Pick a player, any player, who's yet to play for the Lions who you can’t wait to see on the field in 2024. Answers vary, from Terrion Arnold to DJ Reader to Ennis Rakestraw. For Gator, it's Hendon Hooker, and "my reasoning is simple: He was the best quarterback in college football before he got hurt."
That was in 2022, before the Lions drafted Hooker in the third round of last year's draft. He was a Heisman candidate who had thrown 27 touchdowns to two interceptions, with five more rushing touchdowns, before he tore his ACL late in the season. All told over two seasons at Tennessee, Hooker threw for 6,080 yards and 58 touchdowns to five picks and rushed for 1,050 yards and 10 touchdowns.
While Jared Goff is clearly QB1 in Detroit, Gator says he's "dying to hear and see what Hooker looks like" this summer after he spent most of last season rehabbing from surgery: "Does he have a grasp on the offense now? Is he going to look like a deer in the headlights or is he going to look competent and like he can handle the position? That’s what I want to see."
"Because you know he’s got the physical tools, he’s got the ability. I’m not expecting him to unseat Jared Goff. I’m expecting him to be the guy who looks like he can step in if Goff gets hurt."
To that end, Karsch says Hooker, who turned 26 in January, "is an incredibly important Detroit Lion" this season and moving forward: "If I’m trying to win a Super Bowl, I need a quality backup quarterback. I need somebody who can win a game on short notice because my guy got banged up."
And while Goff has started all 17 games for the Lions each of the past two seasons, plus three more in the playoffs last season, "I am not foolish enough to expect our quarterback to make it through 17 games for the (third) year in a row," says Karsch. "You don’t get to decide if your quarterback gets hurt or not, and I’m scared that we got lucky. Last year, half the quarterbacks in the league missed time."
The only other quarterback on the Lions' roster is Nate Sudfeld after the retirement of last year's backup Teddy Bridgewater, and Karsch questions whether "Sudfeld can be the difference. I can’t even imagine him being the solution as a quality backup quarterback. Quite frankly, I question why he’s here."
Gator says that "if things look good" for Hooker in preseason games, "I think that’s a big sigh of relief because it will look like they have found their backup quarterback. I can’t imagine that Sudfeld is that guy to instill confidence, and I feel like that’s exactly why they drafted Hendon hooker: to instill confidence."