Can 'Taylor Time' Energize WFT?

On Thursday Taylor Heinicke will get his first regular-season start as a quarterback for the Washington Football Team. It comes about eight months since his first start for the team overall, in the Wild Card round of the 2020 NFL Playoffs.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

As strange as it is, Heinicke gets his first in-season start after his first post-season one. Just another curve in the quarterback's winding road in the NFL.

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One of those twists includes a three-interception performance in 2018 with the Carolina Panthers.

"I feel like my game has progressed a lot throughout those years," Heinicke said. "I feel like I know the NFL game more, it's one of those things where you don't want to turn the ball over. That's the biggest thing."

Sounds simple enough. Priority 1: Don't turn over the ball. But for every quarterback, it's a lesson in conduct and play, not knowledge.

Every player knows keeping the ball secure is top on the list of things to do. Yet, time after time, the desire to score or make a play outweighs the need to preserve possession.

Easier said than done.

Helping Heinicke in his progression as an NFL quarterback is his relationship with offensive coordinator Scott Turner. Even in his multi-team, in-and-out of the NFL career, Heinicke has found some consistency with Turner.

"Me and Scott have been together for four or five years," Heinicke told reporters on Tuesday. "He knows what I'm good at, what I'm not. He knows what I'm comfortable with and what I'm not."

Comfort is a big part of the equation. If you've ever seen a quarterback and coach who don't trust each other, you know it gets ugly pretty quickly.

So imagine how key that relationship is when you're a backup quarterback entering the game on your team's fourth possession, and you've just witnessed the starter go down with an injury.

"You're excited because you're playing, but you're also kind of defeated in the fact that your starter just got hurt," Heinicke said when asked about entering in the middle of Week 1. "It's rough for everybody. A lot of energy is lost and you try and go in there and just bring it back."

Nobody knows yet if Heinicke will bring the team's first win with him coming out of Week 2. But he's already bringing plenty of energy.

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At the end of practice on Tuesday, it was the backup turned starting quarterback who broke down the team. Nobody is quoting what he said, but it got the team excited. A noticeable reaction erupted.

"I felt like I need to get in front of the team a little bit," Heinicke said about the moment. "So I went in there and said a couple of words that I probably shouldn't say right now about these Giants. Hopefully it got the guys fired up and ready to play for Thursday."

The stage is now set. Heinicke will be starting his first regular-season game for the Washington Football Team. He'll be doing it with minimal preparation time. His team behind him. And a whole lot of energy.

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