Who Needs To Perform For The Lions?
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00:00He's been around this long, he's been around this long for a reason,
00:02and now that he's been with the Lions, is this going to be his third season, I think,
00:07that he should know this system pretty well. Now, he was hurt all the offseason,
00:13and he's healthy now, and I want to see how he plays, if he looks comfortable in this offense,
00:19and then great, okay. I'm not going to be, I'm not, I'm not holding the bar this high,
00:24and I'm holding my hand way above my head for Hendon Hooker this preseason. I'm not.
00:30Because this is effectively his first. He's like a rookie at this point,
00:33because missing all last year. And the other thing is, Hooker's not getting many reps in practice,
00:40and you know what's going to happen when the regular season starts? He's going to get fewer
00:44reps in practice. And same thing with Sudfeld. This is the only time these guys are going to
00:48get a chance to play, really. I mean, because when the regular season begins, you give all those reps
00:53to the starting quarterback for a reason, because he's going to be playing. So, I don't expect to,
00:59I'm not going to be, I guess, I'm not expecting myself to be wowed by either quarterback,
01:03but I do expect that Sudfeld should look more comfortable than Hooker does. But Hooker is
01:09clearly, he's got more to offer a higher ceiling. So, we're going to, I think we're going to see
01:15flashes from Hooker, and we're going to see consistency from Sudfeld.
01:20It sounds like people who've seen practice can see why Hendon Hooker, why Dan Campbell's line
01:25about Hendon Hooker is he needs reps. I think he said he needs to go to bed getting reps. He needs
01:29to wake up getting reps. He just needs reps, reps, reps, reps, reps. And so, it speaks to
01:35how much work he needs as of right here, right now. I mean, we've talked a lot about the kicker
01:41position and how a team trying to win a Super Bowl has taken a bit of a gamble here on an unknown
01:47kicking prospect who has a great leg, but is a bit of a wild card at this point. In the case of
01:55Sudfeld, you know, this is a quarterback who has started, hasn't started a game in his career.
02:03When he got put in a game in Philadelphia, the accusations came out that the coach was
02:07intentionally trying to throw the game. So, that, that's not a great sign. He's,
02:14you know, he's, I hope we never see him. I hope we never see him. That would mean the
02:19golf plays the whole season. That's what you want. Yep. Last year, he suffered an injury
02:24towards ACL against Carolina and was out for the season. This year, I mean, we'll see. This is one
02:31of those things that just really isn't that big of an issue until it's a massive issue,
02:36who the backup quarterback is. Case of Hendon Hooker. I mean, this is a bit of a project,
02:44I guess. If, if he gets, if you know what Sudfeld is, it almost feels to me like you need to crash
02:54course Hendon Hooker. I mean, give Sudfeld a few drives for sure. And then give, I would give Hendon
03:01Hooker three quarters and then give him the start next week. Like I, you got to see what you got
03:06and you got to see what you got quickly. And I'm not sure that Nate Sudfeld at this point in his
03:10career, how old is he? Hold on for a second. He's 30 years old. Is he going to, is he in the
03:17position to get a lot better at this point? Yeah. I don't expect him to morph into a,
03:21you know, a quality starting quarterback in the league. But I also want to be fair to Nate
03:27Sudfeld because he's, he was recovering from injury the entire off season and he's trying to
03:33stay on a roster. Obviously Hooker has the upside. And then there's the question, do the Lions need
03:39to go out and get another quarterback anyway, that has real game experience that could, you know,
03:46do a much better job than either of these guys if they need to in the pinch, break glass situation.
03:53I mean, do you feel comfortable with Sudfeld or with Hooker? Would you feel more comfortable with
03:57another quarterback that could be out there to get the job done? Now, to be fair to Nate
04:01Sudfeld and Hendon Hooker is they won't tonight, won't likely be playing behind the first string
04:07offensive line. And if you give Nate Sudfeld time, Nate Sudfeld probably will do better than he did
04:14at any other stop in his career, given potentially who he's throwing to what appears to be an elite
04:19wide receiver, maybe too early to call him an elite tight end, but trending to be an elite
04:24tight end and explosive weapon in Jamison Williams. He'll have a run game to speak of,
04:28and he'll have an offensive line that can protect him. So maybe it's set up for a Nate Sudfeld
04:32to look the best he's looked in his career if called upon. All the advantages that Jared Goff
04:39has, Nate Sudfeld and Hendon Hooker will have them, just not now. And we're going to judge
04:44them. Unfortunately, they're going to get judged how they look tonight without the same complement
04:50of weapons and help. Yeah, but at the same time, they're also going to go against a defense that's
04:55not going to have Kayvon Thibodeau or Brian Burns likely to be playing in it. And, you know,
05:00they'll have their starters out as well. So it's a lot of, I'm not going to overreact to what
05:07happens tonight with the quarterbacks, unless somebody looks god awful. And then I think,
05:14okay, but I don't feel like if somebody's bad, we're going to let them have it. And if somebody
05:19looks really good, we're going to keep our expectations in check and just say, okay, well,
05:23understand the situation. If somebody looks really good with the backup offensive line and backup
05:29weapons, I'll be pretty encouraged, actually, even if they are going against backups. I mean,
05:35I think it will bode very well. Because I mean, I would like to think that even most backup
05:41quarterbacks, if given time in the pocket at the NFL level, could actually execute some stuff.
05:47You would hope. Yeah. So we shall see. In the meantime, we were talking about
05:55the players that need to play well, Gator. And I found a list, a list of six players
06:02that need to play well. Now there's a difference between guys you want to play well or guys you
06:07hope excel and guys that need to put by definition, guys that need to shine are guys that need to do
06:13something or they might find themselves on the bubble or find themselves on the wrong side of
06:17the cut line. The list was six deep written on a website. I'm going to give you one, the obvious
06:26one, Jake Bates. Jake Bates right now is the only kicker here. When Badgley got hurt, nobody else
06:36was brought in. So Jake Bates right now, it's basically at this point, your job, you know,
06:43you go out and you kick well, I mean, they may bring somebody else into just to push him and
06:48have them around in an emergency break glass situation. But right now you're the kicker.
06:52And if you go out tonight and you go four for four and you hit from 35, 45, 55 and 65,
06:59you know, there'll be a lot of confidence that you'll be the guy that can get it done.
07:03If, uh, if you miss, if you have any misses or any shaky, miss an extra point,
07:09they're probably bringing somebody in to push them. There are five other players on this list
07:15of players who must shine in the preseason. Why don't we, uh, why don't we do the 10 text thing,
07:21Kang and take 10 texts on who are the five other guys who must shine this preseason.
07:28And you let us know who you think are on this list
07:32of the players that need to get it done, or they might find themselves looking for a job.
07:40Okay. I'd like to see you write down a few names. Okay. Guys that have to shine in the preseason,
07:47or they might be no longer a Detroit lion. First 10 texts. Make sure you sign your text
07:52two, four, eight, five, three, nine 9797. We'll start crossing names off this list as they come
07:58in, but we'll take the first 10 and don't forget to sign your text. It's Carson Anderson. It's
08:04lions game day giants tonight. 97 won the ticket.