The Detroit Lions made a bit of a surprising move on Thursday when they brought back quarterback Teddy Bridgewater out of retirement. One of the first things that came to mind was that the Lions may not see a future for Hendon Hooker in Detroit, or they might not trust him at this time.
Lions' head coach Dan Campbell commented on the situation in his presser on Thursday and said that this move did not mean that the Lions were disappointed in Hooker. That clears up that right? Well, then Campbell said some other stuff that pointed to the idea that while they're not disappointed, they might not be comfortable either.
"This does not mean that that Hooker is out. That's not what this means. If it comes to that (needing a quarterback to play if Goff is injured) Hooker is going to play for us, but Teddy probably will too. So, you know, I understand what it looks like, but it's just a different world that we're getting ready to walk into. And I just felt like this is the right thing to do, especially with somebody that I have a tremendous amount of trust with and for. [Bridgewater] understands our offense well. The guys know him well, the coaches know him well, and he brings a certain level of comfort to us."
That was the big thing that he brought up multiple times. Bridgewater has playing experience and if they needed someone to go in, they're going to trust the vet over Hooker right now and that tracks a lot with everything we've heard about Hooker since the Spring.
The Lions flirted with the idea of carrying a third quarterback all summer because they felt Hooker need more time before they made him the backup. If Nate Sudfeld hadn't been so bad, they might have done that. If Bridgewater hadn't retired, they totally would have done it.
As Campbell said, this doesn't mean that the Lions are just done with Hooker and that they're out on him. It does mean that right now they're not totally comfortable with the idea of putting Hooker on the field for a playoff game. That just means he needs more time.
Time is something Hooker may not have a ton of. He turns 27-years-old in a couple of weeks and his opportunity to be a starting quarterback in the NFL starting to fade a bit. We'll see how the future looks for him.
