What to Know About New Third-String QB Kevin Hogan
NASHVILLE – For the second straight year, the Tennessee Titans have had to find a third-string quarterback past the halfway point of the season.
Wednesday, they added Kevin Hogan to their practice squad. They also added wide receiver Chris Rowland to the practice squad.
The 29-year-old Hogan entered the league in 2016 as a fifth-round draft pick of the Kansas City Chiefs and has thrown 101 passes in eight career appearances. Hogan has 621 passing yards with four touchdowns and seven interceptions.
His signing became necessary when Tennessee lost Matt Barkley to the Carolina Panthers a day earlier. The Panthers signed Barkley off the Titans’ practice squad to address injury issues they have at quarterback.
"He has played in a lot of systems," coach Mike Vrabel said. "I think he will be able to grasp what we are doing fairly quickly in case his services are needed. It is probably hard this late in the year to try and find guys who have played in this league. ... Hopefully, he will have a grasp by the end of the week that if we need him, he will be available."
Here are a few things to know about Hogan:
• Lone start was the end: Hogan has not appeared in a regular-season game in more than four years. The last was Oct. 15, 2017, and that was his only NFL start. He completed 20 of 37 passes for 140 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions in a 33-17 loss to the Houston Texans. That season, of course, the Browns finished 0-16, and the starter in the other 15 games was DeShone Kizer, the quarterback the Titans added last November after the New Orleans Saints plucked Trevor Siemian from the practice squad. Coincidentally, Kizer’s last start in the NFL also was in 2017 with Cleveland.
• Nothing new: Hogan was unsigned for much of the 2020 season. Cincinnati finally added him to its practice squad in late November, and he spent the rest of the season there. The Bengals added him to their active roster for one game, but he did not play.
So, while he might not have a deep understanding of Tennessee’s offense at the outset, he will have a clear sense of how to go about his job for the next couple days, weeks.
• A football family: A Native of McLean, Va. where he was the top high school player in the Washington D.C. area as a senior, Hogan has a grandfather who played football at Navy (James M. O’Brien), two uncles who played at Notre Dame (Coley O’Brien and Ivan Brown) and a cousin who played at Arizona (Sean O’Brien).
Hogan went to Stanford, where he was a four-year starter, a two-year captain and set the program record for career victories as a starting quarterback (he was 36-10). He won his first 10 college starts and finished among the top five in virtually all of the Cardinal’s career passing statistics.
• Does not give up easily: Hogan ended up in Cleveland after he failed to make Kansas City’s regular-season roster as a rookie. He left in 2018 because he requested a trade after the Browns signed Tyrod Taylor and had the number-one pick in the draft, which they ultimately used to select Baker Mayfield.
The Washington Football Team got Hogan and a sixth-round pick in that year’s draft in exchange for a second-round selection. That did not work out, and Washington cut him at the end of the preseason. Denver gave him a shot in 2019 and released him at the start of the regular season, and he spent all that season as a free agent.
The Titans will be his sixth NFL team.
