J.D. McKissic, the proud owner of Sunday's game-winning touchdown against the Falcons, has coined a flashy new nickname for Taylor Heinicke that the quarterback would be honored to see stick.
As part of an 'Ask Me Anything' session for Bleacher Report on Tuesday, the running back for the Washington Football Team was asked, "When did you know Taylor Heinicke was a dog?"
"You're talking about 'Baby Russell Wilson?'" McKissic responded.
"When he first got to the team, you could just see his confidence," he said. "You could feel his key, his energy. I came up to him and introduced myself. I think Coach Turner told me he had a 700-800 yd. passing game. I was like 'ok.' It was his time to play. He came into the game and was just so relaxed. You could tell he'd been there before."
That's quite a comparison from McKissic, who spent three seasons in Seattle's backfield behind Wilson. As far as comparisons go, this one yields some unique similarities while also showing how perception can make all the difference in a quarterback's career trajectory.
For starters, like Heinicke, many critics undervalued Wilson coming out of college because of his size. Listed on the Seahawks roster as 5-foot-11, 215 pounds, Wilson dropped to the third round in the 2012 draft despite being one of the more accomplished quarterbacks of his class. Wilson was the fifth quarterback taken, behind Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill and, amazingly, Brandon Weeden and Brock Osweiler.
Heinicke, who's listed as 6-foot-1, 210 pounds, but in reality is probably far closer to Wilson's height, if not smaller, went undrafted in 2015 and has been fighting for an opportunity ever since. It brings to mind recent comments made by offensive coordinator Scott Turner coming off Washington's 30-29 win over the Giants on Thursday Night Football. Noting that Heinicke came from a small school (ODU, wasn't recruited out of high school and his undersized stature, Turner said that all those limitations played a role in Heinicke flying under the radar until now.
"People, for whatever reason, they fall back to their original evaluation on people," Turner said at the time. "So he's always gonna be seen as an undrafted guy until he continues to do the things he's been doing, but he's got to do it over time. As soon as a guy like that — he can have five great games, and if he has one bad game, it's like, 'Oh, well, here's the undrafted guy that everybody knows.' And I'm not saying it's fair or not fair, but perception's reality and that's just how things work."
All of that is to say that while Wilson was also undervalued for his size, as a third-round pick, it's not quite as daunting of an uphill climb as being an undersized, undervalued, undrafted free agent six years ago. Wilson has maximized his NFL opportunity, earning every bit of his success and is a Super Bowl-winner and sure-fire Hall of Famer, whenever he decides to hang 'em up. Heinicke, now that he has his opportunity, should be thrilled just to be in the conversation.
"He's just a baller," McKissic said. "That's how he reminds of Russell Wilson so much: he'd do anything. He'd do anything to win the game, regardless of what the score is."
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As for McKissic, he's been somewhat of late bloomer in his own right. As an undrafted free agent out of Arkansas State, McKissic got his start on the Atlanta Falcons' practice squad in 2016, but was waived days after being promoted to the active roster for one game in Week 15 (but was inactive). Days later, he'd catch on with the Seahawks, with whom he saw immediate playing time and would spend the next three seasons (2016-18).
After one season in Detroit, McKissic found a home in Washington in 2020, quickly becoming a fixture in the offense. Through his first 20 games in Washington, McKissic's already surpassed his production from his first four NFL seasons, amassing 1,152 total yards from scrimmage and five touchdowns, as compared to his 917 yards and four touchdowns from 2016 to 2019 (35 games).
His most memorable moment for Washington was his last, when scoring the game-winning touchdown to secure a 34-30 victory over his former team.
Trailing by two with less than a minute to play, Heinicke found McKissic on his fifth read for a swing pass at the line of scrimmage. McKissic did the heavy lifting from there, taking the 30-yard catch-and-run to the house with a mesmerizing leap for the pylon to seal the win for Washington.
"I gotta score the TD man. When you get that opportunity, you don't want to get pushed out of bounds," McKissic said when asked in the AMA what was going through his mind as he laid out for the end zone. "I just wanted to take flight. I'm fortunate to have that opportunity. Since I did it in college, I wanted to do it in the NFL so bad. I just wanted to make it when I leaped. I've watched that play probably 1,000 times already. It's still fresh."
McKissic called the victory over the Falcons his favorite game of his career.
"I had a GW TD," he said. "That's just something you dream of. I had my family there. It's amazing to have been a part of that. To have been an undrafted FA for the Falcons back in 2016 is unbelievable. I can't have written a better story."
Interestingly enough, when he was asked what the new team name should be, McKissic wouldn't change a thing. "Washington Football Team," he said.
Read McKissic's full AMA in Bleacher Report.
