Boyle finds his foothold
Former Uconn QB looking to prove himself as backup for Detroit Lions after 3 seasons with the Green Bay Packers
MIDDLETOWN — How does a quarterback go from one touchdown, 13 interceptions at Uconn to a career in the NFL?
The search for an answer starts in Middletown on a hot, muggy summer night behind Xavier High School with thunder crackling in the distance.
“I played my freshman year at Xavier on this field back when it was a grass field, and we tied one football game,” Tim Boyle said. “It was against West Haven, and I remember being so pissed off because we were such a good team.
“The culture at Xavier, if you lose or if you tie, it’s not good. It wasn’t even a loss; it was a tie, and I want it back. Wish I could have run in another touchdown.”
If setbacks were more than just temporary for Boyle, 26, he wouldn’t be here throwing the football for 90 minutes on the broiling synthetic turf behind his alma mater three times a week as preparation for NFL training camp, where he’ll be competing for meaningful snaps with the Detroit Lions starting Tuesday.
After three seasons under the wing of Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, where he completed 3 of 4 passes, Boyle signed a one-year, $2.5 million deal with the Lions on March 22. Although Jared Goff, traded from the Rams in March, is Detroit’s presumptive starter, he is not as entrenched as Rodgers was with the Packers.
Boyle, who beat out firstround pick Jordan Love for the backup job in Green Bay in 2019 and ’20, will be competing with David Blough for the No. 2 spot in Detroit.
“It’s nice going into a year having established myself, not in the NFL but as an individual,” Boyle said as he unpacked a boom box filled with songs to keep the beat of his throwing session.
“I know who I am now. I know football now. I know the X’s and O’s; it’s a matter of being consistent. I think I took the next step mentally this offseason.
“I belong here. It’s not ‘I think I belong here.’ I’m a good quarterback. I belong in the NFL.”
The first song up is Jay Z’s version of “Hard Knock Life.”
The 6-foot-4, 232-pound Boyle completes his running and stretching and begins barking instructions to a half dozen friends, local players and former teammates eager to learn and help.
Greg Jaskot, associate director of advancement at Xavier, makes sure the lights are turned on. His father, retired AD and former football coach Tony Jaskot, is among the onlookers as Boyle, who lives in nearby Middlefield, puts in the work.
“Coming back to the old stomping grounds is awesome,” Boyle said. “I love the ‘X’ family here. Everyone welcomes me with open arms. …
“A couple of the kids asked, ‘Are you a transfer?’ Hopefully, I don’t look like a high school kid.”
In 2012, Boyle threw for 2,500 yards and 24 TDS as a senior at Xavier, leading the Falcons to their third straight Class LL championship. At Uconn, his redshirt year was burned as a true freshman in
2013, and he played three seasons under three coaches, completing
48% of his passes for that “memorable” TD/INT ratio, a dismal 49.5 QB rating.
“Uconn taught me a lot of valuable lessons, and the No. 1 thing I take away from Uconn is the relationships that I made,” Boyle said. “The second thing is how to deal with adversity, man. I had the highs of starting as a true freshman [and] I had the lows of being benched, getting injured, throwing an incredible amount of interceptions.
“Trust me, I had days where I didn’t really want to play football. I learned a lot about myself as a competitor. I’m exactly where I want to be right now, and that’s because I went to Uconn and had to deal with that adversity.”
In 2017, Boyle transferred to Eastern Kentucky, where he completed 61.5% of his passes, 11 TDS, 13 interceptions and a 75.2 rating, enough to expose scouts to his signature arm strength. He signed with the Packers as an undrafted free agent, and his training camp display of tight spirals came to be called “The Laser Show” by local writers.
Rodgers took a liking and an interest in a humble kid from Connecticut, and they became friends.
“It was cool to be in the same room with him,”
Boyle said. “[Our first conversation] he kind of put me on the spot: ‘Who are you? What’s your name? Where did you go to school? Tell me something about yourself I couldn’t find through Google.’
“It was a strong first impression. I’d heard stories about Aaron and how he enjoys getting after some of the rookies, in a friendly way.”
Boyle, with some impressive TD throws in the preseason games, hooked on as the thirdstringer in 2018 and continued to learn the nuances of the most demanding position in sports from a future Hall of Famer. Now he is determined to step out from the shadow of Rodgers and start learning hands on.
So “The Laser Show” goes on another week in Middletown, where he demands precise patterns as the routes get longer with each round according to his script.
“Sitting for three years has been tough because I want to go out there and play football,” Boyle says. “I want to get hit, make the mistakes and learn from them. It’s going to be a big year for me.”