Malik Hooker

strengths

Gifted athlete with impressive blend of burst, body control and reflexes. Outstanding play speed, covering a lot of green. Magnet to the ball due to his cover awareness, field vision and range. Transfers weight to smoothly open his hips, turn and run without gearing down. Impressive lower body explosion and leaping skills. Unique timing/anticipation to break on the ball and make plays most defensive backs don't. Elite ballskills with the innate ability to find, judge and disrupt the catch point. Long arms and strong hands to finish interceptions - finished second in the FBS with seven pick-offs in 2016. Playmaker with the ball in his hands with 181 yards (25.9 average) and three touchdowns on interception returns in 2016 (had another return for a score that was called back due to a phantom penalty). Explosive tackler and doesn't need a runway to create momentum. Fast angles working downhill with range to clean up plays his teammates miss. Uses his length to lasso ballcarriers out of his reach. Experienced on special teams coverages.

nfl comparison

Ed Reed -- When it comes to range and ballhawking instincts at the safety position, Reed is the supreme prototype. And while high praise to mention such a young player in the same breath as the futuere Hall of Famer, Hooker's skill-set is very similar with his athleticism, anticipation in coverage and ballskills. The comparison doesn't mean that Hooker is destined to have the same career as Reed, but the talent is very comparable.

weaknesses

Wild pursuit angles dent his batting average as a tackler. Lowers his pads with an accurate strike zone, but needs to clean up his mechanics when breaking down to be a better finisher. Trusts his eyes and follows the ball, but vulnerable to misdirection and play fakes. Aggressive style in the secondary can lead to incorrect guesses. Limited experience as a blitzer. Room to get stronger and improve his functional strength. Inconsistent physicality and leverage taking on blocks near the line of scrimmage. Basketball was his first love and still young in football years - only one season as a collegiate starter.

Hooker played just two seasons of high school football and was a two-year starter at wide receiver and cornerback for coach Joe Cowart at New Castle H.S.

basketball was his preferred sport - he was a Division I prospect - before he first played football during the 2012 football season

considered a dynamic athlete, Hooker was rated as a four-star prospect by Scout and ESPN and was among the Top 300 players by Scout with a national ranking of No. 258

247Sports rates him as its No. 26 athlete while ESPN rated him as its No. 50 athlete

helped New Castle to the WPIAL Class AAA state playoffs in 2013 and to a 7-3 record

named Pennsylvania Football Writers Class AAA all-state and all-Western Pennsylvania as a defensive back as a senior

also named to the WPIAL Elite 11 team as a DB and to the American Family Insurance All-Pennsylvania team as a wide receiver in 2013

helped New Castle to a 54-2 record on the hardwood as a sophomore and junior and to consecutive WPIAL championships

named to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Fabulous 5 basketball team in 2012-13.

Is the son of Angela Dennis.

2016