Dislocated finger on throwing hand and a spine made of jelly; Lions QB Hooker getting right ahead of preseason debut

Allen Park — The biggest storyline of the Detroit Lions’ offseason is whether the team is capable of repeating and exceeding its success from last year, ideally capturing the franchise’s first Super Bowl title.

Any other year, backup quarterback Hendon Hooker might be the main attraction of training camp. And he’s all but a lock to be the most compelling player to watch in the preseason opener against the New York Giants. That would still be the case even if most of the roster’s starters weren’t expected to be held out after a pair of joint practices with the Giants earlier that week.

Hooker is the most interesting backup QB the Lions have had in years. A Heisman front-runner late in the 2022 season, the combination of advanced age and a torn ACL caused him to tumble to the third round of the draft, directly into the Lions’ lap. The addition presumably would solve the team’s longtime need for a high-ceiling backup through the 2026 season.

Hooker essentially redshirted his rookie year as he rehabbed from the ACL injury, serving as an emergency QB the second half of the year, but never getting close to getting into a game.

When he takes a snap against the Giants on Aug. 8, it will be his first game action in nearly 23 months. Is he brimming with anticipation? Absolutely. He’d be lying if he said otherwise. But when you’re in the heart of the most critical developmental stretch on the NFL calendar, you can’t afford to think too far ahead. You have to be present in the moment, giving everything to each meeting, each film session, each walkthrough and each practice rep.

Hooker’s camp has been up and down, but you can see the potential. He’s got a strong arm and a quick release, at least when he doesn’t get caught holding on to the ball too long. Earlier this week, he released one of the best throws anyone will make this offseason, threading a red zone post pattern over the head of the underneath safety and just out of the reach of the cornerback in coverage, hitting receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones in stride just in front of the end zone’s back line.

Hooker looks so much better than he did during OTAs and mandatory minicamp in May and June, when his accuracy at all depths was wildly inconsistent. It turns out, there was a reason for that.

“A lot of people don't know, I dislocated my finger in OTAs,” Hooker said. “I dislocated my finger in the first practice, so those OTAs, I couldn't control the ball like I wanted to. It was my ring finger. That's what's going on the laces. That's how I control the ball, even if other quarterbacks might not control the ball that way. That affected my ball a lot. So I'm trying to get back into my rhythm, ripping the ball.”

Add that issue to the process of reworking his footwork and adjusting to the depth of NFL dropbacks — compared to the one-step stuff he was doing at Tennessee — and suddenly those early struggles make so much more sense.

In camp, Hooker still has some accuracy issues, but it almost always seems to be at its worst during the early portions of practice. There’s a reason for that, too, and it’s something he has more control over and has made his primary focus as he barrels toward his preseason debut.

“I really need to relax,” Hooker said. “Every day, when I get out there, JG (Goff) tells me, "C'mon, man. You've got to relax.' I smile because I know I'm so excited and so tensed up. 

“…It's tough because I'm so excited. I have to dial it down. I always tell myself, ‘Your spine is jelly, just stay loose.’ You might see me doing a little dance with my arms just reminding myself to stay loose. That's the biggest thing right now is staying confident and relaxing.”

Maybe it helps that Hooker isn’t a threat to the starting job, or more than likely it’s just who Goff is as a leader, but Hooker said the support from the veterans in his room has been unbelievable. That includes Nate Sudfeld, who is off to a strong start to his camp and figures to push Hooker for the job until the finish line.

“Look, that’s a competition,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said. “It is. We like both of those guys, but there is a reason Nate’s here. Nate has played before, he’s got a lot of experience and that’s what he’s got. He’s got more years and a little bit more experience, certainly, than Hooker does.

“At the end of the day, both of those guys are going to roll between the twos and threes, and by the time we get to the end of camp, we need to know who our two is,” Campbell said. “We’re not going to have our two be somebody we don’t trust in the moment.”