It would not be out of character for the Lions to trade up in the first round. They’ve did it in 2022. The thing is that it’s a costly move to do it from pick 29 this time. When they moved up with the Vikings from the 32nd pick, it cost them a first, second and a third round pick to do so.
At the time that made sense for the Lions. They had a lot more picks that they could use. The Lions had eight draft picks that they could move and they were all significantly higher picks than they have now. Yes they traded the 32nd pick to move up, but they also had the 34th pick and the 66th pick paired with that. They don’t have a high pick to move this year. Becasue of that they might have to move a player if they want to get up near the top of the board. There’s only one player that will have teams super interested to make that move and that is Hendon Hooker.
Hear me out. This is going to be a quarterback driven draft near the top. Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels and J.J. McCarthy could all be gone before the 10th pick. That’s the way that NFL draft expert Daniel Jeremiah sees it in his latest mock draft.
That leaves the Vikings, Broncos, Raiders and Saints in the teens with lingering quarterback questions. Hooker represents a possible answer to that question. This is a guy that was expected to be a first round pick ahead of his ACL injury and he’s healthy and ready to be at a training camp in July.
But why would a team trade a first round pick for a third round guy that’s never played? I think people give front offices way too much credit on things. We’ve seen stuff like the Browns giving up four picks to move up one pick or the 49ers trading three first round picks to move up to get Trey Lance. Teams want to find their next franchise quarterback and there’s no limit to what they’ll do to try to make that happen.
Obviously the Lions would have to move picks along with Hooker to make a deal happen, but with a prospective quarterback of the future attached, they’re likely to have to move less picks than they would have if they traded up without Hooker attached.
For example, and this is just an example, I used the PFF mock draft simulator and traded the Denver Broncos the 29th pick, Hendon Hooker this years fifth and the fourth round pick the Lions got in the Swift trade and got the 12th pick back for it. Quinyon Mitchell was sitting right there. Life is obviously different from the simulator, but that’s a reasonable move and the Lions didn’t have to give up future firsts or even this years second or third to get it.
From the Lions perspective, this does put them in a position where they may have to draft a quarterback in 2024, but it also puts them in a spot where they can draft a guy that’s younger that they can build up over time while they play things out with Jared Goff who could get extended out to 2028. Hooker would be 30 years old at that time.
From Hooker’s perspective, he now has a chance to be a starter somewhere. The Lions drafted him to be a premium backup quarterback for Goff who they will likely have as their guy for a while now. Hooker can now have a chance to show that he can be more than that and he can do it before he gets too old. He’s already 26-years-old and hasn’t played a down of NFL football yet.
Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t like the Hooker pick when it happened. I still don’t particularly like it. But that doesn’t mean I think the Lions should make this move. I just think that if there were a player that they could move to trade up that teams would be interested in, and they’d be willing to move, Hooker would be the one that could get them their best return in that case.