As the Detroit Lions move toward final cuts to a 53-man roster going into the season next week, the question of if they'll keep two or three quarterbacks is out there. There's a path to keeping a quarterback on the practice squad as an emergency option, but Detroit's situation behind Jared Goff is still to be determined.
On Tuesday, head coach Dan Campbell kept the door open to keeping three quarterbacks on the active roster going into the season.
"Ultimately you need to know, you have to have conviction that whoever that guy is going to be able to keep this ship afloat,” Campbell said. “And what we know about Hooker is: Hooker is a young developing quarterback and he needs reps and he needs time. I do know that. And Nate, right now, has the upper hand because he’s played more. He’s been in it more, he’s seen it more. And so with that, that would tell you there’s a good chance you could keep three (quarterbacks on the 53-man roster). Am I going to say that’s 100 percent certain right now? No. But that’s kind of what you look at.”
The idea that Sudfeld has "played more" or "seen more" still feels flimsy. He has 37 regular season pass attempts entering his ninth season. But the Lions clearly value what he brings to the quarterback room, even if they'd secretly be praying he'd never have to play if he was the QB2.
Lions hoping to start Hendon Hooker in preseason finale
If not for missing a couple days of practice in concussion protocol after being injured in the preseason opener, Hendon Hooker might have started the second preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Campbell confirmed that on Tuesday. With some good and bad in his performance, and despite Campbell being unwilling to remove Sudfeld from the conversation just yet, Hooker did what he had to do to win the No. 2 quarterback spot against the Chiefs.
It's fair to assume the plan would be to start Hooker in the preseason finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers, on the sheer idea of getting him reps. Campbell confirmed that too.
"We’d love to get him a lot of reps this week. I think the idea would be, you’d love to start him this week. I’d like to start him, and then it’s just a matter of how much does he play. Is it a couple of series and then Nate (Sudfeld) goes in and then (Hooker)’s back? Or is it a quarter or is it a half? But he’s going to get a really good look. He’s going to get a lot of reps this week because he needs them.”
It should come down to the semantics of keeping two or three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster, more than who the No. 2 quarterback is for the Lions going into the season. Only an injury should keep Hooker from being ahead of Sudfeld on the depth chart.