Falcons rookie tight end Austin Hooper finished up his academic work at Stanford last week.
With his academic year over, Hooper, the Falcons’ third-round draft choice, was permitted to take part in the team’s mandatory minicamp, which opened on Tuesday.
“Per NFL rules, I had to stay enrolled in school,” Hooper said. “It was a great opportunity to be out here and compete.”
Hooper thinks he finished strong and did well on his final exams. He left school after his junior season and is about a year away from earning his degree.
“It was good to play some football again after a few weeks of finishing up classes and finals and what not,” said Hooper, who was the second-rated tight end in the draft.
The Falcons were able to send information to Hooper’s iPad and coaches were allowed to called to make sure that he was keeping up with the information.
“The information was great, but nothing can really substitute for actual reps here in the humidity and heat against some of the best players in the world,” Hooper said. “It’s a little different doing it in real life as opposed to studying it on the iPad.
“The coaches did a great job of keeping me up to speed. Now, I’m just working on the techniques now that I know what to do and where to go.”
Hooper was able to attend rookie minicamp in May. He missed the offseason training and the nine OTAs practices.
He was eager to return.
“I just wanted to show them that I knew what I was doing,” Hooper said. “There are definitely some details that when live bullets come you have a little less time to think it out like you do on the couch looking at the iPad. There is definitely a little bit of the learning curve to go through. I’m confident that I can work my way through it.”
Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was happy to see Hooper, who impressed the Falcons with his pass-catching ability, back.
“Austin getting out there today for the first time, that was fun to watch,” Ryan said. “He’s a big, athletic guy. He’s physical. He did a couple of nice things.”
The coaches were also eager to see Hooper in action.
“He worked hard,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “He wasn’t able to participate in the OTAs, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t learning that was taking place. But there’s nothing that can take the place of the on-the-field work.”
The minicamp will provide Hooper’s a good conditioning test.
“He’ll be tired come Thursday,” Quinn said. “We are getting him a lot of reps and a lot of turns to see where he’s at heading into training camp.”
Veteran tight end Jacob Tamme has welcomed Hooper in the group.
“He’s done a great job as an older and savvy veteran coaching me up,” Hooper said. “Coach (Wade) Harman has done a tremendous job with me. Jacob has also been like my second coach. I’m essentially the new guy here so they’ve all done a great job of helping me.”
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