Ryan Mallett: New England’s Forgotten Son

The game hasn’t always come easy for Patriots’ backup quarterback Ryan Mallett. After being one of the top high school recruits in the country out of Texarkana, Texas, Mallett took his talents to Michigan to play under head coach Lloyd Carr. Unfortunately, Carr retired after Mallett’s freshman season. The developing QB decided he so badly did not want to play for Rich Rodriguez, that he would choose to play for Bobby Petrino at Arkansas instead.

“I had heard rumors about Coach Rodriguez forcing his players to practice a lot,” said Mallett. “Coach Petrino didn’t seem like he cared about anything. He was so busy hitting on interns and coeds, I figured this guy was never going to make us practice.”

Mallett spent two seasons at Arkansas before declaring himself eligible for the 2011 NFL Draft.

“My agent told me I was a lock for the first round,” Mallett admitted to a group of reporters last season. “Blaine Gabbert and Jake Locker go in the damn top 10, and I fall to the third round. I must have had the dumbest fucking agent in sports.”

The Wolverine, turned Razorback, turned Patriot, was determined not to be derailed by his snubbing. He quickly realized he would have the opportunity to learn under future Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady, and eventually become his successor. In Mallett’s rookie year, he was inactive in 15 out of the 16 regular season games, and for the entire postseason.

“Tom [Brady] told me on my first day of practice that I’d probably never play as long as he was around,” said Mallett. “But I knew Tom couldn’t play forever, and I would be next in line.”

Despite the warning, the Arkansas product continued to work hard behind Tom Brady earning the praises of his coaching staff and teammates.

“Ryan is ok,” said Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. “You’d have to ask him if you want to know how he’s doing.”

New England nose tackle Vince Wilfork said that Mallett has been very important over the last few years, always finding ways to help the team. “Ryan makes the best lemonade on the team man, hands down. Sometimes he bakes us cookies for long west-coast trips. I swear man you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a batch of his oatmeal raisin,” Wilfork told the media after a voluntary workout.

With Mallett finally ready to secure his role as backup quarterback, things took a tumultuous turn just last week when the Patriots announced they had signed possible quarterback Tim Tebow.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Mallett. “Sometimes I wonder if they still even know I play for this team.”

Sandwiched between perhaps the greatest, and most polarizing quarterbacks of all time, Mallett knows it will not be easy to gain supporters around New England.

“I’m going to be the Greg McElroy of this team,” said Mallett. “That’s the biggest slap in the face a quarterback can have.”

Mallett knows the road from here will not be an easy one. He realizes his numbers alone won't do the talking.  In four career-NFL passes, Mallett is 1-4 with 17 yards and an interception. That’s a QB Rating of 5.2. He has done his best to take it all in stride, and says it’s important for everyone on the depth chart to have a mutual level of respect.

“I had never really heard of Ryan before I signed here,” said Tim Tebow during practice this morning. “He seems like a terrific person and I’m just so excited to be working with him and getting the opportunity to know him.”

Tebow’s comments were surprising due to the fact that his Florida Gators defeated Ryan Mallett and the Razorbacks back in 2009. They also faced each other in the 2008 Capital One Bowl when Mallett was still at the University of Michigan.

“Tim can barely throw a spiral,” Mallett said as he turned to walk out onto the practice field. “If I lose my backup job to him, I probably don’t deserve to be a quarterback anyway.”  

Remember those words, Ryan. Remember those words.