tukafan21

Short answer.... no Full explanation....... The Lions drafted Hooker as a project QB when they still weren't sure if Goff could be their QB of the future, Goff then went out and had an outstanding season and subsequently was signed to a 4 year, $212 Million contract. They didn't draft him with the expectation of him being their backup to Goff, he was drafted as a potential long term solution if Goff struggled last year and they decided not to sign him to an extension. They are in a SB window right now and for the next few years, if Goff were to go down, turning over a legitimate SB caliber roster to a QB who has thrown 9 career passes would be borderline criminal. In reality, they should be looking to bring in an experienced backup game manager type of QB who could step in and keep them as close to the same team as possible if they were to lose Goff. Or hell, if he didn't get a better opportunity, someone like Fields could be real dangerous with that offensive line and RB room they have, just run a modified option offense, good luck stopping that. The 49ers traded 3 First Round picks to take Trey Lance 3rd overall, then 2 seasons later traded him for a 4th round pick. And he wasn't even THAT bad in the games he played in, he showed some potential but was clearly still very raw and needed time to develop. Yes, Hooker is kinda the opposite of Lance in the sense that he had years of starting at a higher level in college and was more developed than Lance, while Lance had more untapped potential, but still, he went from 3rd overall to traded for a 4th rounder. In no world does a 3rd rounder who has thrown 9 career passes have his trade value increase from where he was drafted 2 years earlier. For a team that has been as good at drafting as the Lions have been in recent years, a 4th rounder for them could very well be a solid piece of their SB puzzle, likely a DB or pass rusher that they think can fit into their system and be a nice rotation piece. Again, unless Hooker is just perfectly content being a career long backup and never the chance to compete for a starting spot, there is a 0% chance he will re-sign with the Lions when his contract is up, so they should and likely will trade him before his contract expires. Because of that, their best chance at trading him is this offseason as teams would like to have the 2 years left on his deal to see what he could be, not just one season and then need to make a call on whether or not to re-sign him. Hooker's situation is more like Lance than he would be a Garoppolo who got a 2nd round pick in return for him, as he looked good in a couple starts when Brady was suspended, not to mention he was also drafted a round earlier than Hooker was too.

Hendon Hooker Lions took him last year in the 3rd, might have been taken in the 1st round by someone if he hadn’t torn his ACL during the bowl game, early 2nd round at worst. Think the Lions took him in case Goff struggled and they didn't want to re-sign him, now with Goff being their QB for the foreseeable future, having a 27 year old back up with only 10 career passes and only 2 years left on his contract and is likely to want to go somewhere he might have a chance to play, seems like something they could trade.

What’s your reasoning for us not to want to draft him if he’s available when we’re on the clock? The best WR in the draft at one of our top 3 biggest needs. As I was saying in a different thread last night, wanting someone else is fine, but in general, being against a player THAT good at one of our biggest positions of need, just doesn’t make any sense.

Give it to me!!!!!!!!!!!! Like I just said, a #1 WR is right there with a pass rusher as our biggest non QB need. XL, Coker, and maybe Theilen is a really bad WR room. Sure, one with 2 guys with some good potential, but it's nowhere near good enough in today's NFL to be competitive.

If he's there when we're picking, I think there is a VERY legitimate shot at it. Assuming Thielen will be let go or traded, as I think we'll let him try to go play for a contender, our WR's for next season as of right now is XL and Coker, that's it. And even fi we bring him back for the last year of his deal, then he's still not part of our future and doesn't really make our WR all that much better on the whole as he's really just a slot possession guy at this point. I don't care what we all think they could both become at some point, that's legitimately one of the 5 worst WR rooms in the entire NFL, it's basically a #2 and hopefully someone who could be a solid #3. A true outside #1 is maybe the biggest need we have right now if you eliminate QB from that discussion. It's either a #1 WR or a top end pass rusher as our biggest need. You can find pass rushers in free agency, and even if someone like Higgins were to hit the open market, I'd much rather draft T-Mac and use our cap room on a pass rusher than to use it on Higgins and then draft a pass rusher as T-Mac's upside is higher than Higgins and there isn't a can't miss pass rushing prospect in this draft class.

Because he's basically just Bryce but with probably better physical traits and not quite as good of a mental side of things, which in the end would be a wash. Willis just lacks the potential upside that you'd get with a number of other options. Either go for a lottery ticket guy like Hooker, or maybe a real long shot on someone like Joe Milton or Trey Lance and see what happens. I'd take any of Hooker, Milton, or Lance over Willis if we're going that route next year.

