It's not lost on Hendon Hooker that the Lions need him to make strides in 2025 and he's determined to do what it takes

This is a big year for Detroit Lions and Hendon Hooker. It's year three and he wants to not only make the 53-man roster, but be the number two quarterback on the roster once he makes it, but right now he's having to battle with Kyle Allen who has come in a surprised everyone with how good he's looked this summer.

During last year's training camp there were some issues that everyone could see and it was mostly based on timing. He would hold onto the ball too long and take sacks or have to check down or he would overcorrct on that and get rid of the ball too fast. For Hooker, this was at the top of his list of things he wanted to spend the offseason and summer working on.

"Biggest thing I wanted to work on was just timing, playing in rhythm and footwork." Hooker said Tuesday. "Really, I definitely feel like I've made a huge jump in those regards. And ball placement."

It's hard to argue with Hooker on that. It's been just two weeks, but you can see that he is a lot more confident and lot more comfortable on the field. He's shown some of the best stuff I've personally seen him show at trainining camp. We'll see soon how that looks in the preseason.

In terms of where Hooker feels he's at with improving these things, he feels he's at where he wants to be with them right now physically, but is much more concerned with getting better at them mentally. That's what the timing is all about. You can't overthink it and work yourself into a spot where you're holding on too long waiting for the perfect situation to arise. It usually doesn't.

At this point, it feels like anear dead heat with Kyle Allen maybe holding the lead by a nose. Thursday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers is going to give us a lot of answers on what direction this thing might start going.