Malik Hooker draws comps to Ed Reed, and it's no joke

Former Baltimore Raven and future Hall of Fame free safety Ed Reed is one of my top-5 favorite NFL players I’ve had the privilege of watching as a football fan. His incredible range, almost magnetic attraction to the football, and stellar ball skills translated into 64 career interceptions, nine defensive return touchdowns, nine Pro Bowls, and five First-Team All-Pro Selections.

So when I see scouts comparing now-former Ohio State safety Malik Hooker, with all seriousness, to Reed, that’s something I take notice of. 

It's one thing to be reminded vaguely of Reed when you see a player coming up with a bunch of interceptions, laying some hard hits on people, or covering a lot of ground from the free safety position. But it's another thing entirely to suggest that a young player not only demonstrates the production and physical ability but also the same uncanny instinct for roaming the field and simply making plays other players don't/can't the way the future Hall-of-Famer did at his peak.

So I look into Hooker a bit more, both how he plays and what more experienced evaluators than myself have to say about him. Then, you find that it’s not just scouts talking him up.

One of Reed’s old college coaches at the University of Miami, Greg Schiano, just happens to coach the defensive backs at Ohio State at the moment. And when he tells you that Hooker’s preternatural range is something he hasn’t witnessed up close and personal since coaching Reed, you know that’s not blowing smoke. Via Eric Seger of "Eleven Warriors":

At the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, there is a pair of red lines painted on each of Ohio State's practice fields.
Located 5 yards from each sideline, Greg Schiano opens drill work every day with his position group at this location, looking to perfect something the co-defensive coordinator and former NFL head coach says only two individuals during his coaching career ever did.
One of them is future NFL Hall of Famer Ed Reed. The other currently plays for Ohio State. 

“We talk about a middle of the field safety, can you cover from red line to red line?” Schiano said on Wednesday. “And those are exceptional guys. Malik is one of those guys that can do that. Every once in a while a guy guesses right and can get there. But to consistently do it? Very few. Over the years, I think back and Ed and Malik jump out. Not a lot others.”

Not convinced? Watch him start at the near hashmark and, I don't know, teleport to the far sideline to steal a potential touchdown pass from Jordan Leggett and Deshaun Watson last weekend.

Via Draft Breakdown

Or, check out him coming from...wherever it was he came from to pick off this ball against Bowling Green early this season…

a game in which he also did this…

That right there? That needs no further explanation.

But that’s not all. Hooker’s style of play bore another similarity to Reed’s as he patrolled Ohio State’s backfield: something so subtle that most of us fans probably don’t notice it. 

Let Schiano explain:

“Some guys have this thing, I call it spatial relations, where they just can see the quarterback, they can feel the receiver, they don't look at the receiver, they just know where he is, know where he's going to end up, and they connect the dots. You can coach for a long time but that's something that's a gift. And he has that.”

Interestingly, I once heard Bill Belichick say something remarkably similar about a certain former Ravens safety in a conversation with Tom Brady documented by “A Football Life”.

"Everything he does, he does at an exceptional level…I mean, it's just so obvious when he's reading the quarterback. Those receivers will run right past him, and he never flinches. He doesn't even acknowledge them. He's just reading the quarterback."

Sometimes, it seemed like Reed was in the offensive huddle when the play was called. On this pick-6, he has Carson Palmer swiped before the ball is even snapped.

Now, watch this play from Ohio State vs. Tulsa and tell me if something eerily reminiscent of the previous play catches your eye.

Hooker knew where the quarterback was throwing the ball before he did, apparently.

And, think about this: Hooker has only been a starter for one season at Ohio State, leaving school as a redshirt sophomore. Beyond that, he only started getting serious about football as a junior in high school. Some of this inexperience manifests itself in occasionally poor pursuit angles and shoddy tackling form that will need to improve.

While a lot of people might be a bit hesitant to risk a pick on a player, however good, that has so little experience playing at highly competitive levels of football, the other end of the spectrum is just as intriguing: if Hooker’s already this naturally good, how good can he be with NFL coaching?

Are you trying to tell me that a guy that people think is Ed Reed-like already hasn’t scratched the surface of his potential?

Oh boy…

As it stands at the moment, Hooker basically threw himself right into the conversation of best safety/defensive back in this upcoming draft class just by announcing he was entering it. He’s probably a top-15 pick right now, with a strong likelihood of being gone between picks 7-12, but we haven’t seen him work out at the Combine or Pro Day yet.

With a strong offseason performance, who’s to say that he might not threaten to be taken in the top 5? After all, LSU’s Jamal Adams, likely the best strong safety in the draft, has been listed as high as 4th overall in multiple mock drafts.

No matter where he ends up, though, his current abilities combined with his upside could potentially vault him into the Eric Berry/Earl Thomas echelon of free safeties very quickly, if he can catch onto the NFL game swiftly during his early years.

Obviously, we have no idea what he’ll be in the NFL until he sets foot on a professional field, so no one should be anointing him the next Ed Reed just yet. He has a long way to go, and needs a lot of luck, to get to nine Pro Bowls and five First-Team All-Pros.

But given where he is in such a short time with all of his ability, it’s not unreasonable to think that he could get there someday.