There’s a legendary, potentially apocryphal, story about Peyton Manning’s backup. One day, Jon Gruden asked Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Tom Moore why Manning’s backup wasn’t getting more reps in practice. Moore responds, “Fellas, if 18 goes down we’re f****ed, and we don’t practice f****ed.” Or so the story goes.
This frames much of the way we think about backup quarterbacks. We watch DeShone Kizer or Tim Boyle and wonder, if Aaron Rodgers goes are the Packers really just f***ed?
But this is the wrong question to be asking and fundamentally misunderstands the way backups can and do succeed in the NFL.