the length of time if took me to mow my lawn this morning.

None. A QB who is not even on campus has no bearing on what our QB race looks like in 2018. If Hooker is the best QB this year, he will play. If next year, Patterson is better, then Hooker will be unseated and Hooker will be on the bench. If it takes Patterson a year to pick things up and it isn't until 2019 that he is the better choice at QB, then that is when Patterson unseats Hooker.

If Patterson never plays or only gets a year to play because Hooker is too good, then so be it.

The best QB on the team will be the QB on the field. Period. The one possible exception is that if it's close but Hooker has the upside to be the better QB after a few weeks, then we MAY go with Hooker over Jackson even if Jackson is slightly better. And even then... I think we go with Jackson.