The Detroit Lions have been one of the NFL’s most successful franchises over the past two years. The Lions reached the NFC Championship Game in 2023, cruised to a 15-2 record last season and enter next season with the fifth-best odds (+1000) to win the Super Bowl according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
A team doesn’t get to this point overnight and Lions fans have dealt with a lot of losing to get here. But it also comes from the success of the team’s draft picks. Aidan Hutchinson, Amon-Ra St. Brown and Kerby Joseph are just some of the homegrown players that have fueled Detroit the past two seasons and there could be more on the way in the Lions 2025 draft class.
But while most picks have succeeded during Brad Holmes’s tenure, there are a few that haven’t panned out. One in particular will be fighting for his job in the coming weeks and enters offseason team activities (OTA) firmly on the roster bubble.
Lions QB Hendon Hooker Will Be Fighting for a Job in OTAs
The Lions selected Hendon Hooker in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft but his career hasn’t taken off in the same way it did at Tennessee. Hooker filled up the stat sheet after transferring from Virginia Tech early in his collegiate career and threw for 6,080 yards, 58 touchdowns and five interceptions in 24 career games.
That production earned his way onto an NFL roster, but he hasn’t had a chance to make an impact. Jared Goff is entrenched as the Lions’ franchise quarterback but Hooker didn’t get many on-field reps as he rehabbed from a torn ACL suffered in his final season with the Volunteers. With the injury behind him, last year was like a rookie year but Hooker couldn’t take hold of the backup job with the team signing Teddy Bridgewater late in the season.
Getting beat out by a former first-round pick isn’t a common occurrence for a third-round pick. But it’s alarming considering Bridgewater spent most of last season in retirement coaching his alma mater’s high school football team before joining the Lions last December. Holmes also sounded the alarm when he signed journeyman quarterback Brandon Allen earlier this offseason.
“Still got high hopes for him, but nobody’s going to be given a job, either,” Holmes said via The Detroit Free Press’s Dave Birkett. “So if Hendon wants to be the No. 2 quarterback, then win the No. 2 quarterback job.”
Holmes went on to call Allen “competition” for Hooker, but at age-27 and no NFL snaps to his resume, it’s easy to give the veteran a leg up entering OTAs. After two years of learning, Hooker must seize the moment during OTAs or risk becoming a failed draft pick in what has been a successful two-year stretch for the Lions.
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