Hoyer comes full circle
Long, grinding road leads back to Pats
‘I want to have fun and win. What better place than here to do that?’ — QB BRIAN HOYER On being back with Patriots
FOXBORO — Brian Hoyer probably can’t remember every difficult conversation he has endured throughout his nine-year career, though there is one he’ll never forget.
For that had a desirable ending.
A month ago today, Hoyer was shopping for his 5-year-old son’s Halloween costume when 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan called his cell phone. Hoyer found it strange because they had been together three hours earlier. Shanahan explained the 49ers had acquired quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo from the Patriots in a deadline deal, and Hoyer no longer had a spot on the roster.
But if Hoyer was willing to move his wife and kids across the country, the Patriots wanted him to again back up Tom Brady. The caveat soothed the pain of the benching from two weeks earlier, the latest blow in Hoyer’s grinding career.
“I was in shock,” Hoyer said. “Once I realized what was going to happen (with the Patriots), I was really excited to get a chance to come back here. The thing I was nervous about was telling my family that we had to move again. I never planned on that in a thousand years. It’s like Murphy’s Law. Everything that could happen has happened to me in my career.
“I knew it was a special opportunity. If in San Francisco, the worst thing possible happened, then this was the best scenario.”
Back to school
Hoyer first joined the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2009 and beat out 2008 third-round pick Kevin O’Connell, veteran Andrew Walter and Matt Gutierrez for the backup job, which he kept for three full years. He staved off 2011 third-rounder Ryan Mallett but couldn’t keep his perch in 2012.
When the Patriots cut Hoyer after training camp, he had such a tough time finding another NFL job that he returned to his high school, Saint Ignatius in Cleveland, to work out. He threw routes against invisible defenses and even played scout-team quarterback in 7-on-7 drills until the Steelers lost Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich in consecutive weeks in November.
“I will always have a special place in my heart for the Steelers,” Hoyer said. “When no one else wanted me, they signed me.”
Hoyer was released three weeks later so the Steelers could promote a practice squad cornerback to replace injured Ike Taylor, but they planned to re-sign him after that weekend’s game. So Hoyer drove home to Cleveland to have dinner with his wife, Lauren, and son, Garrett, when he got another surprising call.
Arizona general manager Jason Licht, who was the Patriots director of player personnel when they signed Hoyer, informed the quarterback the Cardinals had claimed him off waivers for the final three weeks of the 2012 season. Hoyer was so stunned.
“Can you get on a flight tonight?” Licht asked.
“Uh, how about tomorrow morning,” Hoyer said.
The logistics were complicated. The game plan, well, the Cardinals star receiver made that easy.
“It was basically just look for Larry Fitzgerald,” Hoyer laughed. “I remember Larry in the huddle being like, ‘Just throw it to me.’ ”
Homecoming
The Cardinals released Hoyer in May 2013, a month after acquiring Carson Palmer, and he took a dream opportunity to play for his hometown Browns. Like many Cleveland natives, Hoyer grew up with a Bernie Kosar jersey, so brown was in his blood.
By Week 3, Hoyer surpassed Jason Campbell and took the reins from an injured Brandon Weeden. He led the Browns to three consecutive victories, completing 59.3 percent of his passes for 615 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions. But his season ended in heartbreak on “Thursday Night Football” against the Bills, as his cleat got caught in the turf when he took a shot from linebacker Kiko Alonso, and he tore his ACL.
“You finally get your opportunity, and you’re in your hometown, and it’s a fluke play,” Hoyer said. “That was it.”
Hoyer knew he’d start again in 2014, but the Browns were thirsty enough for a big-name solution that they drafted Johnny Manziel in the first round. Still, Hoyer led them to a 7-4 record before stumbling to a pair of losses and getting replaced by the hype machine. Hoyer is one of just two Browns quarterbacks (Derek Anderson) to win seven games in a single season since 2003, and the Browns are 4-42 since benching him.
“We hit a rough patch, and I think at that point they were waiting for any chance they could to put Johnny in (as the starter),” Hoyer said. “Obviously, we saw what we got when that happened. (Do) I wish it worked out? For sure. How great would it have been to have a long career in your hometown? But it didn’t. That’s just the way the NFL works.”
More reunions
Hoyer rejoined forces with former Pats offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien in 2015 with the Houston Texans and won five of his nine starts before a nightmarish 30-0 loss to the Chiefs in his playoff debut. That offseason, O’Brien was overruled by owner Bob McNair and general manager Rick Smith, who signed Brock Osweiler to a laughably bad four-year, $72 million contract and cut Hoyer.
Hoyer then reunited with Bears offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, who was his QB coach with the Browns. He replaced an injured Jay Cutler and had the best spurt of his career, completing 67.0 percent of his passes for 1,445 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions, but the Bears won just one of his five starts before he suffered a season-ending broken arm.
If nothing else, Hoyer shook the horrid feeling of his playoff loss with the Texans.
“That was probably the worst I’ve ever played,” Hoyer said of the playoff game. “That was the best thing for me to go to Chicago the next year and get a chance to play because I just wanted to show that (playoff) game was an anomaly. That wasn’t who I was as a player . ... It was just that one game. As I’ve learned in the NFL, people make snap, rash decisions, and I had one bad game, and they wanted to move on from me. What can you do but just go keep playing?”
Hoyer and Shanahan, another former Browns coach, joined up with the 49ers last offseason, but he lost his starting job to C.J. Beathard after an 0-6 start. In a long, arduous way, it gave Hoyer a second opportunity with his original team.
The perennial underdog who has had to move his family from city to city on an almost yearly basis might have found a home again.
“As an undrafted guy to beat out a few guys and then to be the opening day starter for three different franchises, that doesn’t just happen by accident,” Hoyer said. “I’ve earned a lot of stuff in this league. It’s cool to come back as a veteran.
“For me at this point, I want to have fun and win. What better place than here to do that? It was a blessing when the whole thing went down.”