The thing about cut down season is that there’s always going to be some big surprises. The Detroit Lions had a pretty big one on Tuesday when they released Nate Sudfeld.
Look, we get it, Sudfeld looked really bad. You can understand why this is happening from an on the field standpoint. Where it gets to the surprising part of things is that Dan Campbell and the Lions have been telling us all summer long that the team would probably carry three quarterbacks because they didn’t feel like Hendon Hooker was ready to be QB2. They said that as recently as this week.
“Honestly, I feel like – and this includes (Lions QB Jake) Fromm, I mean, they’ve all shown something a little bit different. Look, let’s start with (Lions QB Hendon) Hooker, you want to know – plain and simple, it’s hard for me to just jump right in the – let’s just jump right in and say, ‘Man, you feel great at number two.’ I think of him as, ‘Is he growing?’ Literally, that’s where my mind goes first is, ‘Is he growing, is he developing?’ Yes, he is, he got better because he got reps. Alright, that’s good.”
When we tell you all summer, we mean all summer. That quote is from Monday. It’s hard to believe that after an entire summer of them not being ready, they decided less than 24 hours later that they are. To me, this doesn’t mean that Hendon Hooker has the number two spot and it doesn’t mean Jake Fromm does either.
I think it means the Lions are going to be on the lookout for a quarterback this week. Preferably a guy that can take that QB2 spot and hold it down for at least this season. Bailey Zappe is someone we’ve brought up already, but there’s other guys to watch. Tyler Huntley could be out with the Browns, John Wolford could be out with the Bucs. There will be options.
Pay attention to what the Lions do at quarterback in the next couple days. A move could be coming.