Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
To continue to fight, not get frustrated, to stay together and find a way - I think that's important. I think good teams do that.
In this league, you can't take your foot off the gas pedal. You think you have something won, but teams are too good, too talented.
As flashy as draft picks are, the reality of them helping out in Year One anyway is not necessarily the case. That's not the reality.
Utah will always be special to me. They were the school that gave me an opportunity, and I grew so much as a person and player there.
I think the quarterback position, moreso than in all of sports, no other position compares - you rely on so many people to do your job.
I think you have to enjoy the wins. If you're not enjoying the process, there's a problem. You're not doing it for all the right reasons.
I've been in this league a long time. The league's not perfect. But I'm definitely proud of a lot of my teammates, coaches, trainers, owners.
In the pocket, you do have some protections, but you get out of the pocket, and defenders' eyes get big. Sometimes you learn that the hard way.
I used to make fun when I got into the league, and I couldn't believe these old guys that didn't know artists on the radio, like in the weight room.
More often than not as a quarterback, your performance is a reflection of the guys around you. I've been fortunate to be around some pretty good guys.
As a quarterback, especially when I come off to the sideline, I am trying to get things corrected, trying to get things figured out and move on to the next series.
As a quarterback, you certainly don't want to hamstring your team in any way because - I know this more than anyone - you rely so heavily on those playmakers around you.
When I was young, you get into the point where you want to throw everything hard. And it looks good, it feels good... You get to the point, though, where it's not realistic.
Most of the time, you're just trying to be the point guard out there based on the play call and the defense that you're getting; that really dictates where the football goes.
I think that's the great thing about the NFL. You're out there, and there are very few perennials. It's a battle every single year. You can go first to worst, worst to first.
I can just remember games as a young player, counting my stats on the sideline. 'What am I now? I'm this many completions for this many attempts. I wonder what my rating is.'
It wasn't until I stopped worrying about my own validation and finally refocused my energy on things I could actually change that I finally grew as a person and as a professional.
There are a lot of peripheral things that you have to deal with in this league, and I dealt with a lot of them when I came in. It's everything from being on your own to facing the media.
It is healthy to have competition and intense competition, and then, when you walk away from it, you are still teammates, and you play the same position and that we can still put the team first.
You look at the best players in the league, the best players at quarterback - I mean Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, the top names - none of those guys are throwing it through a brick wall. They'll have touch.
You get a taste of playing in the playoffs and what that's like, and it's a completely different world. You get a taste in those meaningful games. You get that taste, and you can't get it out. You want more.
As a quarterback, you've got a huge responsibility: You're touching the ball every single play. You have such a big impact on deciding the game, just in your decision-making and how you are with the football and your fundamentals.
Game day can be emotional, and there are a lot of ups and downs throughout a game, but as a quarterback, you have to be able to see the bigger picture, steady that ship, get all the guys focused in on the task at hand, and keep the thing moving.
To a lot of people, I might just be the guy who went No. 1 in the draft. Or the guy who lost his job to Colin Kaepernick. Or the guy who helped turn a 2-14 Chiefs team into a back-to-back division champ... but then couldn't put them over the top.
When I watch good friends play, it's almost worse when you're watching, because you have zero impact: you have zero hand in what's going on. When I'm playing, you don't have that because I'm involved in it. I have some kind of say in what's going on.
I've been to so many deals with so many of my peers. I hate to say it, but you go, and it's some tournament or big party or dinner, and you don't even know what you're raising money for. It's like, 'Oh, it's for the kids.' Thanks. But what are you doing?
You love playing on a national stage - anytime you get these games. The Thursday ones are tough; I have a mixed opinion. I think if you win them, they're awesome because you get another little bye week in there, so to speak. They're tough on the quick turnaround.
When I got drafted, I was a spread-option quarterback. It was, 'OK, you've got to get under center, throw to the fullback, throw to the tight end. You've got to learn to be a pro quarterback.' And there was a learning curve there, and I did have to learn some of that.
I carried around a lot of weight and anxiety - expectations of being a top draft pick and fulfilling those. It was really burdensome and not fun. Stressful. I had to go through some things before I finally turned that around and got back to playing for the right reasons.
As a quarterback, when you do have a three-and-out or things do not go right, you are the first one to know. You know more than anyone out there what went wrong and what needs to be corrected and don't necessarily always need to hear it when you come off to the sideline.
It's one thing as a quarterback to sit there and warm up. And there's one thing to throw routes. And there's another thing when you drop back in the pocket and, when a guy comes open, to really be able to urgently - bam - all of a sudden. That guy's open; your body has to do what your mind's telling you.
At the combine and at my workouts, I tried to be the perfect player. I tried to promote my strengths and conceal my weaknesses, and on paper, I kind of succeeded: I was the first pick in the draft. And with that, I inherited this big shiny trophy that I carried around, and it had one word engraved on it - anxiety.
I was on some bad teams, and I played bad as a young player, certainly, at times. And that all mounts. Yeah, that all mounts. The perception. Everything that goes into that. And so, yeah, I think to kind of get over the hump of that, to change perception, it can be difficult. It's a tall task. And it takes a long time.
You're frustrated when things aren't going right. When you're out there, you have your piece of it, your view. It isn't until usually the next day when you're watching the film that you get to put all the pieces together: 'Oh, this is what happened on that play'; 'This is why I did that.' You don't totally know that game day.