Detroit Lions place Hendon Hooker on active/NFI list

After a bit of a slip in the NFL Draft likely due to concerns over the ACL tear he suffered near the end of last season, Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker was finally scooped up by the Detroit Lions, where he enters a fun offense and overall culture that head coach Dan Campbell has built since he took the job. With Jared Goff still in place at QB, there’s no pressure to rush Hooker back and expect him to play right away, so the Lions are being cautious with his recovery.

Even with a careful approach, Hooker is progressing well. According to NFL insider Tom Pelissero, Hooker has been placed on the active list by Detroit just ahead of training camp, meaning he can be activated to participate whenever the team feels he’s ready to go.

Here was that report, which Pelissero tweeted on Thursday afternoon:

“The #Lions placed rookie QB Hendon Hooker (knee) on the active/NFI list to open camp. He can be activated anytime.”

Some good injury news for the former Volunteer ahead of his rookie season. While it’d be a surprise to see him play a ton, perhaps he will be healthy enough to take some backup snaps throughout his first year.

Hooker says Alabama teammates in Detroit are still salty over 2022 loss to Tennessee

Last fall’s Alabama vs. Tennessee football game was one for the ages among the tremendous history of that great rivalry. Both teams ranked in the top-10 for much of the year and their meeting in Neyland Stadium did not disappoint, producing a barn-burner where the teams combined for over 100 points.

Of course, it was the Volunteers who barely knocked in their game-winning field goal kick to snap the losing streak to their bitter rival and officially announce themselves as a national contender.

Fast forward to this summer and many of the stars of that game are on to the next level, including star Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker, who was drafted by the Detroit Lions. He wasn’t the only player Detroit drafted from that October fiesta between the Vols and Tide, as the Lions snatched up Alabama running back Jahmyr Gibbs and Alabama defensive back Brian Branch in two of the picks they made before Hooker.

Now that Gibbs, Branch and Hooker are all teammates, they’ve buried the hatchet on all that college rivalry nonsense, right? Wrong, per Hooker. He says, despite his side’s victory, that Gibbs and Branch still give him a hard time over how that game last year was officiated.

“Nah, me and (Jahmyr) are really close friends and so is (Brian Branch) and a lot of other guys from ‘Bama,” Hooker shared on the SEC Network set at SEC Media Days this year. “They give me a lot of smack talk about the game. So they think that some of the calls weren’t very good.”

Peter Burns chipped in to ask, “so they’re still talking about it?” To which Hooker responded: “Oh yeah, they’re still talking about it. They’re still talking about it. I mean, the scoreboard speaks for itself.”

Those Alabama boys really don’t take well to losing, because they still won’t let go of a loss that happened eight months ago. As members of the Detroit Lions now, they better get used to that losing feeling, because it will be a lot more common than when they were with the Crimson Tide.