Hendon Hooker made his much-anticipated debut on Thursday night in the Detroit Lions' preseason opener against the New York Giants, and injury aside, it was a promising showing from the second-year signal-caller.
Hooker completed 5-of-9 passes for 36 yards and showed off his athleticism with four carries for 34 yards. One of those carries displayed Hooker's toughness after he trucked a Giants defensive back to pick up extra yards. However, that might have been the play in which he suffered a concussion.
The Tennessee product's first drive came in the third quarter and ended after just five plays and 17 yards. But his second drive was where he really made things happen, leading to a 14-play, 88-yard series that fell just short of the end zone following a failed fourth-down attempt.
Hendon Hooker lowering the boom to get the first down! 😳
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"Yeah, he moved the ball," Campbell said of Hooker, according to Kevin Patra of NFL.com. "He moved the ball and that's really the best I can say to this point. He was moving the football, I thought he made some solid decisions before that. A lot of those were the runs, so he made it happen with his legs, but to the point where we were at, we didn't convert on the fourth down, but it was good to get him in there. You were excited for the next series and then we found out what had happened. So, it was good, he was moving."
While Hooker's legs shined, he definitely looked comfortable in the pocket and made some good decisions with his arm, also. Making it more impressive was the fact that this was his first live game action in the NFL. Most importantly, he easily outshined Nate Sudfeld, his competition for the backup job behind Jared Goff.
Unfortunately, as we mentioned, Hooker wasn't able to finish the game after he sustained a concussion.
"Well, that's what happens when you run," Campbell said. "In this league at the quarterback position, I mean you're going to take some hits, and so you've got to be real selective. He's going to have to learn to be selective, he's going to need to slide, so some of those things, if he is going to use more of his legs it's good, it gets you out of trouble, but that's the downside of it. You expose yourself to hits. I think him being able to do some of that would be good for his game, but certainly, yeah, we need to limit that, and he's got to play in the pocket and make some throws there."
Hopefully Hooker is OK and doesn't have to miss a lot of time, because he no doubt closed the gap between himself and Sudfeld after the latter had been the more consistent one throughout the offseason.