They took Hooker in the 3rd before Goff had that season last year and they signed him to a monster extension of $50+ million a season. Through no fault of his own because Goff has been healthy, Hooker hasn't done anything to let the Lions ask for the same draft pick return on him that they used to take him, let alone to get a better round pick. Their offense is built to work with a game manager QB, they could easily go out and get a vet QB as a backup that would be just as effective for them, if not more so than Hooker, as if Goff goes down and they need someone to step in, a vet QB with years of experience is probably going to give them a better chance of staying in contention. If Goff were to go down next year, turning a SB caliber team over to a 3rd year guy who has thrown less than 10 passes in his career seems like a scary proposition. He's a better project QB for a team still trying to find their future QB than a backup on a team with legit SB aspirations and needing to step in for an injured starter mid-season. So for me, trying to get someone like Hooker is the best way to not completely punt on QB next year without going all in on a new QB which would take us out of the possibility of taking one in the 2026 draft, it's the best of both worlds. I'd also throw Joe Milton into the mix there as well (I swear I'm not a Tennessee fan lol) as the Patriots have no need for him and he does have a legit cannon for an arm, see if you can harness that and improve his decision making to turn him into something legit.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Call the Lions and try to trade for Hendon Hooker and then take T-Mac to give him a great weapon set with Hubbard, Brooks, T-Mac, XL, Coker, and Sanders. He's only 3.5 years younger than Goff and he only has 2 years left on his contract. Unless he doesn't even want a chance at a starting spot competition, he's not going to re-sign with them. If they can get a draft pick for him and then go out and sign another vet to be their backup to Goff, I think they'd do it. See if we can get him for a future mid round pick, like a 4th or 5th rounder a year or two from now and give him the full season as the starter to see if he has a future in the league and with us. If he does, awesome, we just found our QB on the cheap. If he doesn't, then we're likely going to be bad enough to have a Top 10 pick in a QB loaded draft in 2026.

nah, I'm surprised it took them this long. They can cut Jones for nothing after the season, but if he gets hurt they are on the hook for over $20 million, he should have been benched weeks ago, they knew he wasn't their guy.

And btw, you have to remember that T-Mac is doing all this with pretty poor QB play this year, on a team that's a mess with no other quality offensive weapons to take attention away from him. Yet he's still 3rd in the nation in receiving yards with defenses knowing he's our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd option on every passing play. He still gets open at all 3 levels and when he can't get open because of the double and triple coverage, he consistently makes crazy contested catches that those 6' WRs that are a little more explosive and fast, just can't make. If he was on one of those elite college teams, with a great QB and multiple elite WR and RB options to take attention and give T-Mac single coverage on every play, he'd be putting up bonkers video game like numbers. He's the straight up full package, if we don't end up with him, 5 years from now everyone here is going to look back and say, "yep, he was right about this guy"

You go after my guy with nonsense like "I don't see quickness or explosiveness" and "I haven't seen a lot of quickness or full route tree ability that we always ignore" Then yea, I'm gonna punch back. Like I've said, if people want to draft someone else, that's totally fine, everyone has their own opinions. But if you're going to advocate against a specific player, don't talk complete nonsense about their game like this. Even more so, don't do that when you're saying I'm the one with a bias towards him. If I was afraid of it looking like a bias pick on my part, I'd never have said I was an Arizona alumni when arguing for him, but I've admitted it from the very beginning, because I don't think my Arizona connection gives me a bias, it just means I know his game REALLY well as I've seen every snap of his college career. So yea, you start saying the knocks on him are things that he's actually really good at, then you're going to get an earful from me with some video evidence to back it up. In the end, for me, it all falls back to how rare a player like T-Mac can be due to his size. The smaller speedier type of WRs are exactly who you can find in later rounds and who become available as Free Agents, I can't ever get on board with taking a Hunter (as a WR) or Burden over T-Mac if all were on the board, for that reason alone, and I'd say that if he was a freaking Sun Devil, no matter how much it would hurt me to admit if it if that were the case.

Full disclosure I responded to this before fully reading the whole post. As if I had, I’d have laughed at you saying you haven’t seen a full route tree from him, as that’s EXACTLY what he has in his bag. That right there just shows you haven’t watched him at all outside of the downfield highlight reel plays. He already runs a full NFL level route tree, at all 3 levels. As I’ve said numerous times before, XL is the big bodied possession guy, while T-Mac would be the true outside #1 who can do it all and a perfect compliment to XL. Want to draft someone else all you want, that’s totally fair. But don’t try and say he’s just a big bodied WR who lacks quickness and can’t run a full route tree, as it’s just the furthest thing from the truth. And it’s okay, after you watch some more clips, you can admit that you were wrong and I’m not showing my own bias towards him. It’s not like I’m advocating for someone who should be a late 1st rounder or even a mid 1st round pick, this is someone who’s been mocked as high as #2 by a lot of experts lately. The kid is a stud and he has every tool in his bag that you’d want an outside #1 to have.

