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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Hill
Professional career
Minnesota Vikings
Hill was not considered an NFL prospect, and was not invited to the 2002 NFL Scouting Combine;[1] he went undrafted in the 2002 NFL Draft. He ended up signing as a free agent with the Minnesota Vikings, where he spent the season as a 3rd-string backup. He took his first career snaps for the Vikings on the final two plays of the 2005 NFL season, taking a knee both times.[2]Amsterdam Admirals
In order to get more experience, Hill spent the spring of 2003 with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe, where he led the league in passing yards and tied for second in touchdowns.San Francisco 49ers
Hill entered the 2006 NFL preseason third on the San Francisco 49ers depth chart, behind Trent Dilfer and Alex Smith. He went 15/23 (65.2%) for 162 Yds, no touchdowns and one interception. He spent the 2006 regular season on the sidelines, taking no snaps.Hill completed 13 of 20 passes for 148 yards with one interception in the San Francisco 49ers’ 17-13 preseason opening loss to the Denver Broncos on August 16, 2007. He demonstrated great pocket mobility but had difficulty in the red zone, throwing one interception in his first drive and then nearly throwing an interception at almost exactly the same place the second time down the field. In the last game of the 2007 preseason against the San Diego Chargers, Hill attempted to put the 49ers in field goal range to tie the game. With 16 seconds left on the clock, he threw two deep balls to his wide receivers but both missed their targets, and the second was intercepted, ending the game with the Chargers ahead, 16–13.
Hill made his 49ers regular-season debut on December 9, 2007, after Trent Dilfer suffered a severe concussion. He completed 22 of 27 pass attempts for 181 yards and one touchdown in a loss to his former team, the Minnesota Vikings. Despite his excellent statistics, Hill was critical of his performance, adding, “There [are] a lot of things I need to get better at. Some of that is about getting comfortable playing again. Some things made me want to throw up. Some things, the execution was poor but the results were good on my part. Some things I got away with. The results were better than my execution.”[3]
Since Dilfer’s injury was serious enough to sideline him for the rest of the season, Hill made his first NFL start on December 15, 2007 in a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hill completed 21 of 28 pass attempts for 197 yards, ran for a touchdown and threw a touchdown.[3] Hill was set to be the starter for the remainder of the 2007 season.[4]
On December 18, 2007, the 49ers announced that they had an interest in re-signing Hill, to provide competition against Alex Smith. However, the contract extension, along with its negotiations, were dependent on Hill’s performance for the rest of the season.[5] On December 23, 2007, Hill made his second career start, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He completed 11 of 24 pass attempts for 123 yards and three touchdown passes, to Darrell Jackson, fellow former Terrapin Vernon Davis, and Frank Gore. The 49ers won 21-19.
Hill suffered a back injury during the week 16 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, when rookie Gaines Adams hit him after a throw, drawing a 15-yard personal foul. As a result, Hill was unable to play in week 17 against the Cleveland Browns. Chris Weinke played in his place.
Hill with the 49ers in November 2008
In February 2008, Hill signed a new 3-year contract with the 49ers, with contractual terms not released to the media. The undrafted Hill competed for the starting job against Alex Smith and J. T. O’Sullivan in training camp and the 2008 preseason. O’Sullivan ended up getting the job and Hill became the primary backup after Smith was put on injured reserve early in the season.[6][7]Hill did not play until 49ers interim head coach Mike Singletary took over on October 27. After J. T. O’Sullivan committed his second turnover against the Seattle Seahawks that was returned for a touchdown, he was pulled from the lineup and Hill replaced him with solid output: 15 of 23 for 173 yards with one touchdown to Jason Hill and no turnovers, but he could not rescue the 49ers, who lost 34–13.
Despite the loss, Hill was named as Singletary’s no. 1 QB for the remainder of the 2008 season. His 2008 starting debut was in week 10, on Monday Night Football against the Arizona Cardinals.
Shortly after the Seahawks game,[8] reports surfaced that Nolan and offensive coordinator Mike Martz allegedly made up stories about Hill having a tired arm in the preseason so that O’Sullivan, who played for Martz when he was offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, would win the starting job without a real challenge.
