Ryan Fitzpatrick may have gotten all of the starter reps during minicamp for the Washington Football Team, but don't count out Taylor Heinicke just yet, Fred Smoot says.
Appearing with JP Finlay on 106.7 The Fan Monday, Smoot was asked for his thoughts on Washington's quarterback situation, with Finlay noting that Heinicke had "impressed" with his second-team reps.
"I think it puts us in a good place in that room. That tells you they believe in FitzMagic, and Heinicke ain't too far behind," said Smoot. "That means he's picking up where he left off at in the playoffs. You gotta feel good about that."
"I'm gonna tell you what Heinicke makes me feel like, besides going to the bar for last call," he said. "It's a Kurt Warner feel to him, ain't it?"
"I would say Romo a little bit, because he's a little more [mobile]," Finlay said.
"I'm talking about the story," said Smoot.
"Sure," Finlay agreed. "Stocking shelves."
"The story has a lot of Kurt Warner," Smoot said. "The Rams had all the positions. They had the wide receiver. They had Marshall Faulk. They had the linemen. They had the defense. And then out of nowhere, here comes this Kurt Warner guy, not supposed to start, gets in the game, never gives the job back. Hall of Famer."
"Heinicke has that feel to me," he continued. "He has that, 'You know what? If I ever get that job, I will never relinquish that job.' And then, I like that underdog mentality. I'm not your first-round pick. I'm not your glorified one. And if you look at it, how many first-round, number one picks have won the Super Bowl? Eli and Peyton. Like, if you're not a Manning, you haven't done it. So, I like the story."
Smoot took a brief moment from discussing players currently on Washington's roster to speculate about Aaron Rodgers, who's embroiled in a cat-and-mouse game with the Packers after failing to appear at minicamp.
"But you know what? I like to start rumors. And I'm a big Aaron Rodgers guy," said Smoot. "I'm a big Aaron Rodgers guy. I hate to start rumors, but that's what I do at a high level, JP."
"You're an elite rumor starter," Finlay agreed.
"Listen to me. If Aaron Rodgers is on this team with an elite defense, running game, wide receiving corps, we are a legit Super Bowl contender," said Smoot. "And we couldn't say that for 30 years. We are a legit Super Bowl contender. If you look at the team that gave Tampa the most problems last year, it was this roster with Taylor Heinicke. Now you put Aaron Rodgers — and we have the collateral to get him, alright. I hate to say it, we might have to part with one of them valued defensive linemen."
"You're not gonna be able to pay them all anyway," Finlay noted.
"Heinicke to me is a penny stock," Finlay said. "Like it's either gonna go all the way..."
"Bust or boom," Smoot said.
"It's Dogecoin," Finlay continued. "It's either gonna hit big or it's just gonna be nothing. I don't see him as a... like I think Kyle Allen will be in the NFL for 10 years as a backup. Like I think he'll just kind of bounce around. I think Heinicke, if I have a hundred chips, I put 15 chips on Heinicke booming, becoming a real star, starter with some really great games mixed in. And then the other 75, 85 chips I'm just putting on out of the league in two years. Dude got hurt in a walk-through. How many walk-throughs have you participated in? You ever get injured?"
"Never," said Smoot. "I might have came into the walk-through injured, but I fought my way through it. I understand it, but like I say, he has this... it. He has the it."
"He has the it factor," Finlay agreed. "He really does."
"He has the it factor," Smoot reiterated.
In Finlay's mind, it won't be a legitimate competition between Heinicke and Fitzpatrick until the former starts getting a share of the first-team reps.
"Well, I think it's this," said Smoot. "We know this about FitzMagic. As good he's going to play up and down — he's gonna have some great game and some bad games — we know he's going to miss some games. And the one thing Darrell Green told me early in my career, 'If you don't ever want to lose your job, don't let your backup play.'
"I asked him how the hell did you start for 20 years? He's like, 'The backup never played! No matter how hurt I am. Did you see me run with my ribs?' He's like 'the backup was sitting on the sideline when I was doing that!'"
"So that's the key. FitzMagic is gonna let him wiggle through that window and he's gonna let Heinicke start one of these games," Smoot concluded. "And, put it like this, I told you I feel that Kurt Warner kind of nostalgia. If he gets in and wins two games, they're not taking him out."
