Kyle

Allen

Hooker completed 7-of-10 passes for 38 yards against the Falcons in Preseason “Week 1" (the Lions played in the Hall of Fame game), but fumbled twice and the Lions lost both balls. None of what we’ve seen from Detroit this offseason, from the signing of Kyle Allen to the rhetoric about how Hooker has played, speaks well to the job Hooker has done heading into his third season. It’s entirely possible Allen passes him for the QB2 role.

It’s not exactly a glowing endorsement of the behind-the-scenes development from Hooker. The 2023 third-round pick appeared in three games in which the Lions scored 49 or more points last season, completing 6-of-9 passes for 62 yards. It sounds like Kyle Allen (and potentially Jake Fromm) will push him for No. 2 duties this offseason.

Allen joins two other backups in Detroit. Hendon Hooker, who is under contract through 2026, was Detroit’s backup last year. Jake Fromm, who is under contract through 2025, is currently third string. The Lions can notably save all $1.03 million of Fromm’s salary with a pre-June 1 release. Allen is a more proven veteran than Fromm. Ultimately the Lions may just carry four quarterbacks in camp and see what happens.

With Russell Wilson and Justin Fields already on the roster, Allen won’t be competing for anything more than a QB3 spot — and that’s assuming the Steelers opt to keep three quarterbacks on their 53-man roster. Allen has started 19 games in his career and has thrown for 4,734-26-21 across 30 career games. He’s thrown only 184 regular season passes since 2020. In addition to Allen, the Steelers also signed defensive end Dean Lowry, who has totaled 15.5 sacks over his eight-year career.

27-year-old Allen will be thrown into the mix behind Josh Allen. Currently only Matt Barkley is on the roster after Case Keenum departed in free agency. A team with championship aspirations probably needs to do better than Allen, though he has made 19 career starts. Two of them came last year for the Texans. They went poorly.

He’s a healthy scratch after starting the last two games. Jeff Driskel will get backup duties for the Texans against the Cowboys and likely be tasked with weird short-yardage stuff like he was earlier in the season. WR Nico Collins (foot), WR Brandin Cooks (calf), DL Kurt Hinish (shoulder), and CB Derek Stingley (hamstring/illness) were ruled out on Friday. Also inactive for the Texans are OL Justin McCray (hamstring) and FB Troy Hairston (ribs).

Allen managed to get picked on the first play of the game when Teagan Quitoriano outright kicked his own catch into the hands of John Johnson, fumble-sixed on a second down quarterback sneak from his own one-yard line, then threw a pick-six when a designed screen pass was tipped up and caught by Tony Fields. 68 of his 201 passing yards came on a fourth-quarter drive down 21 with four minutes left in the game. Lovie Smith would not commit to keeping him in the starting lineup after the game. We don’t know why the Texans would have expected anything more than this, but here we are.

Allen will be a bottom-end superflex QB2 in Week 13. We genuinely don’t know what the Texans are hoping to see here.

Allen created a 30-0 deficit as he was sacked five times and one of his early picks was returned to the Houston 2. It was not exactly “his fault” that Jordan Akins was strip-sixed, but it was a checkdown pass that had little chance of reaching the sticks regardless. Allen feasted in garbage time with 163 of his 215 passing yards coming after the Texans fell behind 30-0. If he gets another start, Cleveland’s ghastly defense awaits in the Deshaun Watson bowl in Week 13. He will not be a recommended option.

Texans offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton told reporters the change hasn’t happened, but no one on the scene believed his weak attempt at gamesmanship. Davis Mills has been one of the NFL’s worst, most inaccurate quarterbacks over the past couple of months. The Texans are ready to pretend Allen is an upgrade over Mills for the next week or so. Allen has started 17 games over the past three seasons, completing 63.1 percent of his passes for 24 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. He should not be streamed in any format this week against Miami.