Taylor Heinicke ‘sensational’ vs Carolina says his college coach

Taylor Heinicke can certainly be said to have raised his level of play the last two weeks, converting big third downs and concluding drives in the red zone.

What person to better laud Heinicke’s play than his old ODU head coach Bobby Wilder?

Wilder appeared on the Al Galdi podcast (episode 194) and as expected, did not disappoint — a coach is a quote machine.

“For Taylor Heinicke to be successful and I can’t emphasize this enough, he is not a 40-times-a-game drop-back-passer guy.  He is a play-action guy,” Wilder said. Thus, Wilder was praising the WFT running game for its performance against the stout Carolina defense.

Wilder felt that Heinicke’s performance against Carolina was “sensational,” saying he would put it up there with his playoff game performance against Tampa Bay in the 2020 playoffs.

Regarding Heinicke being cut by Minnesota and Carolina and trying to stick on in Washington:

“It has been his existence (in the NFL); he has to perform well, or he might not have a job,” Wilder said. “He might not have graded out so well (against Tampa) but 26 out of 32? I will take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays.”

Regarding Heinicke’s performance in the red zone vs Carolina:

Taylor is a horizontal guy. I said this last year going into the playoff game and I was laughed at by a lot of people. He is a five-read guy. I have been a coach for 30 years, and I have coached quarterbacks for 30 years. I have had a number of three-read guys. I never had a four-read guy. But he is a five-read guy. What I mean by that is he can get one through five. He can usually do one and two pre-snap; meaning either confirm or eliminate one and two. And then he can get three, four, and five in 2.6 seconds. Or he can move with his feet and make it happen.

There is much more from Wilder available; Wilder begins at 35:40 of the episode.

Published on: November 27, 2021, 7:35 am ET