Taylor Heinicke: Everything you need to know

Heinicke announced his retirement Thursday, Ben Standig of Big 100 Washington D.C. reports. Heinicke signed with the Chargers last year but lost the backup job battle to Trey Lance, leading to his release in August of 2025. The Old Dominion product never found a new landing spot, and he chose to hang up the cleats after an unlikely but highly interesting NFL career. Heinicke went undrafted in 2015 and didn't start a game until 2018 with the Panthers. He ended up joining the XFL in 2020 where he reinvigorated his career, eventually signing with Washington and starting 15 games during the 2021 season. Heinicke finished with a career record of 13-15-1 while completing 62.5 percent of his passes for 6,663 yards, 39 touchdowns and 28 interceptions through 42 games (29 starts).

The Chargers released Heinicke on Tuesday. The 32-year-old becomes a free agent after losing a summer battle against Trey Lance for the backup QB job in Los Angeles. It's not a great sign for Henicke's NFL future, but he may nonetheless resurface somewhere else.

Heinicke completed three of five passes for 31 yards in Saturday's 30-23 preseason loss to the 49ers. Heinicke was the second Chargers quarterback into the game, notably after Trey Lance. The former wasn't asked to do much-- the playcalling heavily slanted toward the run -- though Heinicke did manage to record completions of 12 and 13 yards to Oronde Gadsden and JaQuae Jackson. Saturday's usage suggests Heinicke has slipped to third on the quarterback depth chart, though that won't become entirely clear until the team's Week 1 matchup against the Chiefs.