Austin Hooper Fantasy News and Statistics

Atlanta Falcons tight end Austin Hooper established himself as a top high school prospect in the state of California at De La Salle High School, where he also played defensive end. He was a four-star recruit, which landed him a scholarship to established Pac-12 power Stanford. With the Cardinal, he enjoyed success almost immediately.

Hooper redshirted during his true freshman season with the team still having depth at the position as well as a potent ground game. When he stepped onto the field in 2014, however, he ended up being one of his team’s most dependable players.

The Cardinal received solid quarterback play from Kevin Hogan, and Hooper was targeted consistently in the team’s passing attack. He made 40 catches for 499 yards and a pair of touchdowns as only Ty Montgomery had more catches that season.

In 2015, Christian McCaffrey secured his place as a Cardinal workhorse, leading the team both in carries and receptions. Even so, there was still room for Hooper to be a valuable piece of the offense. Although he missed a game with an injury, he managed to make 34 catches for 438 yards and six touchdowns en route to being named First-Team All-Pac-12 and a finalist for the John Mackey Award.

After the 2015 season, it appeared that Hooper still had a bright future ahead at Stanford. He had two years of eligibility remaining and was the top tight end in his conference. Instead, the third-team All-American decided to forgo those two years of eligibility and enter the 2016 NFL Draft, where the Atlanta Falcons selected him in the third round.

Coming to the Falcons gave Hooper a good learning opportunity. Sure, the team had a pair of tight ends ahead of him on the depth chart (Levine Toilolo and Jacob Tamme), but he was able to learn from those veterans and receive passes from Matt Ryan—the league’s Most Valuable Player that year.

Tamme went down with an injury and missed half the season, which allowed Hooper to step in and pick up some of the slack. Regardless, the Falcons had Julio Jones and Mohamed Sanu atop their receiving depth chart. As a result, Hooper made 19 catches on 27 targets for 271 yards and three touchdowns in 14 games.

His top performance of the season came when he made five catches on five targets for 41 yards in a 33-32 win over the Green Bay Packers. He missed the final two games of the regular season with a knee injury. Even so, he was able to come back and had a 19-yard touchdown reception in his team’s Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots.

In his second year in the league, Hooper established himself as his team’s primary tight end. He surpassed both Tamme and Toilolo on the depth chart and took away some of the targets Devonta Freeman was receiving through the air in 2016. While Hooper was still behind Jones, Sanu and Taylor Gabriel in terms of top Ryan targets, it marked a step in a positive direction for the young tight end.