One of the top draft prospects in this year’s NFL Draft is just a few weeks older than Trevor Lawrence.
Let that sink in for a second.
A seven-year collegiate athlete who will be 26 in September, Tyler Shough took advantage of being a backup early in his career, transferring between Oregon, Texas Tech and Louisville, utilizing a medical redshirt year and benefitting from the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to get to this point.
The point that sees him starting his professional career as a 26-year-old rookie while the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback enters Year 5.
And though the media often fixates on age when it comes to quarterbacks — looking at you, Brandon Weeden — NFL teams don’t seem fazed by Shough’s road less traveled path. As he told Pro Football Talk, while reporters regularly ask him whether he’s already hit his athletic prime, it’s clear that NFL coaches and general managers see his experience as a key asset.
For them, age isn’t a barrier; it’s a badge of maturity and readiness.
As Chris Simms said, a big deal during last season’s NFL Draft process was the age of the quarterbacks. A former QB himself, Simms wondered if Shough had gotten “any of the crap” in Indianapolis during the NFL Scouting Combine.
“Not from coaches or NFL personnel. Only from the media,” Shough said. “And I think more than anything, just kind of letting them know it’s been an advantage for me. I feel like, if anything, it’s helped me characterize who I am, going through those experiences. And I think you see quarterbacks play well into their 30s — even better ball late into their 30s where you got [Tom] Brady, [Aaron] Rodgers winning MVPs and Matthew Stafford playing really well right now.”
Shough added that more than anything, it’s “helped” him.
Age ain’t nothing but a number.
That said, many highly respected NFL Draft analysts have praised Shough’s film, ranking him among the top two to three quarterbacks in this year’s class for weeks. While it’s not an overly deep quarterback class — especially with the teams with the top two picks, the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns, both needing quarterbacks but willing to trade back — Shough is still highly regarded.
So, while “the media” might be a bit too broad of a term, it’s easy to see why he feels the way he does.
At the same time, Shough pointed out that he’s married and has a family, which allows him to focus on football full-time. With that stability in his personal life, he can dedicate himself entirely to his career, which only enhances his readiness for the NFL.
“It changes your perspective, as far as I’m not going home to go play the game and see what we’re doing tonight,” he adds. “We’re gonna go on a two-mile walk, and we’re gonna go make dinner… She [his wife], more than anything, she helps me learn the playbook, and I’m kind of in debt to her, more than anything.”
For someone like Shough, who’s more focused on what he’s done than when he started, age really is just a number. While certain media members may want to make a story out of his age, NFL teams are looking at what experience, maturity and readiness.
And as Shough has shown “more than anything,” that extra time and perspective have only sharpened his game.