As the Detroit Lions have made it clear Hendon Hooker is on borrowed time as the No. 2 quarterback, and yes he should have to earn the job, they have also crushed any trade value he might have had. If a young quarterback is added during or right after the upcoming draft, that will officially place him on the roster bubble (and possibly on the wrong side of it).
The Lions knew what they were taking on when they drafted Hooker 68th overall in the 2023 draft. He was already up in age (25), and coming off a torn ACL late in his final college season. His rookie season was a proverbial "redshirt year", and his second offseason was about fixing his throwing mechanics literally from the ground up.
Hooker saw action in the Lions' three blowout wins last season, with natural limits on what he was asked to do in those situations (nine total pass attempts). Then he was demoted in favor of Teddy Bridgewater for the playoff game against the Washington Commanders.
On Friday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr has a shoulder injury that has put his status for the 2025 season in doubt. Of course the conversation has move to potential candidates to replace him, with Bridgewater actually making a list from Tom Dierberger of SI.com.
But, could Hooker be on the Saints' radar?
NFL Rumors: Saints surface as possible trade suitor for Hendon Hooker
At the 2023 NFL Combine, Ross Jackson of Louisiana Sports.net asked Hooker a set of questions about the time he spent with the Saints during the pre-draft process and a strong connection between the University of Tennessee (where Hooker finished his college career) and the Saints.
“Yeah, it’d be cool to join them. Cool pipeline. I have communication with every one of those guys (former college teammates who were on the Saints). I had dinner with Alontae Taylor last week. He came out to California. He was working out, so I had dinner with him, he told me about the things he encounters down in New Orleans.”
Death, taxes and the New Orleans' annual gymnastics to get cap-compliant. Those are the three certainties in life, and the Saints keep letting general manager Mickey Loomis and his front office minions do it to them. This offseason's move to restructure Carr's contract like they did took his 2026 cap number from $61.458 million to $69.2 million. An overdue rebuild needs to be done, and getting cheaper at quarterback is an easy part of that.
Halfway through his rookie contract, Hooker has cap hits of about $1.56 million and $1.82 million the next two years.
John Maakaron of SI.com, within an idea Hooker could be the answer to the Saints' quarterback problem, proposed the Lions asking for New Orleans' fourth-round pick (No. 112 overall) in a trade.
Getting a fourth-round pick for Hooker would be a dream for the Lions at this point, and they should take it if it's out there. It's hard to imagine that would be the firm asking price if a team did call though. Or in this case, the Saints having any interest in parting with more than a conditional sixth or seventh-rounder for a quarterback with nine garbage time regular season pass attempts on his resume.
What the Saints' pursuit of a new quarterback will look like is unclear, and they could just take one (Shedeur Sanders?) with the ninth overall pick in the draft and call it good. But Hooker is theoretically available, and it's possible he's on the list of options they will look at acquiring before (or after) the draft.
