FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. — Taylor Heinicke played in his first big-time football game on Aug. 29, 2008. A sophomore at Collins Hill High School, he was inserted into a game against county neighbor and perennial state power Parkview.
“I saw our kids getting up off the bench like, ‘He’s in,’” said Kevin Reach, Collins Hill’s then-offensive coordinator and soon-to-be head coach. “They were excited about it.”
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Fifteen years later and twenty miles up the road from that game against Parkview, Heinicke’s football career still is playing out that same way. He keeps getting thrown into games and something exciting usually follows.
Heinicke’s most recent opportunity will come Sunday when he will start for the Atlanta Falcons against the Minnesota Vikings at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, supplanting, at least for the moment, Desmond Ridder, who started the Falcons’ first eight games this season.
Falcons coach Arthur Smith made the announcement Wednesday.
“There’s a lot of variables,” Smith said. “Considering the last 72 hours and where we are at going into this week, we’re going with Taylor. That’s why he’s here.”
Ridder was evaluated for a concussion at halftime of Atlanta’s 28-23 loss to Tennessee last week but was cleared. He is available to play this week and will be the backup quarterback against the Vikings, Smith said.
“Right now, in the short term, we’re going with Taylor,” Smith said.
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Smith emphasized several times that the decision was short term, but he declined to say when or if Ridder might regain the starting job.
“We don’t have a long-term plan right now. Right now we’re focused on Minnesota,” the coach said. “There are a lot of variables.”
Smith used the word “variables” multiple times in discussing his decision but declined to elaborate on what they were or how much each might be weighed.
“There are a lot of variables,” he said. “My answer is not going to change.”
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Ridder, who has started 12 games since being drafted by the Falcons in the third round in 2021, leads the NFL in turnovers with 12 (six fumbles, six interceptions). He has turned the ball over seven times in the last three games, a span in which the team is 1-2.
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Heinicke, who has started 25 games in a six-year NFL career, replaced Ridder at halftime of Sunday’s game against the Titans and led four scoring drives that totaled 20 points while the team gained 253 yards. Ridder was 8-for-12 for 71 yards in the first half and led eight drives that totaled 89 yards and three points.
The team initiated a concussion check on Ridder at halftime of the Titans game and stuck with Heinicke after Ridder was cleared. Ridder is 15th in the league with 1,701 yards and has six touchdown passes.
Ridder handled the news well, Smith said.
“Des is awesome,” Smith said. “This isn’t some grand statement for forever. Des is great.”
Heinicke learned of his promotion via a text from Smith, who sent it at 10 p.m. after Heinicke had gone to sleep.
“So my alarm goes off this morning around 5:30, 5:45 with my phone and it’s the first thing I see,” the quarterback said. “I came in and started getting ready to go. In Washington that happened a couple times, so this isn’t the first go-around” with a text promotion.
Like Smith, Heinicke is unwilling to speculate on what the Falcons’ quarterback situation might be after Sunday.
“The only thing I’m focused on is this week,” he said. The Vikings “have got a really difficult defense. They do a bunch of different things. That’s enough on my plate right there. I’m focused on being the guy this week. We’ll see what happens going forward.”
Ridder appeared only briefly in Atlanta’s locker room during the time media was present, and he declined comment.
“It’s tough (on Ridder), it is,” Heinicke said. “There’s no beating around the bush there. This is kind of new for Des. So he’s handled it very well. He’s speaking up in meetings. He’s very engaged. He’s helping me out any way he can. To see that from a young guy, it’s really cool. Just speaks to his character.”
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Several of Ridder’s teammates echoed that sentiment.
“He’s been the same Des, great attitude, encouraging,” offensive lineman Jake Matthews said. “I have a lot of respect for him. He’s been really good for us. He’s got the right mindset, and he’s still being a great leader for this team.”
“It’s obviously tough, but we’re still behind him, we’re still supporting him and keeping him up,” tight end Kyle Pitts said.
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Arriving under the radar and ending up as the starting quarterback is becoming something of a pattern for Heinicke, who turned an unexpected opportunity in Washington into 24 starts with that franchise.
“He always seems to win over the locker room,” Reach said. “People play for him.”
Part of the reason for that is that Heinicke is always prepared, the coach said.
The other part: “He’s a man’s man. He’s just a cool dude,” Reach said. “I think people can relate to him. He kind of has that knack that people like being around him.”
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As a senior at Collins Hill, Heinicke threw for 4,218 yards and 44 touchdowns, which ranked second and third respectively in state history at the time, but he didn’t receive any scholarship offers from FBS schools.
“I’m sitting there telling them, ‘This is one of the best football players I’ve ever seen in high school, not only the best player I’ve ever coached, but one of the best I’ve ever seen. This guy just makes it happen,’” said Reach, now the head coach at Monroe (Ga.) Area High School. “I still see some college coaches come through who didn’t take a bite on him, and they go, ‘I know, I know, don’t say anything.’”
Heinicke played at Old Dominion, where he totaled 16,279 yards of total offense, but he went undrafted in 2015, signing with Minnesota after the draft. He was released by the Vikings in 2017 without appearing on the active roster, signed and released by the Patriots and then landed in Houston, where he made his NFL active roster debut in December of 2017. After one game in Houston, he was released by the Texans and then signed by Carolina, where he played in six games, starting one, in 2018.
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In 2019, he was out of the league and living in his sister’s house 10 minutes from the Falcons’ practice facility in Flowery Branch. (Collins Hill High School is 15 miles south of Flowery Branch and 30 miles north of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.) When Heinicke’s sister told him that year she was planning to start a family, he heard, “It’s time to move out,” and bought his own home in Flowery Branch.
“Two months after that, I get a call from Washington,” he said.
He appeared in one game for Washington in 2020 but then took over the starting job the next season and started 24 games in 2021 and 2022. The Commanders wanted him back for 2023 but didn’t want him as badly as the Falcons, who met Heinicke’s contract requests, signing him to a two-year deal that could be worth as much as $14 million.
“I’ve been fighting my way through the league for a while now,” Heinicke said. “I had never really had that type of contract. I was like, ‘I want something that is going to pay for all those years.’ We were asking for a certain amount. Washington almost matched it, but then Atlanta came in last second and matched it.”
Heinicke now believes that coming into the league as an undrafted free agent helped his career in the long run.
“I remember my first four or five years I never saw the field. I was kind of the third-string guy,” he said. “I didn’t even dress on game days, but you kind of practice being the starter by preparing like you’re the starter. I think when your time comes, you know how to prepare. That’s helped me in the past. I was fortunate enough to be undrafted and kind of get developed. A lot of quarterbacks, if you’re drafted in the first three rounds it’s like now. If you’re undrafted, you kind of get to develop more.”
The Falcons pursued Heinicke in free agency because of his experience and the fact that they had watched him lead Washington to wins over them in 2021 and 2022, Smith said.
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“You saw it on Sunday (against Tennessee),” Smith said. “Whether you call it spatial awareness or whatever, he’s got a unique ability to extend plays. This isn’t his first rodeo. He’s been a great fit here. That’s why you sign a guy like him.”
And why he might hold on to this job for a while.
(Photo: Steve Roberts / USA Today)
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