's Bryce, a gap, and then those other three guys.
"I would put Hendon Hooker in that same realm just in terms of when they talk about his football acumen. He is going to be able to pick it up and handle a large playbook there."
Hooker is at this week's NFL combine in Indianapolis but will not participate in Saturday's drills due to the torn left anterior cruciate ligament he sustained during the 63-38 loss at South Carolina on Nov. 19. That stunning setback knocked the Volunteers out of the national championship picture and snuffed Hooker's Heisman Trophy chances, as he finished fifth in the balloting.
Yet the injury couldn't detract from what Hooker accomplished in Knoxville, completing 435 of 632 passes (68.8%) for 6,080 yards in 24 games. He racked up 58 touchdown passes against just five interceptions, with his 178.3 career efficiency rating easily the best in Tennessee history, and he rushed for 1,046 yards and 10 scores.
Jeremiah understands how teams might view Hooker's success as a product of Vols coach Josh Heupel's effective, up-tempo attack, thus questioning whether that will translate at the highest level.
"Tennessee will spread you from sea to shining sea," Jeremiah said. "They are about 2 yards from the sideline when you are watching them on each snap. They had (receiver Jalin) Hyatt, who can fly, and when you are watching him, SEC defenses kept trying to bring a safety in the slot where he had the whole field to work, and he just ran by them repeatedly, which is some of the concern people have with Hooker, because the NFL game isn't like that.
"Everything with him in that offense was off of play-action. In 51.5% of his snaps, there was some form of play-action where you are riding the back and raising up and firing as you try and manipulate those linebackers, and that's the most of any quarterback at the combine."
While Jeremiah gives the overall quarterbacking nod to Young, calling him "a bit more of a playmaker" compared to Stroud, he considers Stroud the purest thrower. The most intriguing quarterback to Jeremiah and most every analyst is Richardson, whose 22 games with the Gators yielded 3,105 yards with only a 54.7% completion rate and with 24 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.
"Anthony Richardson is the second quarterback for several teams that I've talked to," Jeremiah said. "We can look at the numbers, and it doesn't look great on paper. You look at the accuracy and this, that, and the other, but he has elite, elite arm strength. He is also a rare athlete.
"You don't see quarterbacks running away from LSU with 80-yard touchdown runs. He has a big-time ceiling because of his big-time ability."
Jeremiah is complimentary of multiple Tennessee players, projecting offensive tackle Darnell Wright 17th overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Hyatt 25th to the New York Giants. He believes receiver Cedric Tillman could move up the projections with his workouts, and he said Hooker "would have been a first-round pick if he didn't get hurt."
Drew Brees, Derek Carr, Boomer Esiason and Brett Favre are among the more notable second-round quarterbacks in NFL history, and there is also the matter of proper fit, with Jeremiah envisioning Hooker's accuracy, mobility and decision-making potentially coinciding with Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams.
"All those things are there," Jeremiah said. "His age doesn't bother me as much as maybe some other people, because a lot of team builders are looking four and five years at a time. He is 25 years old, and we've got quarterbacks with the way the league is right now who are playing into their late 30s. Obviously Tom (Brady) was the unicorn going much later than that, but I think you could have a nice long run.
"If you draft Hendon Hooker in the second round and he is your starting quarterback for seven or eight really good years, I think you take it."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.