Tennessee fans and Detroit Lions fans united on X this week in the defense of former Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker.
After NFL Twitter user Dov Kleiman (more on that in a bit) posted a very clickbaity post about C.J. Stroud being the only quarterback from the 2023 draft class not being “AWFUL,” fans swarmed the comment section in confusion. The other quarterbacks in the graphic include Panthers QB Bryce Young, Titans QB Will Levis, Colts QB Anthony Richardson, and Lions QB Hendon Hooker.
The difference between Hooker and the other four quarterbacks, as has been heavily pointed out in more than 1,000 replies since Tuesday, is that Hooker isn’t in a position to start for his team while the other four were. Young, Levis, Stroud, and Richardson have all had the chance to start several games for their organization while Hooker was brought in to be a serviceable backup to Jared Goff during Goff’s Super Bowl window with the Lions.
Young and Richardson have been benched at some point this season while Levis has struggled in his second year in Tennessee. Hooker, meanwhile, didn’t even play in his rookie 2023 season while he was recovering from an ACL injury that was suffered at the end of his career with the University of Tennessee. The former Vol got his first NFL action in the 2024 preseason and has played in clean-up roles in two blowout wins for Detroit this season.
“Hendon Hooker ain’t no slouch, he’s just a backup,” one user said.
“I mean Hooker hasn’t had a shot,” another wrote.
“Hooker catcher a stray is crazy,” one X user replied.
“Hooker deserves the chance Levis or Richardson got,” another said.
“Hooker will be fine,” one Tennessee fan replied. “He rehabbed a ACL injury all last year, so this is really his 1st year available to play. He will be better than every SEC QB drafted ahead of him and be just as good as Stroud once Goff is done having career year.”
Twitter user Dylan also dropped one of the great recent memes of the internet in reply:
Hendon Hooker: https://t.co/UR8YyDLhIZ pic.twitter.com/0r8dY3DNax
— Dylan Holt (@DylanHolt_) October 29, 2024
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Let’s take a look at the career NFL passing statistics to put this engagement farming experiment to bed.
Hendon Hooker: 2 games, 3-of-5 passing, 25 yards
Bryce Young: 21 games, 2-17 record, 376-of-629 passing, 13 TDs, 15 INTs
Will Levis: 14 games, 4-10 record, 232-of-380 passing, 13 TDs, 11 INTs
Anthony Richardson: 10 games, 5-5 record, 109-of-217 passing, 7 TDs, 8 INTs
C.J. Stroud: 23 games, 15-8 record, 496-of-765 passing, 34 TDs, 9 INTs
It’s a complete misfire to say that Hooker is an “AWFUL” quarterback from the 2023 class… unless you’re looking for attention online.
With 2.3 million views and more than 1,000 replies in the comments on the post at the time of this publication, well, mission accomplished.
In four preseason games with the Lions this season, Hooker completed 65.9 percent of his passes for 300 yards and one touchdown. The former Vol also added 138 rush yards and one touchdown on 19 carries during his four preseason games.
The post comes from one of the most mysterious, instigative social media accounts on the X platform. The face-less NFL-related account is well-known for posting clickbaity posts and has even been “investigated” by other internet platforms such as Barstool Sports.
This post isn’t to dive into the legitimacy of Kleiman’s account but rather to highlight Tennessee and NFL fans rushing to the aid of a quarterback who simply hasn’t had his number called in the league yet.
Just another day on sports Twitter, it seems.