On Monday Night Football against the heavily favored Arizona Cardinals, Hill delivered a solid performance in the first half. Hill completed a 31-yard touchdown to Josh Morgan to put the 49ers up 14-3, and then struck later with a 20-yard touchdown to Vernon Davis shortly before half-time. However, in the second half, Hill threw an interception at a critically bad time to give the Cardinals the 24-29 lead. Hill also threw a second interception on an attempted shovel pass at the Arizona 20-yard line. Despite this, Hill drove the 49ers down the field twice, the first with 3:39, and the second with only 1:04 left on the game clock. Hill’s last pass of the game was a completion to Jason Hill to bring the 49ers to the Arizona goal line. Unfortunately, the 49ers were unable to score the game-winning touchdown. Coincidentally, on Monday Night Football of the 2007 season against the Cardinals, the 49ers drove to the goal line in a similar fashion, and were able to get the game-winning touchdown.
Hill passes against the Rams on November 16, 2008
During week 11 of the 2008 NFL season, Hill broke his career single-game passing record in yards, in a 35-16 victory over the St. Louis Rams by throwing for 213 yards and 2 touchdowns and running for a third. He was awarded NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance.In week 12, Hill got his first 300-yard passing game in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Hill delivered an impressive come-back performance in Week 16 against the St. Louis Rams. After throwing three interceptions in the first three quarters, 49ers coaches Mike Singletary and Mike Martz were preparing to bench Hill for J.T. O’Sullivan. Hill convinced his coach to leave him the 4th quarter and then drove 80 yards, finishing with a touchdown pass to Isaac Bruce for his 1000th career reception. Now down 16-10 and under three minutes left on the clock, Hill got the ball back and completed a 48-yard touchdown pass to Josh Morgan. The 49ers defense intercepted Marc Bulger ending any chance of a Rams comeback and capping Hill’s first big come from behind win.
In a week 17 thriller against the Washington Redskins, Hill was showing difficulty, throwing an interception in the first half and no touchdowns. However, in the fourth quarter, Hill took the lead by completing a 9-yard touchdown pass to Jason Hill. Later, with the game tied at 24-24, Hill drove down the field with one minute left on the game clock to set up a game-winning Joe Nedney field goal.
With the victory, Hill improved to a 5-3 record on the season, and a 7-3 record as a starter all time. He finished the season with 13 passing touchdowns, 2 rushing touchdowns, 8 interceptions, 2,046 passing yards, and an 87.5 quarterback rating in 9 games (8 as a starter).
49ers head coach Mike Singletary had stated that Hill would be the starting quarterback going into training camp in 2009 but would compete with former number-one overall draft pick Alex Smith for the regular season starting job.
Hill was named the starter for the 49ers preseason opener versus the Denver Broncos, where he would throw only two passes, completing both.
On August 25, Hill was named the 49ers’ starting quarterback for the regular season, defending his starting title over Smith.
Hill made his season-opening debut on September 13 against the Arizona Cardinals. Hill made a fourth-quarter touchdown pass to Frank Gore to win the game 20-16. With the win, Hill improved to 8-3 as a starter.
The following week against the Seattle Seahawks, Hill completed 19 of 26 passes for 144 yards and also ran once for 17 yards. The 49ers won 23-10, and Hill would continue his undefeated streak of six home victories. After a 35-0 drubbing of St. Louis, he extended it to 7-0.
Arguably, one of Hill’s best games came in week 3 on the road against the undefeated Minnesota Vikings. Hill was 15/25, for 195 yards, with two touchdowns, and one interception in the game. Hill led the 49ers to a lead near the end of the game, but Brett Favre ultimately threw a 30-yard touchdown pass with two seconds left to win for the Vikings.
After a scoreless first half in the game against the Houston Texans in week 7, Singletary benched Hill and put Alex Smith into the game. Smith rallied the 49ers with three touchdowns to bring the score from 0-21 to 21-24. Although the 49ers lost the game, the comeback earned Smith the starting quarterback position in the next game against the Indianapolis Colts on November 1. Hill served as Smith’s backup for the rest of the season.
Detroit Lions
Hill was traded to the Detroit Lions in exchange for a seventh round draft pick in 2011 on March 14, 2010.[9] The Lions signed him to a one-year contract on July 12, 2010.[10] He entered the Lions first game of the 2010 season when starter Matthew Stafford was injured. Hill threw 9 completions on 19 attempts with 88 yards and one interception leading Detroit to within the 30-yard line with under 30 seconds to go. Hill threw what seemed to be the game winning touchdown but was later ruled incomplete by a technicality in the NFL rule book, which is now being referred to as the “Calvin Johnson Rule”.[11] He was injured while filling in for the injured Matthew Stafford October 17, 2010, against the New York Giants. The Lions announced that he had suffered a fracture of his left (non-throwing) forearm.[12] Hill capped the season with victories against the Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings, and the Lions finished 6–10.He has since become known as one of the better backup quarterbacks in the NFL, performing well during his appearances.[13]
St. Louis Rams
He signed a one-year deal with the St. Louis Rams on March 26, 2014. Following a season-ending ACL injury to starter Sam Bradford in a preseason game on August 23, 2014, Hill was named the new starter by Coach Jeff Fisher.<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>wv wrote:</div>
I personally dont even want AustinD back.
