Taylor Heinicke is heading to Los Angeles. Dianna Russini of The Athletic reports that the Falcons are trading the quarterback to the Chargers. Atlanta will receive a conditional sixth-round pick in return. The conditions of that pick are based on playing time, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
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We heard earlier this month that the Falcons were eyeing a Heinicke trade. While the veteran represented the team’s lone holdover at the position, his future was uncertain after the Falcons revamped their depth chart this offseason. First, the front office signed Kirk Cousins to a lucrative contract, and they later surprised many when they selected Michael Penix Jr. in the first round. That left Heinicke without a clear role on the team.
While the Falcons generally opted for three active QBs in 2023 while taking advantage of the league’s emergency quarterback spot, it sounded like the team preferred to stash their QB3 on the practice squad for the 2024 campaign. Atlanta ultimately carried Heinicke on the 53-man roster through final roster cuts, but they’ll now move forward with only a pair of QBs on their active roster.
While Heinicke was pushed off the roster in Atlanta, it’s not necessarily a reflection of his standing in the league. The former UDFA had a successful two-year stint in Washington between 2021 and 2022, guiding his squad to a 12-11-1 record as a starter. That performance helped earn him a two-year, $14MM deal with his hometown Falcons last offseason, where he was expected to provide former third-round pick Desmond Ridder with some competition. Heinicke ultimately got four starts for Atlanta, going 1-3 while completing a career-low 54.4 percent of his passes. The veteran took a pay cut from $5MM to $1.21MM to stick in Atlanta for 2024, but now he’ll be earning that reduced salary in Los Angeles.
The Chargers were only carrying a pair of QBs following final cuts, with Easton Stick lined up to be the QB2 behind Justin Herbert. Stick, a former fifth-round pick, has spent his entire career with the Chargers, and he finally got an extended look while filling in for Herbert in 2023. While the Chargers went 0-4 in his four starts, Stick still managed to complete 63.8 percent of his passes for 1,129 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. Heinicke will provide the organization with a bit more starting experience behind Herbert, but it’s uncertain how the depth chart will ultimately shake out.
Surprised they were able to get a pick out of it….he’s one of the better back-ups in the league however IMO
It’s conditional so they might not get anything out of it.
Probably a six, if he plays a certain amount of games and that might happen they might sit Herbert for the first game now.
He’s a B list backup, D list starter. A potential sixth is decent in my eyes. People will nag regardless lol *shrug
Absolutely.
What’s great about Heinicke is his ability to come in cold off the bench. He’s a PhD level mathematician and the game of football comes easy to him. If Heinicke didn’t have a wet noodle for an arm, he could be elite. But his arm was never great and it’s not getting better.
A heck of a lot better than a backup QB who needs 1.5 games to warm up and throws random interceptions at a rate of about three per game. That covers most of the backups in the league. It’s very hard to sit for eight games and come into a game hot. That’s Heinicke’s NFL talent.
The “successful stint” in DC was by the skin of his teeth. That mean taking huge chances on scrambling without sliding, that meant throwing lame duck high risk passes. Heinicke played his heart out and at the best of his abilities, and it just wasn’t good enough.
Glass half full kind of persona borderline over confident. Enjoyed watching him play here in DC. Nice get by Chargers
A hidden advantage with a smart gung-ho player like Heinicke is the other players know he is all in. They better run their routes to the end and/or fulfill their blocking assignments as Heinicke is not going to give up on the play.
The difference in leadership is tangible over a strong-armed but hesitant QB like Kirk Cousins for instance.
Heinicke is still not a viable long-term starter. He is a competitive QB among the bottom half of starting QB’s. A lot better than what is on most benches, but not a good solution for a whole season and playoffs.
I’d take noodle arm Heinecke over Stick and Duggan who they released. If Herbert goes down for a few weeks and you want to stay competitive, Heinecke should do good enough to win games with those weapons and Harbaugh coaching. But like I said people will nag over anything
Like “noodle arm”. In DC, because of that arm, he had to get downright creative in how he went about matriculating the football down field. Entertaining.
Stick did not look great in preseason. Anything he did prior to that, won’t really matter to the new coaching staff.
I like this trade. Good stuff Terry
Has stick been released hopefully, and they put Adam driver on the practice squad
This is a great get for L.A.; not necessarily because Heinicke is elite, but because their backup situation was so bad.
Don’t get me wrong-as far as backups go, Heinicke has great experience, has started a lot of games, is mostly consistent, and has a rally-back factor that is very important in backups. He checks off most of the boxes that you’d want in a backup. But the Chargers needed to get somebody there to hold spot down, Heinicke or no. Acquiring him was a big plus, though.
@ak they have no chance to win if stick came in. Kinda sucks that they couldn’t evaluate the wr’s because he was so terrible. If heinicke has to play the defense should keep them close, and they will probably just go run heavy. The rally back factor will be huge.
I agree, 100%.
I suppose this will trigger a price mark down on the Kaepernick jerseys 🙂
This is fine, but I’m not sure it will really elevate the team into contention.
@technically if stick was the backup they would be picking in the top 3 if Herbert gets hurt. So it’s kinda a big deal. Heinicke isn’t a starter, but he should keep you afloat.
If Herbert gets hurt, they are better off going for a top 3 pick. A few guys will have up and down seasons, but the team is going to look dramatically different next year anyway.