The Lions brought Teddy Bridgewater out of his quasi-retirement last December, clearly feeling the need to fortify their QB room for the end of the regular season and the playoffs. While head coach Dan Campbell tried to downplay the notion that the Bridgewater addition signified a lack of faith in 2023 draftee Hendon Hooker – who had served as Jared Goff‘s backup to that point in the 2024 campaign – Hooker was not automatically returned to the QB2 post this year.
Instead, Detroit signed Kyle Allen in March, and Campbell said a competition for the backup job would commence. At the moment, Allen is decisively winning that competition and therefore appears to be in line to open the season behind Goff on the depth chart.
In the Lions’ preseason game against the Dolphins on Saturday, Allen got the start and completed 14 of 17 passes for 124 yards and two touchdowns, including a score at the end of a well-constructed two-minute drill (h/t Dave Brikett of the Detroit Free Press).
Hooker, by contrast, completed six of 13 passes for 61 yards and an interception. As Birkett observes, the Miami game represented the third time in three preseason contests – Detroit was one of the participants in the Hall of Fame Game – that Allen has outplayed Hooker, a fact Campbell acknowledged when addressing the media afterwards.
“He’s playing better,” Campbell said of Allen (via Birkett). “So I would say that right now, if you’re saying – if you had to go in with a [QB2] right now, who would you trust more? Yeah, I would trust Kyle more because he’s proven more after these two games. But I’m still – we’re still going to coach Hooker up and we’re still going to see what’s there and see if we can get him better. I mean, we still got a little bit here.”
It is fair to wonder how much another week or so of coaching will improve Hooker’s stock with the organization. Entering the NFL after a November 2022 ACL tear dinged his prospect status, Hooker was the fifth quarterback chosen that year. Rumblings about first- and second-round landing spots circulated before that draft, but the once-surging University of Tennessee QB tumbled into Round 3.
Two years remain on Hooker’s rookie contract, and although he is entering just his third professional season, he is now 27. The fact that he seems to be losing ground to the 29-year-old Allen, who has become a nomadic backup/third-stringer since a 12-start audition in 2019, is a disappointing development.
Campbell went on to say Hooker may get the start in next week’s preseason finale against the Texans. At the very least, he will get an extended look as he fights for his place on the club.
Under Campbell, the Lions have made a habit of carrying only two passers on the 53-man roster.
Water is wet
The unusual Tennessee offense has had a difficult time translating their amateurs to professionals this decade. It is speculated that this is why Nico Iamaleava transferred.
Hyatt can’t see the field either for the Giants.
Maybe now people will stop holding onto dreams of Hooker being a starter one day just because a few writers were convinced he might be a first rounder for like a week. Seems like a good guy, but he’s almost a year older than Jordan Love and his team still doesn’t trust him to be second string.
Hey look! Another Holmes reach! Everyone made fun of the Lions for Hooker. And TeSlaa. And Manuu. And Rakestraw.
To be fair: people made fun of Gibbs, Williams, Campbell and he nailed those ones.
Dude has balls the size of church bells and doesn’t mind being wrong. Which he is a fair bit. 😂
Who made fun of him for Rakestraw? People liked that pick. People didn’t make fun of him for Hooker either. He was worth a roll of the dice in the third round even if it looks like a total miss.
Hooker was old as hell coming into the league and had shown zero ability to play the position past read options and designed quarter field reads. His accuracy was suspect. He was a day 3 or UDFA whom a few analysts liked because he had physical intangibles. But he was super old. Not a good combo.
And Rakestraw’s draft profile was as a high performer. At Missouri IIRC? His physical intangibles were not good coming into the league. Also rich for a day 2 pick.
That said, my GM, whom I like, drafted a bust of a WR, TE, and OL in 3 consecutive 3rd rounds. All GMs blow picks. That was my point. Holmes reached. And he should take the crap for being wrong. But he also has had some good picks that he needs to take a bow for.
Agreed about all those Hooker downsides now and at the time, but he showed enough upside to be worth a swing in the third. Rakestraw was a good value according to the consensus big board. The Lions didn’t reach for him. Getting injured now doesn’t mean he was a reach then.
Yeah, Hooker’s injury really set him back, too. There’s still some time-I don’t think that it’s set that Hooker will get cut right now, either. Two years are left on his rookie deal, and he’s not earning any performance escalators, so it’s still cheap. The Lions definitely want to find a long term younger guy to have a successor to Goff I think. I don’t think that they want to push Goff out by any means, but they probably would prefer to have a young guy in the wings as well. That was the logic with Hooker-he wasn’t going to be the Day One guy, he was always going to be developmental, but you’d hope that he could have been the number two by now.
Allen might be good now, but I doubt that he’s a guy that you hold on to for several years. Hooker is going in the opposite direction right now, and is 27, but as a recent draft pick, I think he might get another chance and the book isn’t closed just yet. If his next outing is awful, though, it might be more to recover from than is possible. He’s not on the roster for the same reason that Allen is, but the Lions need to believe that there’s some future value in having him there that’s worth keeping. Like I said, that injury I think really, really hurt his development. There’s still a chance, though.
No one ever holds onto Kyle Allen for long.
Last year some dude was on here going wild about how hooker was going to overtake Goff how he’s a better qb blah blah blah lol wish I remember his name.
I remember that. I also remember Rakestraw’s feistyness being lauded. I always thought the dude was not going to be a good CB at the NFL level.
Neither are good, they better hope the oline can stay healthy for Goff.
They’d better hope Goff has figured out how to perform under duress is my thought… and not get hurt. Behind that OL he might. Dude can’t escape the pocket.
That’s going to be a bigger problem, I think, than the QB issue. The Lions have great bookends, and they have overall what should be a good line, but Ragnow was a truly great player that they lost. Glasgow is a vet and has been good in the past, but his move to center be something to monitor as the year goes on. I still feel like it’s not long term after this year, and that Detroit will find a longer lasting solution-unless Glasgow just nails a position move that in his career (which certainly could happen).