And here's one where someone breaks down some film and actually says, and I quote, "look at the big man move, 6'5" is not supposed to move like that" as he's running away from DB's for a TD. Then he says it again on the next play after he makes a DB completely whiff on a tackle

Your point about how few of the Top WRs right now that are over 6'1" is EXACTLY why we should be taking him, because he's a different kind of player that other teams just can't replicate. And I don't have all sorts of cut up tape showing his route trees or anything like that of course, and I'm not going to spend an hour watching highlight clips to find specific ones to show you, but just started watching one of his highlight reels and saw a bunch in a row that should help you see that in him. Watch this one and start watching at 1:05 into the clip, there's like 5 or 6 straight plays from that point that help showcase the speed and agility that he has, with him making defenders miss and running away from others. Again, if I had access to all his routes, you could cut them up in a way that showcases it better, but for just spending 2 minutes looking, this isn't bad lol EDIT: I also still had the clip running in the background just now and saw another great one to look at. Go to 4:20 into the video and look at the route he runs in such a small space to get open for the TD, that's not something most 6'5" WRs are capable of doing. And this isn't even when you take into account the kind of catches he can make, every week he makes the most absurd one handed and sideline grabs that you'll ever see. I also think it's funny that you think I have bias towards him and then in the next sentence say something that again shows you have no idea about his game.

I think he's only played a game or two at LT, he's been on the right since the second he was drafted because they already had a franchise LT in Taylor Decker, the only games he played over there was when that guy was injured. Sewell was who I always wanted in that draft and I'm still bitter about Detroit taking him one pick before us (and being from Michigan with all my friends being Lions fans, they still laugh about how angry I was when that happened as we were all watching that draft together). Sewell is the best RT in football and if he was on the left side, he'd still be an All-Pro over there too.

LOLOLOLOL Yea, you didn't need to say that you haven't watched T-Mac a whole lot yet if you're also saying you don't see much quickness or explosiveness in him, as saying that is a clear sign you have no idea what you're talking about. No, he's not a speedster who is going change a game in the way a Tyreek does, but just saying he's a "big bodied receiver" is wildly unfair and show you really haven't watched him play other than maybe seeing a couple of his stupidly absurd highlight reel catches. If he's not already the #1 WR on every team's draft board after the season (and he will be on most of them by then anyways), he'll easily jump up there after the combine when people see his speed/agility on display against everyone else and the time's he'll put up. Yes, he's 6'5", but he's the furthest thing from a Kelvin Benjamin as possible if that's your concern in "chasing a big bodied receiver" He is an absolute BEAST making plays down the field on deep balls and using his size and absurdly strong hands to make catches over DBs, but he's also constantly used on short routes to get the ball into his hands and let him make defenders miss, which he does all the time as he has more than enough quickness for a WR his size. As Cam said, his widely used comp is Mike Evans. But I personally think they just use him to use a current player, and there are only a handful of WR's big enough to choose from, and frankly, yes, Evans is probably the best comp of current players. But he also used AJ Green, which I'm quite sure he got from me, lol, as that's the comp I've used for him for about 2 years now, from day 1, I've always seen AJ when watching him play, except T-Mac is actually an inch taller than AJ is. You can find those smaller, fast quick twitch type of WR's in middle rounds of the draft or FA, but 6'5" true outside WRs who have the speed and agility of someone more like 6'1" don't grow on trees, you can't get a WR like him outside the Top 10 in the draft. There's only a small handful of WRs who are even 6'5" these days, but none of them have T-Mac's speed/agility. Even with the Evans comp, T-Mac is faster and has more wiggle in his game than Evans (while Evans is a good 20 lbs heavier and a bit stronger, hence why I like the AJ Green comparison more). By the time he's ready to sign his 2nd NFL contract, T-Mac will be considered a unanimous Top 10 WR in the league and most people will even rank him in their personal Top 5. This isn't a guess, a prediction, or a hope, it's just a fact, because he's going to be THAT good at the next level. I've said this before, yes, I'm an Arizona alumni so I have a bias towards him. But at the same time, I've been confident in dozens of Arizona football and basketball players over the years, and have had some have panned out, some haven't. But there is only one other Wildcat player I've felt this strongly about as to who they would become in the NFL, and that was Gronkowski. I'm not saying T-Mac is going to become the best WR of all time like Gronk did as a TE, but I spent Gronk's 3 years in college telling everyone that he was the next big thing at TE in the NFL and he'd be a decade long All-Pro. Same goes for T-Mac. Draft him, don't be dumb.

