Back at West Sioux High School in Iowa, Hunter Dekkers dominated in football, basketball, baseball and track. That success would ultimately lead him to Iowa State where he earned the starting role as the quarterback of the Cyclones.
Following an issue involving online gambling sting that resulted in Dekkers being suspended, the gunslinger would up in junior college at powerhouse Iowa Western. He led the Reivers to a national title game appearance and entered the NFL Draft this past year.
While going undrafted, Dekkers landed with the New Orleans Saints as a rookie free agent invited to rookie minicamp. Kellen Moore, a former standout quarterback himself in his first season as head coach of the Saints, gave the team a chance to end final practice session early.
So he gave Juwan Johnson the opportunity to select who he thought could sink a 3-pointer and send the players off to a local golf driving range. He picked Dekkers, who calmly stepped to the line and sank the shot on his first attempt.
“Hunter Dekkers made a 3-pointer in the team meeting, and so we chose to go to Five O Fore Golf and spend some time as a team,” Moore told reporters (thanks to Saints Wire for the quotes). “So it’s been awesome. He made it, he had confidence, he let it go. He’s got a little high school basketball in his background, so no one was surprised.”
The 6-foot-2 Dekkers, who was born on the Fourth of July, replaced Brock Purdy at Iowa State. He was 4-8 as a starter, throwing for over 3,000 yards with 19 touchdowns. In his one season at Iowa Western, he went 11-2 and had 3,806 yards with 32 touchdowns.
After the sudden retirement of Derek Carr, Dekkers signed with the Saints in early May.
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