No, there isn’t a quarterback controversy for the Detroit Lions — thankfully. No matter how much some folks may want one — the kind of folks who also enjoy rubbernecking at an accident site, for example, or sneaking through someone else’s medicine cabinet.
Dan Campbell isn’t that kind of folk.
He made that clear last week by preempting any possibility of an impending quarterback debate, saying the Lions’ rookie quarterback, Hendon Hooker, would essentially be redshirted this upcoming season.
Besides, when the word “controversy” follows the word “quarterback,” the “controversy” isn’t generally within the franchise, it’s within the fanbase. Because “controversy” means disagreement, often heated, always public.
FEEL THE BUZZ: Rookie minicamp starts the build in earnest
DAVE BIRKETT: Lions rookie camp observations: Hendon Hooker has ‘it’; Sam LaPorta shines
This isn’t how coaches — and front offices — operate if they have internal disagreements over which quarterback gives the team the best chance … or the best future. Sometimes, those are different answers anyway.
And that may be the case with the Lions, but no one knows, not even Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes. But the pair drafted Hooker with at least an inkling that he might eventually be more than Jared Goff’s backup.
They also drafted Hooker believing that Goff is good enough to get this team to the playoffs this season and make a run once there.
Why?
He just played a playoff-worthy season, for one. He also has a Super Bowl berth in his past, and before anyone talks about the talent Goff had around him in Los Angeles — on both sides of the ball — name a quarterback who got to a Super Bowl without good teammates.
You can’t?
Don’t worry, neither can anyone else — because it has never happened.
Now, the best quarterbacks can get to the playoffs without All-Pros at every position, obviously; no one is arguing Patrick Mahomes needs as much talent to win as say, Josh Allen or Goff. But Goff doesn’t need All-Pros at every spot either.
He needs what he has and may well love what the Lions have added. The fourth-ranked offense from a year ago now has an explosive running-back-slash-slot-receiver (Jahmyr Gibbs), a more dynamic between-the-tackles battering ram (David Montgomery), a tight end with more speed (Sam LaPorta), and a potential game-wrecker at wideout (Jameson Williams), if he returns from his six-game suspension with some more maturity.
Which means the offense could be even better. Even if it’s not, even if the offense tracks as it did a season ago, that should be good enough for a playoff run.
Think of it this way: The Lions missed the playoffs by one game despite a historically bad defensive effort the first half of the year. If the defense is simply average, the Lions get in.
LOOKING AHEAD: Detroit Lions 2023 schedule release: Dave Birkett’s game-by-game predictions
If the defense is average this season, the Lions will get in, and Goff will be viewed differently, because quarterbacks usually get the credit, unless they win “despite themselves” and eventually the uneven play leads to a loss.
So goes the cliché, right?
But that’s getting way — WAY — ahead of everything. It’s May. Rookie minicamp just happened. Opening night is four months away. Yeah, it’s at Kansas City, and on a Thursday night, and the Lions will have to share the NFL stage with just one other team, and I can’t remember the last time the start of an NFL season held such anticipation.
Goff played like a top-10 quarterback last season. If he does it again, the Lions will give him the ball for the 2024 season, and if he does it again, they may re-sign him for even longer. Shoot, if he balls this fall as he did last fall, he may get an extension next offseason.
So where does that leave Hooker?
Rehabbing his torn ACL, first and foremost, absorbing the pro life, too. Spend a little time around him and it’s easy to imagine him as the humble newcomer ready to learn.
“This first year is the model,” he said. “It’s the same mentality I’ve had all my life: Just get better every day; never stay the same.”
Hooker said he’s already taking mental reps, “playing the game in my mind until I can get out there.” And that when he isn’t dreaming of what he can do on the field, he’s pestering everyone about the playbook, asking for their perspective.
“I want to be a sponge,” he said.
Deference and humility won’t last forever, of course. At some point Hooker will be ready to play, and he’ll want to play, and if he’s good enough to play but Goff’s play keeps him on the bench two or three years from now, Hooker and the Lions will have to make decisions.
And if he’s so promising he forces his way onto the field? Then the Lions did their job. And Hooker did his job. And Goff will just have lost out to someone a little better.
It happens. Remember, Hooker was the SEC offensive player of the year. He throws an exquisite deep ball. He tweaked his throwing motion and pocket awareness before his final year at Tennessee, and if he hadn’t torn his ACL before the last regular season game, he wouldn’t been available to the Lions in the third round.
He has potential. Loads of it. And he has nearly as much charisma and swag.
What’s critical is that Hooker understands his role this next year, and that with Campbell, he’ll eventually get a chance if he earns it, and he knows that. Knows, too, that to get that chance he has to lean into the role he has now, which he did easily during the weekend’s minicamp.
All you had to do was watch him interact with his teammates. He looked like the mayor of Allen Park.
“Honestly, I just enjoy being around my guys,” he said. “(We’re) coming in here, working hard every day, so why not have fun while doing it? So, building those relationships, day to day, and creating moments and memories, that’s what it’s about.”
Hooker is 25 and sounds like he’s 35. Those extra years should help him stay focused on his “redshirt” responsibilities. After that? We’ll see.
In the meantime, he’ll get to learn behind another quarterback who came to Detroit with questions, who answered many of them last fall, and remains hellbent on answering even more questions this fall. It’s a perfect spot.
And there’s nothing controversial about that.
Contact Shawn Windsor: 313-222-6487 or swindsor@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @shawnwindsor.