No, Hendon Hooker is not the same age as Jared Goff. Nor is he a first-round pick. Or even a second-round pick.
Or the quarterback of the near future. But he could be the future.
Look no further than Philadelphia, where the Eagles took a flier on Jalen Hurts three years ago despite feeling relatively settled at quarterback with Carson Wentz.
Not that Hooker is Hurts. But then Hurts wasn’t this Hurts three years ago either. So, you never know — reward isn’t a friend of meek.
As Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes said late Friday night:
“We’re really excited about his upside. We have the right situation for him. (He can) come and sit back. See how Jared and Nate (Sudfeld) do things.”
Philly grabbed Hurts in the second round. Holmes took Hooker in the third round on Friday, a near perfect spot for the Tennessee quarterback. A spot that’ll hold eventual expectation but not too much next season, or even the season after that.
A spot that won’t alienate Goff. A spot that won’t cost the Lions what they would’ve had to pay if they’d taken a swing on a quarterback any earlier. A spot that may just have given them their backup quarterback.
Who just happens to have a starter’s ceiling. Who played like one of the best quarterbacks in college football before he suffered a torn ACL. Who comes to Detroit ready to learn.
“I’ll be a sponge,” Hooker said after the Lions used its 68th pick to draft him. “(I’ll) come in and learn every nuance of how to be a pro.”
As for his thoughts on playing behind Goff?
GRADING THE PICK: Hendon Hooker a shrewd pick with time to grow
“He’s been doing a great job of developing every year,” Hooker said. “I’ll be picking his brain whenever I can.”
Whether Hooker develops into the Lions’ next starting quarterback, his selection and, as critically, the reasons for his selection, are right on brand for Holmes, his front office staff, and head coach Dan Campbell.
For the second night in a row, they took the players they wanted, positional value be damned, except for Hooker, of course; quarterbacks are Tier 1 value if they’re the right quarterback. Yet Holmes didn’t need a quarterback, not with the way Goff dished the ball last season.
And if he hadn’t taken a quarterback with one of his four picks between the second and third rounds, few would’ve quibbled. In that way, then, he followed his own map.
Just as he did when he took a tight end — gasp! — with the 34th pick, another position that’s low on the pyramid scale of “value,” not far from linebackers, running backs and safeties.
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If you’re analytic of mind with these things, and a fan of mock drafts, then Friday night wasn’t much better than Thursday night, when Holmes took a running back (Jahmyr Gibbs) and a linebacker (Jack Allen) in the first round.
In other words, Holmes doubled down on his method and belief in his ability to identify talent and to identify the kind of talent he wants in Detroit. It’s a test of faith if you’re inclined toward the most recent trends of NFL roster construction.
Holmes followed his selection of tight end Sam LaPorta at No. 34 with Alabama safety/nickel back, Brian Branch, 11 picks later. The Lions could use a tight end. And while it isn’t a “high value” position so high in the draft, it’s a position that can matter on the field.
LaPorta can make plays after the catch. He has wiggle, as they say, and a touch of elusiveness for the position. He’s a playmaker and made plays despite being imprisoned on one of the worst offenses in the Big Ten at Iowa.
And Holmes certainly likes his chain-moving ability. Yet for the general manager who is molding this roster into his and Campbell’s image, LaPorta is fundamentally here because of this:
“I just like the way he plays football.”
Sometimes it’s not any more complicated than that.
Holmes said the same of Branch. And while he didn’t want to box him into a position, he did say he loved his “nickel stuff is really good.”
Versatility then. Another chess piece in the defensive backfield, if you must. That’s all true and important to Holmes. So, too, was Branch’s tackling and athletic ability.
ut then — surprise, surprise — there was also this:
“If you had football players in caps, in black and white, that’s what he is … he plays the game how we play it. (When you) look at him in his eye, you can just feel him.”
Holmes said the same of his final pick of the night, Brodric Martin, a mountainous and relatively swift-footed defensive tackle from Western Kentucky. The Lions got him at No. 96.
Finally, a position of value, right?!
Yeah, by metric, sure, but then what matters is whether Martin can play, and make the jump from Western Kentucky to, say, the line of scrimmage against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s clearly not impossible, not based on Holmes’ record of finding promising players in the third round.
It may take a while, though, as Holmes is expecting. Just as it may take a while for Hooker.
Where Gibbs and Campbell and LaPorta and (likely) Branch should be playing Week 1, a couple even as starters (the Iowa guys, cough, cough), Hooker was a pick for the future, and that may say more than anything else about where Holmes and Campbell think this roster is.
They are no longer drafting strictly for need. They are now free to draft for want. And they wanted Hooker.
MORE FROM WINDSOR: Brad Holmes said he was willing to get ripped for his NFL draft. And he is.
Not for a divisional race this fall, but for a divisional race at a later date.
“When Dan and I got here we started from the studs,” said Holmes. “We finally feel like we were at a point (with) the roster where we were able to make a move like this.”
That is surely the biggest news of the night.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.