Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. With Week 11 of the 2022 NFL season in the books, there was a lot to cover!
This week, Doug and Luke get into these key topics:
- Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker’s season is over due to a torn ACL. Has he done enough to be a first-round pick in the 2023 NFL draft?
- Is it time for the New York Jets to punt on quarterback Zach Wilson — not just this season, but moving forward into 2023 free agency and the draft?
- Which interested team is the best fit for Odell Beckham Jr.?
- Which team is the NFL’s best right now?
You can watch this week’s episode of “4-Down Territory” right here:
Is Hendon Hooker a first-round talent?
We’re starting off with unfortunate news, as Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker suffered a torn left ACL in the Vols’ 63-38 loss to South Carolina last Saturday. Given what you’ve seen from Hooker this season, and considering that the injury will likely affect his pre-draft process to a significant degree, where do you place him in the 2023 draft class? First-round pick, or somewhere lower?
Doug: As long as Hooker is ready for training camp, I’m cool with calling him a mid- to late first-round pick. All he’s done in his two seasons with Tennessee after transferring from Virginia Tech is to complete 68.8% of his passes for 9.6 yards per attempt, 58 touchdowns, and five interceptions. If you want to ding him for his age – he’ll turn 25 on January 13 – I guess that’s okay, but we’re in an era when quarterbacks frequently play their best into their late thirties and beyond. Maybe you can say that he benefits from a simplistic offense, but I don’t really see it that way. I think he’s shown most of the attributes you need to be a successful starting quarterback in the NFL, and outside of Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud, who’s No. 3? Will Levis? No, thanks. Anthony Richardson? Not at this point. Hooker is an excellent intermediate-to-deep passer, you blitz him at your peril, and his only real clunker of a game this season was against Georgia’s defense. That puts him in with a lot of quarterbacks over the last couple years.
Luke: I think a lot of teams are going to be reluctant to spend a first-round pick because of the injury and the age, but it only takes one, and the league has definitely made a ton of far dumber decisions when it comes to first-round quarterbacks. Regardless of his age, at full strength, Hooker’s play this season has been as good as any quarterback in the country. Not that he hasn’t had some rough patches, or that he doesn’t have flaws as a prospect, but I’m banking on what he does well over any of the cons right now. The position is too important, and Hooker has proven he’s got all the physical and mental traits to be a franchise guy. If you don’t want that guy because he’s 25 instead of 22 or 23, that’s on you.
Would the Jets be better off without Zach Wilson?
Continuing with quarterbacks and unfortunate news of another kind. New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson has been a disaster when he’s been on the field this season, and never more so than in New York’s 10-3 Sunday loss to the New England Patriots. WIlson completed nine of 22 passes for 77 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions (though two were dropped by Patriots defenders), and the Jets had more punts (10) than Wilson had completions. This was Wilson’s 20th career start since the Jets selected him with the second overall pick in the 2021 draft. Have we seen enough to say that the Jets need to go in a different direction this season, and consider adding a potential starting quarterback in 2023 – either through free agency or in the draft?
Doug: It’s not even so much Wilson’s horrible performance this season – he’s among the worst quarterbacks in every category – that gives me pause as we get heavy into the second half of his second NFL season. It’s the seeming inability to take responsibility for his part in dragging this team down that has me thinking he’s not a franchise guy. He insisted after the Patriots game that he hadn’t let the defense down. He insisted last week, and I quote, that “nobody outside the building knows what they’re talking about.” The Jets have a great coaching staff. They have a top-5 defense. And they may miss the playoffs because their quarterback just doesn’t get it.
On Sunday, Patriots safety Kyle Dugger basically said that all you have to do against Wilson is to show him any kind of disguised coverage, and because he can only go to his per-determined reads, that’ll make him pause and take sacks. In an NFL where disguised coverages are more prevalent than ever, there’s no way that works. Neither Mike White nor Joe Flacco constitutes a long-term answer, but even they’d struggle to be worse. It’s time for the Jets to punt on this guy.
Luke: When I have concerns about a prospect, I always hope they prove me wrong. But I said before and after that draft that the Jets taking Justin Fields at No. 2 should have been a no-brainer, so it’s gotta hurt for Jets fans to watch Fields’ ascension in Chicago while they have to deal with whatever this is from Wilson. I don’t know what else you need to see from him to know he’s not the future (nor the present) of this franchise at the game’s most important position. There’s regression instead of progression, there’s the inability to take responsibility when your offense is clearly costing your defense wins and a potential division title/playoff run. I don’t know the they’ll do in the offseason, but the Jets simply can’t afford to roll into 2023 with Wilson as their guy.
Which team should Odell Beckham Jr. pick?
And speaking of ACLs… Odell Beckham is just about ready to return from the torn ACL he suffered in Super Bowl LVI. Per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, there are at least five teams in the running for Beckham’s services – the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and San Francisco 49ers.All contending teams. If Beckham is to do what he did with the Los Angeles Rams last season – get signed in November and help his team to the Super Bowl – which team among these five (or another) gives him the best chance to do so?
Doug: Wan’Dale Robinson and Sterling Shepard (both now out for the rest of the season with torn ACLs), Darius Slayton. Richie James. David Sills. Marcus Johnston. Kenny Golladay. That’s the receiver group for the New York Giants, who are 7-3 with an aggressive if vulnerable defense, and building the entire offensive plane out of Saquon Barkley. There is no other contending team more desperately in need of immediate help at the position than Big Blue, and if general manager Joe Schoen could initiate a reunion with Beckham, who the Giants selected with the 12th pick in the 2014 draft, he might be hailed as a conquering hero.
If Beckham is the same player he was with the Rams in the second half of the 2021 season, he might be better than every receiver on that roster combined. And with his ability to carry cornerbacks vertically, explode out of clearout concepts, and win in the red zone, he could very well be the piece that pushes the Giants over the top.
Luke: I want the Giants reunion to happen, but if we’re talking about which landing spot gives him the best shot at another ring, I don’t think that’s what he’ll find back there. I don’t think he’d find it in San Francisco either. The other three teams have stellar quarterbacks, and wouldn’t need him to come in and immediately be the WR1, which the Giants absolutely would. Wherever he lands, it needs to be a place where he can make a handful of key plays every week, and especially in the playoffs, not be relied upon to play a full game of snaps and lead the team in targets. If I had my pick, it would be hard to choose anything over Mahomes and the Chiefs right now.
Which team is the NFL's best right now?
This seems like a much more difficult question than it was even two weeks ago, but… which team is the NFL’s best right now?
Doug: As much as I like the Cowboys since Dak Prescott came back, I have to go with the Chiefs. Because over the last few weeks, Patrick Mahomes has put on an absolute clinic in the art of quarterbacking. And as long as that’s the case, the Chiefs are… not unbeatable, but perhaps tougher to beat than any other NFL team.
You can sum it all up with the look on Justin Herbert’s face on the sideline as the Chiefs began their six-play, 75-yard, game-winning drive to win Sunday night’s game. Herbert knew. He knew. He knew that the Chargers gave the Chiefs too much time, and Mahomes was inevitable. The Eagles have looked all to vulnerable over the last three weeks, and I might replace the Chiefs with the Cowboys if they keep playing at the level they did against the Vikings, but right now, Mahomes has the rest of the NFL on a string, and that’s where it all starts.
Luke: Yep, it’s the Chiefs. They have the best quarterback in the game in Mahomes, one of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the game in Travis Kelce, one of the league’s most dominant defenders in Chris Jones, and one of the league’s best coaches in Andy Reid. I think they’re the most complete team in the league right now, and they’re playing the best, most consistent football in the league right now.
