Hendon Hooker flashed his upside before leaving the preseason opener against the New York Giants due to a concussion. The second preseason game, after having cleared concussion protocol, was going to be about showing more progress.
Not that the problem, concern, etc. didn't exist from very early in training camp. But if Hooker couldn't win the No. 2 quarterback spot, Nate Sudfeld would win it by default and be one snap away from having to play. Sudfeld's performance against the Giants only reinforced the concern, as easily reflected by 37 career regular season pass attempts over eight seasons to this point.
So ideally, a healthy Hooker would assert himself against the Chiefs and put to bed any idea that Sudfeld would be the first quarterback off the bench if anything happened to Jared Goff. Otherwise, a move to add someone else would have to be on the radar.
Hendon Hooker won the backup quarterback job with performance against the Chiefs
Sudfeld started and played the entire first half against the Chiefs on Saturday. And, however skewed by a 61-yard touchdown to Kaden Davis, it's not even that he was bad (14-for-27, 196 yards, one touchdown, one interception). But he also showed signs of why he's not the answer as a No. 2 quarterback, as everyone eagerly awaited when Hooker would play.
Hooker took the field after halftime. He missed on his first two throws, including one where he air-mailed an open Daurice Fountain badly. From that point on, he went 12-for-13 for 150 yards with a rushing touchdown.
To be frank, Hooker wasn't flawless against the Chiefs. He still holds the ball too long sometimes, and a botched handoff with Zonovan Knight deep in the red zone with the game on the line late was not ideal. But he bounced back on what ended up being the game-winning drive, hitting Tom Kennedy for a 14-yard gain to set up Jake Bates' 43-yard walk-off field goal.
It was a serious step of growth to shake off mistakes, and Hooker's overall performance had to be exactly what the Lions wanted to see.
After the game, head coach Dan Campbell more or less said exactly that.
"It's all-encompassing. It's the experience of it. Not only just running the show, but the ebbs and flows. The big part of this is the mistakes he's making and having to come back in. Or, the next play, he's got to put the last one behind him or put the last drive behind him (if it) wasn't good. Ultimately, the drive before the winner, we mess some things up. He made a few errors. More than a few. But then he comes back the last drive, he's got to put it behind (him) and he cleans it up. He moves the football, learns from it and that was excellent. Every time he gets a chance to take the reps and grow from it, we're going to be better off. He's going to be better off."
The Lions clearly value what Sudfeld brings to the quarterback room intangibly, which opens the door to him being on the 53-man roster or ending up back on the practice squad. But Hooker won the No. 2 spot on the depth chart with his showing against the Chiefs, just as Campbell called for him to do (without the precise timing of when he had to do it) back when training camp started.