The Detroit Lions re-signed quarterbacks Tim Boyle and David Blough as free agents this spring, hoping one or both would develop into a reliable backup for Jared Goff.
When it was apparent that was not going to happen in training camp, Lions general manager Brad Holmes said he pondered a few trade possibilities before deciding to go an entirely different direction when rosters shrank to 53 players this week.
“Even with Tim being that the wins didn’t come in the games that he played (last season), but those were the first games that he ever played in his entire life, we saw some things that encouraged us to keep working with him,” Holmes said Thursday. “And then bringing back Blough and he’s got previous experience, so we had the plan in place, we felt good about it. They just didn’t quite make the jump that we expected them to make and so you just got to make some tough decisions and you just got to just find the best solution for you.”
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The Lions waived Boyle, who went 0-3 as a fill-in starter for Goff last season, on Tuesday and kept Blough on their initial 53-man roster. On Wednesday, they waived Blough to make room for new backup Nate Sudfeld.
The Lions could add another quarterback to their practice squad — Blough was expected to turn down the opportunity — but Sudfeld will enter the season as the Lions’ unquestioned No. 2 quarterback even though he has only 37 pass attempts in his six-year NFL career.
Holmes said Thursday “every avenue was looked at and exhausted” as the Lions waged a backup quarterback battle in training camp.
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Blough and Boyle alternated days working with the second-team offense, and both quarterbacks started one preseason game. Blough finished 51-for-82 passing this preseason for 377 yards with two touchdowns and two turnovers. Boyle was 26-for-46 for 274 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions; he struggled mightily in the Lions’ preseason finale Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“We had a plan in place for the backup quarterback position and it kind of took a detour that was unexpected, but you got to be prepared for that and we just kind of made it work the best way we can,” Holmes said. “We did what’s best for the organization at this time. Not saying that there’s a lot of different options you can go. You can trade a bunch of draft capital for a backup quarterback. I mean, there’s a lot of different options you can go, but we did the best thing for the Detroit Lions.”
Sudfeld, a sixth-round pick by Washington in 2016 out of Indiana, has lived the typical journeyman life as a backup quarterback in the NFL,
He spent one season in Washington, four with the Philadelphia Eagles — with whom he was a backup to Nick Foles during the Eagles’ Super Bowl run — and last year with the San Francisco 49ers before taking a red eye to Detroit on Tuesday night.
Sudfeld’s only regular-season playing experience came as a backup with the Eagles in 2017-18 and 2020, when he appeared in four games and completed 25 of 37 passes for 188 yards.
Deemed the fourth quarterback in San Francisco after the 49ers agreed to a restructured contract with Jimmy Garoppolo this week, Sudfeld said he felt like he was released as part of a numbers crunch with the team, though no one from the organization explained the decision to him.
“Sometimes you’re released and you feel like you weren’t playing very well and you’re like, ‘I need to get better,'” Sudfeld said. “And then sometimes you feel like you were playing well and it’s kind of a numbers game, and it just doesn’t work out. So yeah, it’s important for guys to not lose their confidence because it can be disappointing to hear, ‘Oh yeah, you’re not here anymore, go somewhere else.’ But oftentimes it’s kind of just how the game works with the numbers and with situation and with guys they’re invested in and things like that.”
After landing in Detroit around 5 a.m. Wednesday, Sudfeld said he went straight to the Lions’ Allen Park practice facility for a physical, meetings and practice.
“I was going off about an hour of flight sleep, but last night I was able to get like nine hours of sleep, so I felt really good today,” he said. “It’s happened fast, but I’m super-pumped to be here.”
Sudfeld said he will spend the next week getting to learn what Goff wants from his backup.
Sudfeld and Goff have known each other for years. Both grew up in northern California and shared a quarterback coach in high school, both were part of the 2016 draft class, and both share an agent and offseason training facility now.
Sudfeld called his career “a beautiful journey that I’ve been fortunate to be a part of,” and Holmes said he is confident the Lions are well-insured at the quarterback spot with Sudfeld in place.
“There a little bit of risk (waiting this long to find a backup) and is it foolproof and absolutely know? I have too much respect for the unknown to really not say that there’s a little bit of that,” Holmes said. “But I think we got the plan in place where Nate will get caught up to speed and we’ll be in good shape.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett. Read more on the Detroit Lions and sign up for our Lions newsletter.