Brad Holmes was impressed from the moment he watched Hendon Hooker play in person. The GM of the Lions saw things "that you can't see on tape," he said. It was last September, in a clash between Tennessee and Florida and two of the top quarterbacks in the draft. Hooker led the Vols over Anthony Richardson and the Gators.
Hooker: 22-28 for 349 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, plus 112 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Richardson: 24-44 for 453 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, plus 62 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. For Holmes, it wasn't so much Hooker's numbers, impressive as they were. It was the way he was running -- commanding -- Tennessee's high-tempo offense.
"There were things that I saw in that live game that you can’t see on tape," said Holmes. "It was his urgency and his tempo throughout the game. He was playing violent in the run game and violent in the passing game. I just like the nature of the way he was playing."
And then there was everything that Holmes noticed on the periphery, the "little things that stood out to me," he said, like Hooker "standing on the sideline waiting to congratulate his extra-point team" after a touchdown instead of immediately putting on his headset and tuning out his teammates. Holmes walked away from Knoxville that afternoon thinking Hooker might be destined for Detroit.
Six months later, Holmes and the Lions drafted Hooker 68th overall -- the biggest swing this organization has taken on a quarterback since drafting Matthew Stafford first overall in 2009.
"He’s just a good football player and if he wasn’t, we wouldn’t have acquired him," Holmes said Friday night. "He’s a good person. He’s smart. He's very talented. He’s had a unique journey and he’s overcome. He just has to get healthy. I believe that we have the right situation for him, where he can just sit back, develop and get healthy. But we’re excited about his upside.”
Hooker's Heisman-caliber season -- he would finish fifth in the voting -- came to a screeching halt last November when he tore his ACL in then-No. 5 Tennessee's loss to South Carolina. He limped off the field and into the future, a sad conclusion to a scintillating campaign. But Hooker's story may be just getting started. The next chapter will be written in Detroit.
"He has all the physical traits with size, athletic ability, throwing, and that’s only a fraction of it," said Holmes. "He’s got the intangible qualities for the position."
Hooker's numbers over two seasons at Tennessee, after he transferred from Virginia Tech, speak for themselves: 58 touchdowns to five interceptions, 6,000-plus passing yards, 1,000-plus rushing yards. Some will attribute his gaudy statistics to the Vols' offense under head coach Josh Heupel, which asked Hooker to make simple reads and high-percentage throws to a cast of NFL receivers. That's part of the reason Holmes wanted to see Hooker play for himself, and why the Lions later brought him in for a pre-draft visit.
"We did a lot of research into what they were asking him to do," said Holmes. "It’s a different offense, a lot different than what is being run in the NFL when it comes to splits and all that. That was a real, big deep-dive that we did for a long time, starting way back during the season. We felt comfortable with it, we spoke with all his coaches, brought him in and that’s why we went ahead and pulled the trigger on him.”
The Lions are not trying to replace Jared Goff. He was a top-10 quarterback in the NFL last season, he's 28 years old and he's signed through 2024. No one is more committed to Goff than Holmes, who brought him here to begin with. It's Goff's strong play that allows Detroit to take on more of a project behind him.
By drafting Hooker, the Lions are trying to deepen the quarterbacks room, as Holmes said he would, with a developmental player who could blossom into something better. More immediately, they're trying to improve their insurance for Goff as their window opens in the NFC. Whenever Hooker returns to full health, he should be a considerable upgrade over current QB2 Nate Sudfeld.
"There’s definitely merit in (drafting a quarterback), but you’ve got to be in position to do it," said Holmes. "When Dan (Campbell) and I got here, we started from the studs, man. We started from the ground up. The fact that Jared has been playing as well as he has, and we’ve had so many things to address, and I put that on me, we just haven’t been in the best position to address that backup quarterback position as much as I would’ve liked.
"I finally feel like we’re at a point in the roster where we were able to make a move like this. It feels good to be there.”
For Hooker, the first step is getting healthy. He recently started running again and he said his knee has been pain-free for a while: "Getting back on the field and being able to move around, it feels great." Neither he nor the Lions are interested in putting a timeline on his recovery, but Holmes said he's "very, very happy" with Hooker's medical reports, which "made us feel even more confident about where he’s at." For now, it's one day a time.
Looking further ahead, Hooker is eager to team up with Goff and soak up all the knowledge he can.
"To be a sponge," he said, "to come in and learn everything, every nuance, how to be a pro, first and foremost. And then, just admire him. He’s been in the league for a long time and he’s done a great job of developing every year. He’s been able to get better and better, and that’s all you can ask for.
"I’m definitely going to be picking his brain whenever I can. I hope I don’t get annoying to him, but I’m just that kind of person. I just want to get in and do my job and continue to get better day by day.”
What the Lions have in Hooker remains to be seen. He has the tools to one day be a star, the foot speed and the arm strength to thrive in today's NFL. He was viewed as a potential first-round pick, which is where he might have gone if not for his injury. The Lions did well to get him in the third. Hooker could just as soon wash out. His age doesn't work in his favor. The injury is an obvious hindrance. And if he turns into nothing more than a quality backup, you get the sense that Holmes and the Lions will take it.
Even that would be an upgrade over what they have now, and what this team has had in a while. The Hook, of course, is that they might have something more.
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