Getty Devlin Hodges looks to his right before the play unfolds against the L.A. Chargers on August 14. Hodges was among the waives by the Los Angeles Rams on Monday.
Looks like Devlin “Duck” Hodges isn’t too fazed by getting waived by the Los Angeles Rams. He had a reason to express laughter through a tweet.
Late Monday morning, the Rams transaction page announced the backup quarterback as one of three players waived by the franchise as teams need to trim their roster to 80 players by 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday. The move currently leaves L.A. with 82 active players before the deadline.
The suspicion of Hodges’ murky future in L.A. grew following Saturday’s 17-16 preseason loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, as Bryce Perkins took every QB snap for the Rams. Head coach Sean McVay originally had no plan to roll with Perkins the whole time, but saw how efficient the offense looked when he was in the lineup.
“I think just based on the flow of the game, there was just some different opportunities. You want him (Perkins) to be able to respond back from the interception. He kind of got some good momentum,” McVay told reporters after the loss. “You wanted him to start the second half. So that wasn’t necessarily the plan. We just kind of had a feel for it during the course of the game, wanted to give him that opportunity. And we’ll see what that looks like for next week.”
Well, next week won’t involve “Duck.” However, turns out “Duck” has a sense of humor, plus realizing he has backers in the form of one popular radio sports show.
Pat McAfee Show Backs Hodges and Does Duck Call
Hodges clearly has a closet fan club in the form of the Pat McAfee Show, the weekday radio program aired on Sirius XM radio.
McAfee, himself a former NFL player who earned two Pro Bowl nods with the Indianapolis Colts in 2014 and 2016, announced Hodges’ Rams tenure has ended.
McAfee, though, called Hodges “an absolute icon and legend” before quacking with the rest of his show hosts in honor of the QB nicknamed “Duck.” McAfee reflected on Hodges’ Pittsburgh Steeler career.
“He went in and led the Steelers to an undefeated 5-0 start as their starter,” McAfee reminded the listeners. “It ended up crumbling in the end. He ended up at the Rams. After playing in zero plays this last preseason game, he now has a chance to get out of the Rams building and spread those duck wings and fly somewhere else.”
And here was Hodges’ immediate response seen on Twitter:
Hodges Posts and Likes Other Tweets
Following his reaction to McAfee and company showering Hodges with support, Hodges then posted the animal he’s associated with, which likely is his way of saying the “Duck” is moving on.
But that wasn’t the only Twitter action Hodges had. The QB who arrived to the NFL as an undrafted free agent in 2019 out of Samford liked some fan reaction tweets following his Rams departure.
Pittsburgh Pop artist Jordan York sent out this tweet which got Hodges to hit the like button.
@DevlinHodges10 @yinzercrazyshow Come back home #Pittsburgh
One Steelers fan posted that he still has his “Quack Towel,” which became popular at a Pittsburgh North Shore bar in 2019 during Hodges’ Steel City tenure. He also redid the famous Batman signal by replacing the bat with a duck for Hodges.
@DevlinHodges10 I still got my Duck Towel
Also waived by the Rams were safety Paris Ford, who also shares a Steel City connection with Hodges as he played his college football at the University of Pittsburgh, and running back/return man Raymond Calais.