FOXBOROUGH — In the NFL, life can come at you pretty fast.
Last Monday, Brian Hoyer was buying his son a Halloween costume — a ninja — when his phone rang. It was Niners coach Kyle Shanahan telling him he was going to be released.
“The one thing you learn is you never know how things are going to work out,” Hoyer said Monday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. “You hope that you leave a good impression wherever you are and never burn a bridge, I guess. That’s the biggest thing in this league.”
Two days later, after a cross-country flight, he was back in Foxborough with the Patriots. Turns out New England and San Francisco had basically flipped quarterbacks, with Hoyer agreeing to a three-year deal after the Patriots dealt Jimmy Garoppolo to the Niners for a second-round pick.
Just like that, he was back with New England, his first professional team and the franchise where he spent his first three years as a professional (2009-2011). On Monday, Hoyer described the opportunity to return to the Patriots as a chance to come “home,” even if that means playing second fiddle to quarterback Tom Brady ... again.
“That was kind of the excitement of coming back home — that type of thing,” Hoyer said. “To be able to play behind Tom and be in this organization, I was OK with that. For me, having played a lot, you’re always ready to play, but it wasn’t going to work out for me to be a starter there in San Francisco the rest of this year and probably not next year. For me, when I had the opportunity to be the backup to Tom in this organization, it was kind of a no-brainer.”
Since Hoyer left prior to the start of the 2012 season — he was cut loose in favor of Ryan Mallett — he kept in touch with Brady. Since then, Hoyer bounced around the league, going from backup to starter and back again over the last six seasons while playing for the Cardinals, Browns, Texans, Bears and Niners. He best stretch came from 2014-15, when the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder went a combined 12-10 as a starter with Cleveland and Houston while completing 58 percent of his passes for 5,932 yards, 31 touchdowns and 20 interceptions.
This season with a winless San Francisco team, he had started six games, completed 58 percent of his passes (119-for-205) for 1,245 passing yards, with four touchdowns and four interceptions.
While he didn’t re-invent the quarterback position when he was away from Foxborough, he was cognizant of the fact that one of the reasons he was able to have some modicum of success in the NFL was because he began his career with Brady and the Patriots and was able to pick Brady’s brain when he was a youngster.
“I really don’t think I would’ve lasted this long if I hadn’t been in New England to start off with,” Hoyer said. “From learning from Tom, from learning from Bill (Belichick), the guys in this organization, how to do things the right way, I think that allowed me to go on and have the career I had up until this point.”
Of course, he’s not above busting Brady’s chops a bit. Asked if anything has changed about Brady, he smiled.
BRIAN HOYER#Patriots backup QB Brian Hoyer talks about being re-united with Tom Brady #wbz pic.twitter.com/DdZwXPKSH9
— Scott Sullivan (@SullyBunz) November 6, 2017