It was only a practice, but Hendon Hooker was too excited to sleep Tuesday night after learning that he'd be on the field and in pads with his teammates for the first time. The Lions opened Hooker's practice window Wednesday a year after he tore his ACL at Tennessee, giving them three weeks to either add the rookie quarterback to the active roster or shut him down for the season.
Hooker said the biggest hurdle in getting back on the field was "just calming my nerves."
"I’m so excited. Like, ‘Calm down, calm down. You’ve done this before,'" he said. "That’s the biggest thing for me. ... I couldn’t sleep. I was too excited. Everybody around me was very excited, so I was just trying to be the calming piece.”
Hooker was having a Heisman-caliber campaign last year prior to his injury. The 25-year-old has spent his first season in Detroit on the sidelines, barred by NFL rules from even throwing passes in shoulder pads. He was limited to throwing to stationary targets after practice, which, "being a competitor," said Hooker, " was tough."
“You want to get out there and compete and have fun and do what you love doing: play football," he said.
Once he settled down Wednesday, Hooker said he had "a blast." He was able to "run through plays and communicate with the guys, just asking them what they’re seeing on the field.” The Lions have high hopes for the quarterback they took in the third round of this year's draft, whether or not they view him as the eventual successor to Jared Goff.
“I know he’s excited to be out there," said Goff. "It’s good to see him out there in a jersey and tossing it around. I know it’s been a long time coming for him.”
Physically, Hooker said his biggest adjustment was getting re-accustomed to throwing in shoulder pads. Once he gets over that hump, "I’ll be rocking and rolling," he said. Asked if the groove he was in last season feels like a long time ago, Hooker smiled, shook his head and said, "I feel good. Today."
Hooker threw for 58 touchdowns to five interceptions and ran for 1,050 yards and 10 touchdowns in his two seasons at Tennessee. He said he's focused on "continuing to build my legs and my mental positive direction to get back to a better me" in his return from injury.
"And now that I'm actually able to go through practice and run through the plays and get under center and actually take some snaps -- which has been a little bit foreign since I’ve been playing shotgun the past six years -- it just feels good to actually be a baller again," Hooker said.
His goal for the next six weeks, assuming the Lions add him to the active roster, is simple: "Just get better. Consistently get out there and compete against the defense and show them that I belong."