It’s December 7th, 2020. Taylor Heinicke is sitting in his sister’s apartment, working to finish his engineering degree from Old Dominion University. As football fans know, this time of the year means the playoffs are approaching, but for Heinicke, this time of the year meant exams were right around the corner. After Covid-19 suspended operations in April for the UFL, Heinke had been left unemployed for 7 months, which led to him shifting his focus to finishing up his degree, while sleeping on his sister’s couch. A former Freshman All-American and NFL quarterback, with no degree, job, or a place to call home. This leads to the question: Where does he go from here, and how do you know his name?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taylor Heinicke was born on March 15th, 1993, in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Growing up, Taylor excelled in the game of football, becoming one of the best players in the state, winning Old Spice Player of the Year, and Gwinnett Daily Post Offensive Player of the Year, along with playing in various post-season bowl games. With a resume like this, colleges should have been lining up at his door\u2026 Right? Well, not exactly. When it was all said and done, only one Division 1 school offered Heinicke, a school eight and a half hours north of his hometown, whose football program was only two years into its inception. Taylor was heading to Norfolk to play for the Monarchs.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When most freshman athletes, especially football players, step onto campus for the first time, most go in with the idea that they will be redshirted, giving themselves a year to get acclimated to their program and university, but as Taylor’s story has shown, and has continued to prove, he does not have an ordinary story. In Week 5, ODU hosted UMass at home. Outside of being Family weekend on campus, this should have been a routine game for the Monarchs. Midway through the game, Senior quarterback Thomas DeMarco got his ankle rolled over by a UMass defensive end, forcing Heinicke to step into the game, and there was no turning back from them. From then on, the Monarchs rode Heinicke to a 10-3 season, earning him the conference Freshman of the Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the next four years, two things remained the same: The Monarchs kept winning, and the awards kept rolling in for Heinicke. After his four years as a monarch, Taylor owned every single quarterback stat at ODU, finishing with a 35-15 record as a monarch. Heinicke walked away from Norfolk winning the Walter Payton and Dudley Award, along with earning FCS All-American and Player of the Year, CAA Offensive Player of the Year, and being recognized as the school’s greatest player of all time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When looking back at Taylor’s illustrious career, it didn’t seem like anything could stop him. Colleges across the country had been kicking themselves for not recruiting him out of high school, making the \u201cUnderdog\u201d narrative almost unnecessary at this point. With how many doubters he had proved wrong, he obviously should have been a sure-fire NFL draft pick\u2026. Right? Well, in what has become a recurring theme in Taylor’s football career, his name was not called during the 2015 NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It didn’t take long for the phone to ring for Taylor after the draft, as the Minnesota Vikings immediately signed the former Monarch as an undrafted free agent. Although the former Freshman of the Year was used to stepping up early, the opportunity did not seem too likely, as the Vikings had brought him in to compete for the backup role to the team’s previous year’s first-round pick, Teddy Bridgewater. For his first three seasons in the NFL, Heinicke did not touch the field for any regular-season action, but was a player that the team and fans were always excited to see during the preseason. Year after year, fans would get to see exactly why Heinicke stayed a part of the roster: Big-time plays, flashy runs, and he managed to always give a spark in these essentially scrimmages, but these big-time plays became his downfall. In a preseason game in 2017, Heinicke suffered a concussion, which ultimately resulted in his release from the team. For the rest of the season, he spent time on the practice squads in Houston and New England before ultimately being cut from both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2018, Taylor was signed by the Carolina Panthers, where he would get his first true opportunity. Norv Turner, Taylor’s offensive coordinator in Minnesota, advocated for signing the former Monarch, based on his previous knowledge of the playbook, and this signing paid off big time. In week 16, Taylor would not only be promoted to the starter, with Cam Newton out due to injury, but would be promoted as a Captain. As great as things were looking, the performance was not as pretty, with Taylor later getting benched in favor of veteran Kyle Allen. This poor performance led to the release of the 25-year-old quarterback. After a brief stint with the UFL’s Saint Louis Battlehawks in April of 2020, the now 27-year-old quarterback was officially out of football.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This takes us back to the night of December 7th, 2020. Studying for exams, fighting to get a degree, while sleeping on his sister’s couch. Now almost two years removed from his last NFL start, the last thing on his mind was suiting up for a game, knowing his football career was likely over\u2026\u2026\u2026right? Just like his story has shown, you can never count out the Georgia kid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Washington Football Team was currently facing a big issue: Covid-19 was wiping out players not only on their own team, but across all teams in the NFL. The Denver Broncos had shown weeks prior that the need at quarterback was crucial, with all of their QBs being ruled out, forcing them to start a Wide Receiver at the position, which went terribly. With that in mind, and in a playoff push, Washington signed the available Heinicke to prevent this issue from occurring to them, which ended up being a wise decision. In that last game of the regular season, starter Alex Smith suffered a bone bruise that ruled him out for the Wildcard game the next week, throwing Heinicke into the starting role. Who did they have to play? None other than Tom Brady, and the 12-15 Buccaneers. Heinicke would be making his first start in over two years against the then six-time Super Bowl champion and three-time MVP.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This game was awesome. Truly, I mean awesome. The ball was flying, the game was close, truly a David vs Goliath story. Down 18-10, 3rd and 5, with 2 and a half minutes left in the 3rd quarter, in the most iconic play of his career, Heinicke escaped a collapsing pocket, rushing to the sideline, Taylor dived toward the pillion and scored, scoring a huge touchdown for Washington. Tampa Bay would walk away with the win, football fans fell in love with Taylor Heinicke, the undrafted free agent, who took the Bucs to the wall. He became an overnight hero in D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taylor would end up playing two more seasons for Washington before making stops in Atlanta and LA. A story like this should give anyone hope and show that you never know when you will get your chance to shine. Heinicke made a career of staying ready, being ready for any opportunity thrown his way. You never know when an opportunity will come knocking at your door.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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