It’s still fairly early in training camp, with the seventh practice coming on Wednesday, but the Detroit Lions may have a backup quarterback problem.

Hendon Hooker has had a few rough days to start camp, including throwing two interceptions on Tuesday. Maybe a finger injury he suffered in OTAs is still bothering him, but his performance is becoming concerning. Nate Sudfeld has 37 career regular season pass attempts since coming into the league in 2016, so if something happened to Jared Goff and he had to play a season with Super Bowl aspirations would go completely off-track.

Some Lions’ fans may just go “if something happens to Goff, the season is done anyway”, in an effort to dismiss who the No. 2 quarterback ends up being. But if the current situation sticks, headlined by Hooker not being able to usurp Sudfeld, standing pat isn’t an option. An effort to find someone more capable, experienced, etc. has to be made.

A solid QB2 fallback option for Lions may fall right into their laps

The Atlanta Falcons made some notable quarterback moves this offseason, signing Kirk Cousins and then using the eighth overall pick in the draft on Michael Penix. That leaves someone who played a bit for them last year on the outside looking in.

Via D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, here’s what Taylor Heinicke recently said about his situation with the Falcons.

“Yeah, I kind of see the writing on the wall. It’s nothing that I haven’t been through before. So, I accept my role in any case. My role, for me, and what I think is to help Kirk any way that I can. If he has any questions. Same thing with Mike. Sometimes the game is fast. Sometimes everything is fast for rookies.”

Heinicke could make the Falcons’ 53-man roster as their No. 3 quarterback, but Ledbetter suggested they’ll likely kept two on the active roster and carry one on the practice squad. The math doesn’t work in Heinicke’s favor, and he’d never make it back to Atlanta’s practice squad if he was among their final roster cuts.

Maybe Heinicke eventually asks to be cut, and the Falcons do him a favor. He is shaping up to be a tradeable asset for them though, with 29 career starts on his resume and as they’ll likely showcase him in preseason games. The pay cut he took this offseason dropped his base salary to $1.2 million for this year.

If the Lions start to consider other options to be their No. 2 quarterback, which is a massive ‘if’ until further notice, someone like Heinicke would be ideal. The question is to what degree he is (or ends up being) available, but he seems to know he’s not long for Atlanta’s roster and he has put out a public signal acknowledging it.