- The reason I use [REDACTED] to speak of Heinicke is because whenever he is mentioned, exactly what happens, happened: emotional response. So it became habit.
- He was terrible in just about every possible definition of terrible. He made late decisions, threw interceptions, and didn't have the arm strength to reach the sidelines.
- He owes Terry half of his income, because without Terry making Herculean effort plays, Taylor doesn't complete any passes outside a 10 yard box from where the ball is snapped.
- I don't blame Heinicke. He "fought his guts out." But he should never have been in a position to ever play. He had his one magical game against Tampa in the playoffs. That should have been it.
- When he went down to Atlanta, he couldn't beat out Riddler, then when Riddler sucked so much, they put Heinicke in, he sucked so much more they had to go back to Riddler.
- He's just a terrible QB. Good dude. Lots of heart. Just a terrible QB
- More annoying that anything were the group of fans who just wouldn't stop about him being worth giving a shot to. He wasn't worth giving a shot to. And they droned on and on about how he was cheap and why not just keep "cheap and available." Because he wasn't good enough. I was all for trying Wentz because at least Wentz was at one point a good QB. I would literally have tried any QB with more talent rather than seeing Heinicke throw murder balls all over the field.
- Scott Turner never got a fair shake, I agree with that, however, he also couldn't come up with anything other than "run, run, pray." I used to drive literally the entire ES board nuts on gamedays because I would predict the first down run. I get it, your QB is not good. So try and do SOMETHING different. Change anything. Throw on first, run on second. Run the QB. Just do ANYTHING. But he could not adjust at all. If you become predictable, then the first down run won't work (and it rarely did), then you're in known passing situations with a QB who can't throw the ball. For that reason and that reason alone, I wanted him fired.
- I am glad he doesn't have to sleep on his sister's couch. I'm glad he's made good money, and hope he continues to play as a backup in the NFL. Hopefully against us some day. Because he can't win football games.
- I can't believe we have to relitigate this again. But at least now we're in the right thread for it.
1. I agree about the emotional response. I myself admitted to being irritated, and I see how much of a response my post triggered, but I also notice the haters were at least as bad if not worse, e.g. I saw terms like “terrible,” “awful,” embarrassing,” “fanbois,” “shit stain,” and “shit ass” being used, not exactly the language of the even tempered. Really though it’s all in good fun, arguing about Washington’s quarterback is very much part of the tradition here.
2. Perhaps, but the fact remains he was relatively successful in the stat that matters most, wins and losses. As I said, these are the only quarterbacks since Mark Rypien to post winning record for Washington: Brad Johnson, Tony Banks, Alex Smith, Taylor Heinicke, and Jayden Daniels. That’s it. Heinicke’s 12-11-1 record is even more impressive when you consider Haskins before him was 3-10 and Howell after him was 5-13.
And for the record, this is his statline for his three years (26 games) in Washington: 494 completions on 772 attempts (64%), 5415 yards, 33 touchdowns, 21 interceptions, 87.5 rating, plus 426 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns on 91 carries. Those may not be great stats compared to the NFL’s better quarterbacks, but they are not “terrible by every possible definition,” and certainly much better than Dwayne Haskins (74.4 rating), Carson Wentz (80.2 rating), and Sam Howell (77.5 rating) were when here. Maybe that is part of the disconnect, I am comparing him to the only other options we had at the time, whereas his detractors were comparing him to hypothetical quarterbacks who played for other teams.
3. Fair enough, Terry made him look good many times. I remember Ryan Fitzpatrick saying he taught him to throw it up there and give his guys a chance sometimes. I actually have one of these:
4. He had more than that one magical wild card game. He had some winning streaks, game winning drives, divisions wins, etc. The most noteworthy is probably that legendary 19-play drive to beat Tampa Bay, a record that is likely to stand for a long time.
5. Fair enough, he has not had much success since he left here. I don’t think anybody regrets moving on from him, I certainly don’t, I just think the vitriolic hatred I see towards him is unwarranted. As you said, he is a good dude with lots of heart, and a lot of us enjoyed cheering for him at a time we didn’t have much to cheer.
7. I don’t know which fans said that, but obviously Taylor got more than a shot here, he got the opportunity of a lifetime and took advantage of it. It’s a great story from couch surfer to millionaire NFL QB.
I do recall fans being irritated when Taylor was benched in 2022, but honestly that was warranted. He was 5-3-1, our other quarterbacks were 3-6.
9. Maybe he can’t win football games anymore, he certainly hasn’t looked good in his few recent opportunities, but he did win twelve of them for us.
10. Yeah it’s definitely history. It looks like we finally have a franchise quarterback and the days of having to be happy with guys like Brad Johnson, Mark Brunell, Alex Smith, and Taylor Heinicke are behind us. Long live Jayden Daniels!
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