I’m out of town for one measly week, I miss my first NFL schedule release and rookie minicamp in years and suddenly I find myself left without a seat on the Detroit Lions hype train?
Yep, things change that fast in the NFL.
Yet here we are. Or rather, there they go — those Super Bowl-bound Lions whom the NFL schedule-makers not so subtly implied will be the NFC’s representative by lining them up against the AFC-favorite Kansas City Chiefs in the very first game of the season.
“11-6!” screamed the Free Press’ headline based off my esteemed colleague Dave Birkett’s careful and measured prediction. Imagine if Jameson Williams wasn’t suspended for the first six games. Dave might’ve gone with 18-0.
It was my pal Shawn Windsor’s turn the next day to play hype-train conductor. “Over-the-top rookie minicamp buzz? You betcha” read the headline on his column after he watched recent college players run around in shorts and T-shirts.
To sum up my buddies’ accounts of rookie camp, linebacker Jack Campbell is approximately 8 feet tall and tight end Sam LaPorta could probably beat Usain Bolt in a foot race.
But the player who caught my eye from all the dizzying accounts I read was Hendon Hooker, the Tennessee quarterback who’s making his way back from ACL surgery one step at a time, knowing he has quite a hill to climb if he’s every going to take over as the Lions’ signal caller.
Dan Campbell has talked about a “redshirt year” for Hooker, with the idea being for him to sit and wait and learn from Jared Goff, the entrenched incumbent.
But apparently Hooker didn’t get Campbell’s memo, because he displayed very little measured patience at camp. He stood out in the 90-minute padless practice, exuding energy and bouncing around among teammates, giving them high-fives and even got to throw a few passes.
Hooker didn’t act or sound like anyone’s backup.
“I mean, as you can see me I’m walking around with the ball,” he said, “so I’m fiending to get back out there on the field and compete.”
Fiending. Did you catch that?
Hooker was asked about Campbell’s plans for a redshirt year, but he didn’t get the memo on that one, either.
“Like I said before, I’m a competitor,” he said. “I love the game of football. I love going out there, you know, taking control of the offense and having fun. That’s what it’s about.”
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: On Mother’s Day, Lions CB Jerry Jacobs grateful for women who raised him
Here’s where I would like to salute Hooker and encourage him to keep doing what he’s doing. Because he’s literally right when he says he wants to take control of the offense. No one’s going to just give him control. Campbell won’t. Goff definitely won’t. There are 32 NFL quarterback jobs on the planet and everyone who has one should have to fight like hell to get it and keep it.
Hooker has been maligned for being old rookie at age 25. But I think his age and the experience that comes with it is serving him well. He was a 15-game starter at Virginia Tech before he transferred to Tennessee. He started to learn the Vols’ offense, then had to learn another offense when the coaches who recruited him were fired at the end of his first week.
Even though it happened in college, that’s where Hooker learned the primary lesson of what the NFL is really all about: Not For Long.
Seasons and careers are short in football. Anything can happen at any time, and it usually does. Football coaches loves their plans, until everything goes katywampus, which also isn’t a real word but Urban Dictionary tells us it means “off kilter or off center.”
And the Lions’ plan — before it goes catawampus — is to have Hooker sit and wait as Goff repeats his Pro Bowl performance, even though he’s only had excellent back-to-back seasons once in his career.
MORE FROM MONARREZ: Drafting Hendon Hooker means Lions are in for good, old-fashioned QB controversy
“He’s got to get this leg right first and then he’ll learn under Jared, and then let’s see what happens,” Campbell said of Hooker on Chris Long’s “Green Light Podcast.” “If he can eventually become your two or maybe down the road, later on, it’s more than that, but it’s going to be a long time.”
Down the road. A long time. Campbell is either living in some alternate reality or trying to tamp down expectations or ignoring the quarterback competition that’s already starting to unfold, even in its most nascent form but in the place it matters most: Hooker’s mind.
Hooker sounds like someone who’s already fully engaged in a quarterback competition, and that’s great because competition makes everyone better. Goff needs to know the job isn’t automatically his with a talented third-rounder chomping at the bit and nipping at his heels. The Lions need to know they drafted a guy who wants to fight for the job.
“You’ll never stay the same,” Hooker said of his preparation. “You either get better or you get worse and I don’t want to have any decline in my game.
“So continuing to work my tail off, you know, day-to-day, mental reps, taking reps behind the quarterbacks that are in. And just playing the game in my mind until I can actually get out there. But I’m still preparing and I’m hungry. I’m ready to compete.”
In a nine-minute news conference, Hooker didn’t mentioned Goff by name. Not how much he wants to meet him or learn from a player who has a lot more NFL experience, but is just three years older. Nothing.
“Honestly,” Hooker said of his timeline, “I’d like to be ready tomorrow if I could.”
Hooker smiled and chuckled. So did some reporters. But don’t laugh too hard, because Hooker acts and sounds dead serious about his intentions to become this team’s quarterback. And he knows if he waits too long, the hype train and everyone in it will quickly leave him behind.
Contact Carlos Monarrez: cmonarrez@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.