I dont think his flaws are correctable.If the Rams think they are a QB away from
the playoffs, then I’d bring back Bradford
and just take the salary-hit.I’d like to bring Hill back, too.
In 8 and a half games Austin Davis has completed 63.4% of his passes, he has thrown for over 2000 yards. He has an 85.1 qbr and has passed for 12 TDs against 9 interceptions. (Most 1st year qbs throw for more interceptions than TDs.) And you are ready to toss him in the trash heap! Really? I have words for that kind of logic, but they would get me banned.
BTW — Sam Bradford as a rookie completed 60.0% of his passes, had a 76.5 qbr, threw for 18 TDs against 15 ints. These numbers are a little worse than those of Davis and Bradford won offensive rookie of the year. And you are going to get rid of Davis?
Austin Davis has had some good moments, but I don’t want him to be anything more than a 3rd string QB, and if that means you can’t have Bradford, Hill and a rookie to develop, yes, I say goodbye to Austin Davis. When pressured, Austin Davis crumbles. Those statistics don’t reflect that he also holds onto the ball too long, contributing to sacks. And, his turnovers often lead to TDs. I think that’s because he has poor pocket awareness and makes some questionable choices when pressured. Plus, I don’t think he’s much of a leader. I think the league’s caught up to Davis, and I don’t think we’ll see too many gaudy stats from him again.
He’s a bullpen pitcher and a good one.
When asked to go nine innings, he’ll come up a little short at times.
Not sure why some see him as anything other than that.
Who sees him as other than that? I don;t think it’s anyone.
In terms of his career. I don’t do that with a guy like Hill. He has reached the point where what you do is judge him in “this” situation, whatever it is. How does he play in THIS offense. For example, McCown had a long fairly mediocre career. Then in Chicago in 2013, they maximize his strengths and play effectively with him. He goes to Tampa and sinks there. All that tells me is he shoulda stayed in Chicago.
I looked closely at what he did in Detroit in 2010. They had no running game (ranked 23rd) and no defense (ranked 21st). So predictably, Shaun Hill does not carry them under those conditions.
In this offense he has a running game, and, sometimes
…a defense. Will he do better than he did with the Lions under those conditions? Denver game says yes. SD game says mostly yes, but, he fails the golden 4th quarter comeback test. What does that tell us about the future?
Well that’s a matter of opinion. I assume he will play well in all the remaining games, except he won’t be enough to make THE difference if he needs to against a top 10 defense on the road, like SD or Seattle in game 17.
I have seen a couple of people claim that the “overhyping” of Hill was wrong, when, in fact, I have not seen anyone overhyping him.
I do say they can win with him for now. But there has to be a running threat and a viable defense.
The future? I am not even discussing that, personally. That’s for the off-season. Others can discuss it all they want of course, but the most I have done is just say what I think the possible options are (keep Bradford, bring back HIll, bring back Davis, draft a guy…my guess is they do all 4 things or at least 3 of them).
As for Austin Davis’s numbers? To me Austin Davis’s numbers are proof positive that just doing averages from all games played is deceptive. He started out fine, though he did have some bad tendencies even then, and then collapsed. So compare the 1st 4 games to the 2nd set of games statistically. This too is a judgement call, but I think the 2nd set of games just flat demonstrate how badly he collapsed. He has too many limitations to play well consistently (if at all) against NFC west defenses, and those defenses have already figured him out. Since he can’t drive the ball, there are too many passes he just can’t make (he has the lowest percentage of attempts outside the hashmarks of any NFL qb who played this year, and THAT is telling–does anyone remember Davis even a attempting a single deep out, for example?). Hill meanwhile played 2 whole games against top 10 defenses, and to me, proved he can be solid under those conditions.
Davis, to me, is done. He did not have any counters after they exposed him. I think that IS who he is. Once again, you can’t just average out numbers and get a clear picture. The fact that he declined then melted down says a lot and just averaging all his games together doesn’t, for me, mitigate that perception.
I see Davis’s limitations as innate. I don’t see him as ever improving enough to be considered a starting caliber qb. To me there’s too many “you have them or you don’t” qb qualities he simply DOESN’T have.
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