Remember former NBA player Jeremy Lin? He had an incredible start to his NBA career where there was a stretch of games with the New York Knicks where he couldn't miss a shot, but it only lasted a little bit.
Well, the original one to pull that off was former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Bobby Hoying. The once promising Eagles signal caller had a start to his career to remember. It didn't last long, though, and it soon fell apart quickly as he got six years in the NFL.
How impressive was the start to his career, though?
Bobby Hoying's rise and fall story
The Eagles selected Hoying in the third round of the 1996 NFL Draft as the team went through a total rebrand as they went from the Kelly Green uniforms to the Midnight Green. Eagles legendary quarterback Randall Cunningham was gone from the team and Ray Rhodes was in his second season as the head coach.
Taking over at quarterback in 1996 was Rodney Peete who only lasted part of the season before Ty Detmer took over as the starter. Philadelphia managed to go 10-6 and make it to the NFC Wild Card game before losing to the San Francisco 49ers.
The following season would not go as well for the Eagles as they finished with a 6-9-1 record, but at least there was one shining moment: Hoying. It wouldn't be until Week 11 against the 49ers that Hoying would see his first full action, as he completed eight of his 14 attempts for 94 yards and a touchdown in the loss.
Hoying would go on a three-game run that was so impressive that the Eagles thought they might have their next franchise quarterback in place. The team would go 2-0-1 as he completed 59.5% of his passes for 835 yards and six touchdowns to one interception. His best game came against Boomer Esiason and the Cincinnati Bengals as Hoying threw for 313 yards and four touchdowns to one interception in the 44-42 win.
Overall on the season, Hoying finished with a 56.9% completion percentage for 1,573 yards and 11 touchdowns to six interceptions in seven games. Besides one three-interception game, Hoying played well and earned the right to be the starting quarterback going into the 1998 season. That decision would cost a lot of people their jobs.
1998 was a disaster of biblical proportions for the Eagles as Hoying started four of the first five games, which all were losses. He would get benched and would make three starts and four more appearances with only a 1-6 record as the starter.
Hoying's final stats? Hold onto something, Eagles fans. 50.9% completion percentage for 961 yards and zero touchdowns to nine interceptions. Yes, zero touchdowns. That's not a typo.
Philadelphia finished 3-13 with Rhodes getting fired, with Hoying and Peete departing from the team. Koy Detmer was the only quarterback to survive as the Eagles went on to hire Andy Reid as head coach, bring in Doug Pederson as quarterback (yes, the one who won the first Super Bowl for the Eagles in 2017), and select Donovan McNabb second overall in the 1999 NFL Draft.
Hoying would finish his final three seasons with the Oakland Raiders and throw just seven more passes before his career was over in 2001.
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Eagles fans will never forget the incredible three-game stretch where Hoying was the answer to all their prayers. They will also not forget the disaster that followed afterwards.
At least his bad performances helped set the stage for the next two-plus decades of success for the franchise, right?