Like I’ve said, his QB play has been awful this year, he’d be putting up stupid numbers if Fifita was playing better. And he’s still 3rd in the nation in yards

Holy crap, ended up being overturned and called incomplete, but this was crazy https://x.com/cfbonfox/status/1857632612333785280?s=46&t=LQU3yEizU6WVOcNoJTNyOw

https://x.com/bleacherreport/status/1857629222342373486?s=46&t=LQU3yEizU6WVOcNoJTNyOw

T-Mac just Mossed a guy for a TD, thing of beauty

If Cam didn't do the podcast thing these days, then Tepper might do something like that, but since he does, and since Cam is, well... Cam... it's probably not in Tepper's best interests to say something like that to him. Love Cam, he's my QB and always will be, but let's be honest, if Tepper admitted to him that he's keeping him away from the club to not shine a light on our QB issues, Cam would not be able to keep that one in, he'd end up saying something in public and make it all worse.

I think it's completely because of our QB situation, it's so bad that having someone like Cam around for things will only showcase how much we've screwed up the QB situation since him. The important thing is that the fans will always love him, and I'm sure he is aware of that and will be back in the fold at some point. That's my Quarterback!

Maybe, but maybe not in the end (in regards to a 5-12 team picking 10th). I pointed this out in a thread last night, but the bottom 8 teams in the standings right now have A LOT of games against each other, where someone has to win. Here are the clearly winnable games for those bottom 8 teams, 5 of them play at least 2 of the other 7 from this group still, so just by default, there will be a lot of wins from these teams still to come, as I'm sure there will also be an upset win or two from this group as well in addition to these possible wins. Jags (2 wins) - Titans x2, Raiders, Jets, Colts Giants (2 wins) - Cowboys, Saints, Colts Titans (2 wins) - Jags x2, Colts Browns (2 wins) - Saints, (Dolphins if they sit Tua as it's 2nd to last game) Raiders (2 wins) - Jags, Saints Patriots (3 wins) - Colts, Rams (it's home this week, 1pm game, Rams on short week) Saints (3 wins) - Browns, Giants, Raiders Jets (3 wins) - Colts, Jags, (also Dolphins last week if no Tua)

I don't think the Jags are picking ahead of us anyways, at least not if Lawrence plays the rest of the year (or most of it). Here are the very winnable games left for the rest of the teams ahead of us in the draft right now... Jags (2 wins) - Titans x2, Raiders, Jets, Colts Giants (2 wins) - Cowboys, Saints, Colts Titans (2 wins) - Jags x2, Colts Browns (2 wins) - Saints, (Dolphins if they sit Tua as it's 2nd to last game) Raiders (2 wins) - Jags, Saints Patriots (3 wins) - Colts, Rams (it's home this week, 1pm game, Rams on short week) Saints (3 wins) - Browns, Giants, Raiders Jets (3 wins) - Colts, Jags, (also Dolphins last week if no Tua) The Patriots are the only team there that doesn't play another one of these teams, and the Browns and Jets are the only others that don't play at least 2 of them. We're not beating the Chiefs or Eagles. We're not winning road games against the Cardinals or Falcons with them fighting for playoff positioning (assuming the Cardinals aren't locked into their place by week 17). I also, personally don't think we're beating the Bucs in either game. Which just leaves the Cowboys, we lose that game and we're picking Top 3 or 4 at worst, still a legit shot at #1 because as of right now, the Jags are the only 2 loss team that we'd lose the SOS tiebreaker to. Even if we beat the Cowboys, with how many times all those teams play each other, or have other winnable games, I think we still end up 4-6 (although Dallas losing out without Dak would screw us as they'd be ahead of us and think T-Mac is a perfect pairing with Lamb who plays in the slot and they need more weapons). Yea, if we end up beating the Bucs or have another surprise upset too, it will end up dropping us further back to the 10-12 range Of these teams, the Titans, Browns, Patriots, and Raiders are the only ones I think would consider WR. The Raiders would prefer a QB, the Browns and Titans also could go QB if they end up that high. I'm hoping if the Patriots end up above us, they go OL to protect Maye, that could come down to if they're able to find a good LT in free agency before the draft. But the Patriots does feel like fate as both Gronkowski and Bruschi are two of the best Wildcats of all times who then ended up Patriots legends. I've made it clear that I'm not high on this QB class, the last time they said a class was like this one was 2023 and 2 of the Top 4 picks have already been benched and Stroud is struggling this year too. So I'm hoping we end up 3rd with QB's going 1-2 and Deion pushing us not to pick Hunter so we are almost forced to take T-Mac. And if we lose out, there is a very real chance that's exactly where we end up when you look at the remaining schedules of all these teams.

Trading Deontae was 100% the right call, as he's not a #1 either and we weren't going to re-sign him, but we still got an awful return for him (thankfully the Mingo trade made up for it). And yes, we need that smaller shifty WR, but we also need a true outside #1 as neither XL or Coker are that. That's why I think T-Mac is a perfect fit for us in the early 1st round as that outside #1, Coker and XL could both play on the other outside and in the slot, and find a small shifty WR to work from the slot too, with Sanders, Brooks, and now Hubbard with the extension, plus our OL, is an offense that can succeed with a good game manager type of QB and not need a superstar.