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Eric Woodyard, ESPN
ALLEN PARK, Mich. — Hendon Hooker wasn’t a full participant during the Detroit Lions‘ rookie minicamp this week, but the third-round pick says he’s ahead of schedule while recovering from a torn ACL.
Hooker still wouldn’t put a timetable on his return, but the former Heisman Trophy front-runner was spotted around the practice facility, with a ball glued to his hand, encouraging teammates as he fiends to return to action.
“Entering this first year is the same motto, same mentality I’ve had all my life, let’s get better every day,” Hooker said during Saturday’s minicamp. “You’ll never stay the same; you either get better or you get worse, and I don’t wanna have any decline in my game so I’m continuing to work my tail off, 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.”
On Tuesday, Lions coach Dan Campbell appeared on the “Green Light with Chris Long” podcast, where he said he doesn’t anticipate the former Tennessee Volunteer playing during his rookie season as the organization sees veteran quarterback Jared Goff as the clear-cut starter.
“Really, this is a redshirt year for him,” Campbell said. “He’s got to get this leg right first and then he’ll learn under Jared, and then let’s see what happens. 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.”
As the 68th pick, Hooker became Detroit’s earliest drafted quarterback since it took Matthew Stafford at No. 1 in 2009. The Lions hadn’t drafted a quarterback since 2017, when they took Brad Kaaya in the sixth round.
Hooker claims he’s feeling good physically despite carrying a heavier weight.
“Honestly, I would like to be ready tomorrow, if I could. But, I’m taking it day by day,” he said. “When my leg is 100 percent healed and everything else is moving fluently, and working together, I’ll be ready to go.”
Although Hooker got some light throwing in after Saturday’s practice, the Lions are keeping any action limited as they want to make sure he’s taking the right precautions. The goal is to make sure he’s all the way healthy with no added pressure.
“We’re just taking a different route. They want us to relax,” Hooker said. “Some of the routes on the air is kind of tough because I want to do things that I can’t really do right now, in terms of just speeding my feet up and putting a lot of pressure on that left leg and trying to change directions, and I can’t do it right now.”