Entering his third season in the NFL, 2023 third-round pick and quarterback, Hendon Hooker, might be on the chopping block.
Hooker showed some flashes when he finally took the field in the preseason in 2024, but those flashes were hardly enough to say the Tennessee product could keep the team afloat if Jared Goff were to get hurt.
Then, the Lions pretty much showed they agreed late in the season when the team signed Teddy Bridgewater to replace Hooker as the backup to Goff.
Fast forward to 2025 and Hooker is coming off two lackluster performances over the Lions' two exhibition contests, with his showing on Friday night against the Atlanta Falcons being particularly bad.
Hooker, who didn't lead a single scoring drive over his quarter-plus of action, lost two fumbles and the Lions pulled him from the contest early as a result.
Meanwhile, Kyle Allen was impressive, with the veteran immediately leading the Lions on a touchdown drive upon entering the game and finishing with a pair of touchdown passes and a perfect passer rating.
In their latest 53-man roster projection, Pride of Detroit's Jeremy Reisman and Erik Schlitt predicted Hooker would not make the cut on the team's initial 53-man roster.
Erik: Kyle Allen’s perfect QB rating in the Lions’ win over the Falcons helped vault him ahead of Hooker in the QB2 battle, but with two preseason games remaining, there’s still plenty of time for this competition to flip again. Hooker’s arguably the more talented of the two quarterbacks, but he’s struggling to settle down his nerves, and will need to stop turning the ball over if he hopes to have a chance to win the job.
As Schlitt notes, Hooker still has two more preseason games to right the ship, but it's hard to have confidence in him being able to do that after what we've seen.
Unfortunately for the Lions, they no longer have the Bridgewater card to play after he signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, so it's Allen or Hooker in Detroit and right now Allen looks to be in the driver's seat.
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