Taylor Heinicke, an Old Dominion University legend who improbably resurrected his NFL career, was released on Tuesday by the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Chargers kept only two quarterbacks — starter Justin Herbert and Trey Lance — as NFL teams trimmed their rosters to 53 players on Tuesday.
Heinicke, 32, becomes a free agent and could be signed by another team.
Heinicke spent one season with the Chargers after playing for Washington and Atlanta following a two-year break from the NFL. His three seasons in Washington came after he was plucked from obscurity while taking online classes to finish his ODU degree.
Heinicke was with Washington for three seasons and with the Atlanta Falcons for one before heading to LA. He has played in 42 NFL regular-season games, starting 29. All but five of those starts came with the Washington from 2020-22.
In his NFL career, he has completed 607 of 971 passes for 6,663 yards, 39 touchdowns and 28 interceptions, and he has run for 608 yards and three touchdowns on 114 carries.
Heinicke signed a one-year contract extension with the Chargers in March reportedly worth up to $6.2 million and has earned more than $19.8 million in his NFL career, according to spotrac.com.
At ODU, Heinicke set a number of Football Championship Subdivision records — season passing yards (5,076), total yards in a game (791), passing yards (730) and passes in a game without an interception (79).
He was undrafted after leaving ODU and had short stints and limited success with four NFL teams: Minnesota, New England, Houston and Carolina. He was on the St. Louis BattleHawks’ roster in the XFL before the league folded.
But Heinicke made an improbable leap back into the NFL in 2020 when Washington called him in desperate need of quarterback help. He was taking online math classes to finish his ODU degree.
Heinicke started on Washington’s practice squad, but within a few weeks — after rookie Dwayne Haskins struggled and Alex Smith was injured — was thrust into the starting lineup. He played during the fourth quarter of a regular-season loss against Carolina, then started Washington’s first-round playoff game against Tampa Bay.
Against the Buccaneers, Heinicke started his first NFL game since 2018 and drew rave reviews from his Washington teammates and coach Ron Rivera. He completed 26 of 44 passes for 306 yards and a touchdown. He also was Washington’s leading rusher, with 46 yards on six attempts, including an 8-yard TD run and dive to the pylon that made the rounds on social media and TV highlights.
That reckless abandon became a trademark of Heinicke’s during his stint in Washington and endeared him to fans.
This is a developing story.
