The big Lions competition that nobody expected to be a competition is about to make the preseason really fun

The Detroit Lions are set with their starting quarterback spot with Jared Goff. So set that they made him one of the league's highest paid players this offseason . It seemed that the Lions were going to be totally set with Hendon Hooker at their number two spot, but it turns out that might not be case after all. Nate Sudfeld is not just someone to be forgotten about.

"That's a competition, you know, it is. And we like both of those guys." Lions' head coach Dan Campbell said Friday. "There is a reason Nate's here. You know, Nate has played before. He's got a lot of experience. He's got more years and a little bit more experience, certainly, than Hooker does. But this is a competition. I mean, at the end of the day, both of those guys are going to roll between the twos and threes, and by the time we get into camp, you know, we need to know who are two is, and we're not going to have our two be somebody we don't trust in the moment."

Maybe it's because Hooker was a third-round draft pick last year, but it seems like we've all locked him into that second spot in our minds and totally forgot that this is all super new to Hooker. He didn't partake in OTAs, minicamp or training camp last summer and he's never taken a snap in the league. The only NFL experience he has is the few weeks that he practiced with the team at the end of the 2023 season. Their focus was defintley more on the task at hand during that time.

Sudfeld has been in the league since 2016 and has played some regular season football and a lot of preseason football as well. Some of it with the Lions last year. He did struggle, but Hooker is going to struggle too. This is new for him.

So now the thing that we all thought we knew turns out to be something we didn't know at all. This is going to be a full-fledged competition and that's going to be fun. Not only will we see them duel at camp, we'll get to see them go out there and duel in the three preseason games.

It's hard to not give Hooker the edge right now because he's younger and more athletic, but maybe Sudfeld surprises this summer. We'll see. There could be a chance the Lions keep three quarterbacks on their roster.

Related: The Lions should sign this kicker that's already competed with Jake Bates and won