Is it us, or does Hendon Hooker never throw the ball? Are the Lions supressing him or is this a mental thing?

Nobody has ever accused me of looking into things way too much. I promise you that it has never happened. He said while winking uncontrollably. But Hendon Hooker's game Thursday night just opened up a portal and allowed me to step through and galaxy brain on this whole thing.

I started thinking about every game I've seen Hooker play for the Lions, and it occurred to me that this guy like barely ever throws the ball. It wasn't just Thursday where he threw just six passes; it goes back to last season. Hooker got to play in three games due to blowouts, and he threw nine passes. It was so little that local media actually asked Ben Johnson about it.

“Yeah, I think it’s invaluable for him. Going out there, you’ve got the lights shining on you, you’ve got people looking at you, it’s not practice setting. He had a ton of reps there during training camp and the preseason games that you saw growth from game one to game three, and now we’re at a spot where he’s been able to get a few in games this year, and the challenge for me is, I do want to get him some passes, but I also don’t want to be disrespectful to the opponent as well, so it’s kind of a balancing act when it comes to that.”

So in that regard, it seemed like the Lions just didn't want him to throw the ball very often, and he didn't. But what about the preseason last year? With the exception of the final preseason game, where he played pretty much the whole thing, he barely threw the ball in the other two games. 24 times in the other two games. Not a ton, but also not so little that you wonder if the Lions purposely don't want him to throw ever.

It's easy to delve into some sort of conspiracy theory here and say that the Lions don't trust him to throw the ball, but that's not what is happening here. What's happening might be a mental thing. It's not crazy to think that, as Hooker has talked about trying to be better mentally as late as earlier this week when he said that he was where he wanted to be physically, but that he wanted to be there mentally too.

It was all based around timing. That has been his biggest issue in the NFL. Hooker tends to hold onto the ball too long, trying to find a man, and it often results in him taking a sack, scrambling, or checking down. Then there are times when he tries to get the ball out too fast and throws a pick or an incomplete pass.

So, is this what it is? Is Hooker so focused on timing that it's hurting him and keeping him from throwing the ball? He did all three of those things on Thursday night. He took some sacks, he tried to scramble, and threw incomplete passes. There's no doubt that he's there physically, like he said. He is a talented athlete, but the mental part of the game is super important too. Will we see that come along more this summer? We'll see what happens in Atlanta next week.