odd careers in the 21st century

[JWL]

Mike Furrey did not make the Colts roster in 2000. He then played in other leagues. He walked out of Jets training camp in 2002 even though he was apparently impressing the coaches. He finally appeared in a regular season game in 2003 with the Rams as a wide receiver. Furrey was converted to safety and started most of the Rams games in 2005. He led the team in interceptions. Furrey signed with the Lions in the offseason, went back to offense, and led the NFC in receptions. He then caught 61 passes in 2007 before finishing his career in 2009 with the Browns.

Terrelle Pryor threw for over 1700 yards in 2013 with the Raiders, ran for over 500 yards in 2013 with the Raiders, and caught passes for over 1000 yards in 2016 with the Browns. Pryor is the only player to eclipse all three of those particular figures in a single season at some point in his career. Similarly, Pryor is one of three players to have career totals of at least 1700 passing yards, 500 rushing yards and 1000 receiving yards. Bob Hoernschemeyer and Charley Trippi are the others. Pryor began his career as a quarterback and began a conversion to the wide receiver position in 2015.

Pryor has played regular season games for the Raiders, Browns, Redskins, Jets and Bills. He has also spent time on the rosters of the Seahawks, Chiefs, and Bengals. In his most recent game (11/11/18, Bills at Jets), it could be said that Pryor was the most recent wide receiver to have scored a touchdown for his team's opponent. Huh? Pryor scored a touchdown for the Jets on 10/14/18. By 11/11/18, Pryor was with the Bills. No Jets wide receiver had scored a touchdown in the meantime.

Nick Foles had a statistically great year with the Eagles in 2013 and a mediocre year in 2014. He spent the next year with the Rams and was rotten. He appeared in a few games with the Chiefs in 2016. Back with the Eagles in 2017, he relieved the injured starting quarterback and helped lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl win. In 2018, he once again relieved the injured starting quarterback and is trying to win another Super Bowl.

Are there any other players with similar, up-and-down type careers in this century?

[Gary Najman]

Rashied Davis Played Arena Football from 2002-2005. Then started a 7-year career playing both WR and DB (he always wore no. 81) with the Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions. He later returned to the Arena Leaggue.

I believe Tim Tebow is out of the question.

[BD Sullivan]

Peyton Hillis gained 54 yards in his second season with Denver in 2009, went to Cleveland and ran for 1,177 yards in 2010. After gaining 587 yards for them the following year, he never gained more than 309 during his final three seasons.

[JWL]

Pryor was stabbed over the weekend and Foles was benched today. Pryor may never play in the NFL again and Foles may be with another team next season.

[bachslunch]

Terrelle Pryor has sure played for a lot of teams (5 and on rosters for 3 others). Appears that’s not the record, though.

A quick Google search suggests that honor belongs to QB J.T. O’Sullivan — between 2002 and 2012, he was on 11 NFL team rosters as well one each in NFL Europe and the CFL. He was a backup QB everywhere except for his stints in NFL Europe and eight games with the 49ers in 2008, so he actually has NFL stats only in 2004 (Green Bay), 2007 (Detroit), 2008 (San Francisco), and 2009 (Cincinnati).

[Ronfitch]

Mike Furrey did not make the Colts roster in 2000. He then played in other leagues. He walked out of Jets training camp in 2002 even though he was apparently impressing the coaches. He finally appeared in a regular season game in 2003 with the Rams as a wide receiver. Furrey was converted to safety and started most of the Rams games in 2005. He led the team in interceptions. Furrey signed with the Lions in the offseason, went back to offense, and led the NFC in receptions. He then caught 61 passes in 2007 before finishing his career in 2009 with the Browns.

#UNIFight!

(I don't get to do that much here. That is all.)

[JameisLoseston]

Terrelle Pryor has sure played for a lot of teams (5 and on rosters for 3 others). Appears that’s not the record, though.

A quick Google search suggests that honor belongs to QB J.T. O’Sullivan — between 2002 and 2012, he was on 11 NFL team rosters as well one each in NFL Europe and the CFL. He was a backup QB everywhere except for his stints in NFL Europe and eight games with the 49ers in 2008, so he actually has NFL stats only in 2004 (Green Bay), 2007 (Detroit), 2008 (San Francisco), and 2009 (Cincinnati).

I'm pretty sure Josh Johnson has been on the most teams. Also probably has one of the longest gaps between two NFL game appearances, after he came back last year for the Redskins.

[Rupert Patrick]

Terrelle Pryor has sure played for a lot of teams (5 and on rosters for 3 others). Appears that’s not the record, though.

A quick Google search suggests that honor belongs to QB J.T. O’Sullivan — between 2002 and 2012, he was on 11 NFL team rosters as well one each in NFL Europe and the CFL. He was a backup QB everywhere except for his stints in NFL Europe and eight games with the 49ers in 2008, so he actually has NFL stats only in 2004 (Green Bay), 2007 (Detroit), 2008 (San Francisco), and 2009 (Cincinnati).

I would think Ryan Fitzpatrick would hold the record for most different NFL teams for which a player has appeared in a game for. I think he may hold several different records in this regard, as he has not only played in games for the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans, Texans, Jets, Bucs and Dolphins, he has started games at QB for all of those teams, and he threw TD's and interceptions for all of those teams, which I'm sure can be the answers to weird trivia questions, such as "Which player threw interceptions for eight different teams?". Fitzpatrick has also never played in a playoff game in his career. He's one guy who I always thought was a pretty good QB but for some reason never stuck anyplace and will be remembered for being a perpetual nomad. He comes to mind as having one of the odd careers of the 21st century.

[JameisLoseston]

I would think Ryan Fitzpatrick would hold the record for most different NFL teams for which a player has appeared in a game for. I think he may hold several different records in this regard, as he has not only played in games for the Rams, Bengals, Bills, Titans, Texans, Jets, Bucs and Dolphins, he has started games at QB for all of those teams, and he threw TD's and interceptions for all of those teams, which I'm sure can be the answers to weird trivia questions, such as "Which player threw interceptions for eight different teams?". Fitzpatrick has also never played in a playoff game in his career. He's one guy who I always thought was a pretty good QB but for some reason never stuck anyplace and will be remembered for being a perpetual nomad. He comes to mind as having one of the odd careers of the 21st century.

I have the same impression of him, after being lukewarm on him for years, his stint on the Bucs really showed me that he could be excellent in the right system. And now he's dragged a Dolphins team that's one of the worst football teams in history kicking and screaming to three wins it didn't even want. He's the modern Earl Morrall, usually good when he gets a fair shake and will last 20+ years but misunderstood to be a rental. That got Morrall places, and I hope Fitz builds a HOVG case of his own. He's one of my favorite players. Of course, he usually gets dumped because he wins the job and proceeds to suck it up; the Fitztragic Cycle is certainly one of the weirdest phenomena in NFL history, but I wonder if he's about to finally break free of it for the next team he plays on. I think if he had stayed in Tampa we'd be talking about him as elite rn, it was the perfect fit.

[JWL]

Terrelle Pryor has sure played for a lot of teams (5 and on rosters for 3 others). Appears that’s not the record, though.

There is another team to add to this list. Pryor spent this summer with the Jaguars. I believe he was part of their final preseason cuts.