Safety Malik Hooker started his career with the Indianapolis Colts in 2017 after being drafted in the first round out of Ohio State. Unfortunately, he suffered a torn ACL and MCL but still managed to record three interceptions in just seven games. He played in 27 games over the next two seasons and registered 95 tackles and four more interceptions, but suffered a torn Achilles and only played in two games in 2020.
When the 2021 season rolled around the Dallas Cowboys were in desperate need of safety help to assist Donovan Wilson who had a very productive year the season before. They signed Jayron Kearse and Damontae Kazee during free agency. However, despite his injury history, the Cowboys signed Hooker after a few visits to the facility, and with what he showed this season, they should bring him back for another run with the organization.
The Cowboys took the cautious approach and worked Hooker into the mix slowly which was understandable coming off of an Achilles tear. However, as the season went on, Hooker began to show some flashes of his days with the Colts. He had at least five tackles three times from Week 11 through Week 15 and logged at least 51% of the Cowboys defensive snaps twice over that span. Also, he played 45% of the snaps in Week 17 and Week 19 and played a season-high 72% of the defensive snaps in Week 18.
As you can see, Defensive Coordinator Dan Quinn showed great confidence in Hooker to get the job done over the last eight games of the season although Kazee played a little more than he did. Hooker's best game was against the New York Giants in Week 15 when he tied a season-high with six tackles and recorded his first interception since 2019.
Hooker has never lacked the talent just the ability to stay healthy. Hopefully, he's gotten over that hump by playing in a career-high 15 games and logging 446 snaps this season. The more Hooker played the more the ball-hawking skills and his ability to show support against the run that made him such a high draft pick began to resurface and it led to him logging 44 tackles which were tied for the second-most he's had in any season, and he did so by playing as a backup for most of the year to Kazee.
Free agency will be here soon and the Cowboys have 21 players to make decisions on. Kearse set career highs with 101 tackles (led the Cowboys) and two interceptions and should be at the top of the Cowboys' priority list. Hooker may be slightly lower in terms of importance, but the potential of having him back on the roster which shouldn't cost the Cowboys much along with Kearse and the aforementioned Wilson gives Dallas a solid group at safety heading into the 2022 season.
