The Detroit Lions have their backup quarterback in Hendon Hooker. He’s got the job despite a summer of the Lions telling anyone that would listen that he’s not ready yet. Turns out he is ready.
Hooker showed a lot of good stuff in the preseason with some smart decision making, good throws and exciting scrambles. There was still some stuff that needs to be worked on like holding onto the ball too long and then overcorrecting on holding on to the ball too long, but he showed enough to get the job.
Pro Football Network’s Dallas Robinson doesn’t seem to feel the same way though. He put out a ranking of every QB2 in the league and Hooker was ranked 24th out of 32. Unfortunately Robinson doesn’t really give an explanation as to why Hooker is ranked so low, so it’s hard to understand why he put him there.
While I’ve have been pretty open that I believe Hooker needs more time and more reps before he’s thrown in the second spot, I think he’s shown enough to be be ranked over some of the guys that are put over him on this list. Here’s some of them and why Hooker is better.
Joshua Dobbs. The way that everyone took to Dobbs last season was crazy. It was impressive that he came into that game with the Vikings and helped the team win despite just getting there earlier that week, but everyone just ignore how bad he was other than that. He was benched just a few weeks later. There’s a reason this guy has been on nine teams in seven years.
Tyson Bagent? Really? I don’t know what Robinson saw there with Bagent, he was pretty bad in his four games with the Bears. He threw six interceptions and fumbled three times. He’s at 14 on this list.
Kenny Pickett might be the worst quarterback in the NFL. I don’t think that’s hyperbole to say that. How do you start 24 games and throw just 13 touchdowns? How is that possible? He went on a nine game streak in which he just threw two touchdowns in that time. There is no way Hooker is not better than this guy.
Hopefully we won’t have to see Hooker play this year unless he gets put in during the fourth quarter of a blowout win, but I think we’ve seen enough from him to at least get him in that top 20 area. Maybe next year he’ll be even higher.