The New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers are getting divorced. It won’t be as messy as some might have expected (or hoped) but the long and short of it is that the Jets are once again in search of a franchise QB. Many, like Rodney Harrison, believe the 2025 NFL Draft is not the time or place for New York to find their solution.
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Instead, they should look for a low-cost option that could serve as a one-year bridge to the supposedly stacked 2026 QB class at the least, or as their long-term option under center at the most. Harrison believes there is such a player already in the league in Detroit Lions second-year signal caller Hendon Hooker.
“I’m gonna call Detroit, and I’m gonna pick up the phone and say, ‘hey, I’m very interested in Hendon Hooker, your backup quarterback.’ He’s healthy, he was a Heisman guy until he got hurt at the University of Tennessee. I got a chance to see him often. And he’s big, he’s smart, he’s an older guy… he’s in his low-20s. He’s very mature. I would trade for Hendon Hooker.”
Hooker was one of the top QBs coming out of college in the 2023 NFL Draft. He won SEC Offensive Player of the Year and was named First-Team All-SEC. However, an ACL injury and his age (25 on draft day in 2023) hurt his draft stock. The Lions scooped him up in the 3rd round in the end, and the injury kept him out for nearly his entire rookie year. He got on in mop-up duty a couple of times during the 2024 campaign, going 6-for-9 for 62 yards.
He’s got prototypical size for a QB at 6’3″ and 220 pounds, and he offers the dual-threat ability so prized by NFL teams nowadays. He’s got a big arm, but the one worry among scouts appears to be how he will fare when defenses take away his first option and he has to go through his progressions.
Despite that, Harrison thinks he’s a much better value pickup for the Jets than anyone they can snag early in this year’s draft. Part of his reasoning is where Hooker’s been for the last two years: in offensive guru and newly minted Chicago Bears HC Ben Johnson’s system.
“I’m taking Hendon Hooker before I’m taking Shedeur Sanders, before I’m taking Cam Ward. I’m taking that guy, he’s been rehabbing, he’s been behind Jared Goff the last couple years, he’s been coach with Ben Johnson. So you know he’s been coached the right way. He’s a very mature young man. I’m telling you, this Hendon Hooker, I’ve been on him for a while. I think he’s a hidden gem in the NFL.”
Miami’s Cam Ward, who is the higher rated of the two between him and Shedeur Sanders, is unlikely to fall to the Jets at No. 7. Sanders could be there, however, and that means the Jets have a decision to make.
Hooker is a cheaper option for the Jets
Hooker can likely be got for a mid-round pick. He’ll also be on a salary that brings a cap hit of less than $2 million for the next two seasons. Sanders, meanwhile, would likely get something between the four-year, $36.6 million deal Drake Maye received and the four-year, $21.1 million contract J.J. McCarthy signed last year. Knowing Sanders and his father, he’ll probably be pushing for the high end of that range.
That means that the rookie might actually be the more costly option here. It could be important, because right now the Jets have about $15 million in cap space, per Spotrac. That isn’t a ton to go out in March and improve the team in free agency.
Depending on how they handle the Aaron Rodgers release, they could be in dire straits this season. That’s if they take it all on the chin in 2025, but they could also spread his $49 million dead cap number across several years. That remains to be seen, however.
Either way, Hooker seems like a good option during an offseason when New York will have to pinch pennies. If they’re going to make improvements in other areas of the team that need it (offensive line, defensive depth, wide receiver, tight end), a cheap option with a high ceiling at QB like Hooker could be just the thing. It’s not like the Jets have Super Bowl aspirations in 2025 anyway.
