One player high on the draft radar is Ohio State free safety Malik Hooker. He is competing with Jamal Adams to be the first safety off the board, and both make a lot of sense for the San Francisco 49ers at No. 2.
One of the notable issues about Hooker is durability. He had two surgeries this offseason, to his labrum and core muscle. He did not take part in the NFL Combine because of that, and while he had private visits, he was not able to do any private workouts.
Hooker was among a host of players in Indianapolis earlier this month going through the medical re-check process. Any players with notable injuries at the NFL Combine go get checked again to provide teams with more info in the weeks leading up to the draft.
It appears Hooker has gotten good news. Last night, Daniel Jeremiah tweeted that two different teams told him the medical was fine on Hooker. Today, Ian Rapoport tweeted that “Combine recheck went as well as it could. Healing is good. No questions there.”
There are still some questions about his floor vs. that of Jamal Adams, but it is useful to have the medical question effectively off the table at this point. I don’t know how teams will view long term durability based on those recent injuries, but for the short term, medical likely won’t have an impact on his draft status.