The Morning Brew: How bad is Chiefs quarterback Tyler Thigpen?
The struggling NFL starter is worse than the five best QBs in the Big 12.
By Rustin Dodd (Contact)
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
If you’re a sports fan, you’ve heard this argument. Some lowly NFL team plays at an unspeakably awful level week after week until finally, some Joe Six-Pack offers up the priceless words, “Man, that team is so bad. You think they could even beat USC?”
The worst part is that these people are halfway serious. They actually think USC or Oklahoma or whatever college-football flavor of the month could actually hang with, say, the St. Louis Rams.
For some reason that argument strikes a nerve with me. When I hear it, I begin to feel like an overly anxious mother who just heard her 8-year-old utter his first “f”-word.
Sure enough, I’m reaching for the soap, and it’s going right into little Mikey’s dirty mouth.
It’s just ludicrous. The Rams — as bad as they are — would hammer any college team by 50 points. It’d be a bloodbath.
Obviously these types of arguments are made by foolish people or drunk people — or foolish people who are drunk at the time.
Now, don’t freak out, but I’m going to offer up a similar argument. Seriously, put the soap down and listen.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Tyler Thigpen would be the sixth-best quarterback in the Big 12.
One more time. Tyler Thigpen, a professional athlete who has thrown 85 career passes in the NFL, wouldn’t start for five Big 12 teams.
And I’m not talking about 23-year-old, senior in college Tyler Thigpen. We’ll get to him in a moment. I’m talking about Tyler Thigpen now. The 24-year-old, second-year pro.
If you lined Thigpen up next to Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford, Missouri’s Chase Daniel, Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell, Texas’ Colt McCoy and Kansas’ own Todd Reesing, young Tyler would be the sixth-best quarterback in the room.
You have to feel a little bit for Thigpen. He’s had quite the odyssey.
He went to Coastal Carolina in 2003 and became the first quarterback in school history. That’s right. The first. Probably not a good omen for young Tyler. I’d wager that most future NFL quarterbacks go to schools that had football programs before, you know, 2003.
But young Tyler wouldn’t be denied. He played four years at Coastal Carolina. He had heart and guts, and he finished 30-8 in four seasons and won the Big South Conference Player of the Year Award in 2007. But have you looked closely at the Big South lately?
Most of the schools just started fielding a football team within the last 10 years — and that’s at the Division I-AA level.
Still, Thigpen shredded schools such as Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb and Liberty. Of course, I use the term loosely. He actually completed just 54.8 percent of his passes during his four-year career.
But somehow, against all odds, young Tyler found himself drafted in the seventh round by the Minnesota Vikings.
Which led us to the Vikings’ epic 2007 training camp quarterback battle, starring Tarvaris Jackson, Drew Henson and the artist formerly known as Brooks Bollinger. Unfortunately, the trio was too much to overcome.
Thigpen was cut. It seemed young Tyler’s impossible dream was over.
Not so fast, for there was a man in Kansas City, Mo., named Carl Peterson. And it just so happened that Peterson, the general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs, was in the market for young quarterbacks who were mediocre in college.
And just like that, Tyler’s dream had life.
Now, one year later, it seems pretty obvious why Thigpen’s numbers at Coastal Carolina were so underwhelming. To be blunt, he’s not good.
During parts of three games this season, he’s completed 41.8 percent of his passes and thrown four interceptions for the insufferable Chiefs. Let’s just say that if you ever see Thigpen throwing darts at the bar, you make damn sure you stay alert.
I don’t know much about football. I mean, I’ve accidentally started Darren Sproles two weeks in a row on my fantasy team. But I know this: If you gave me the choice between Bradford and Thigpen, or Daniel and Thigpen, or even Reesing and Thigpen — well, let’s just say I’m not taking Thigpen.
— Edited by Mary Sorrick
Discussion
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agreed. Thigpen is garbage. but then again....so are the Chiefs.
Tyler Thigpen is another Frank Seurer. He should get out of football, take his bonus money and open an all-you-can-eat Carolina BBQ joint on 21st St. Maybe Bobby Bell can give him some assistance.
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