Kyle Boller
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[] at NFL.com Kyle Bryan Boller (born June 17, 1981 in Burbank, California) is an American football quarterback with the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.
Boller began his high school career at William S. Hart High School in Newhall, California. At Hart High School, he was named California High School Player of the Year, throwing for 4,841 yards and 59 touchdowns in his senior season.
As a college player at California, Boller started slowly but excelled in his senior season. In 1999, playing at Cal, he completed just 38.6 percent of his passes.
Boller was also prone to injury, and did not start the 1999 Big Game due to an injury against Oregon. His third year was especially disastrous, as various injuries on the team combined with poor coaching resulted in a 1-10 season for Cal.
Boller's stock as a draft pick took off after his senior season, which was credited to head coach Jeff Tedford, who replaced Tom Holmoe as head coach. Tedford came with experience in coaching quarterbacks, and Boller's completion rate noticeably improved with a better supporting cast of players.
Boller became the Ravens' first round draft pick in 2003 (19th overall pick), and he has been the starting QB for the Ravens since his rookie season. He was the second quarterback taken out of the Pac-10 conference after the Cincinnati Bengals selected Carson Palmer from USC with the first overall pick.
Boller started the first 11 games of the 2003 season until he injured his thigh in a loss to the St. Louis Rams. He started every game at quarterback for the Ravens 2004 season, posting four games with quarterback ratings over 100. He had his best game of his young career against the New York Giants on December 12, 2004, throwing four touchdowns, no interceptions, and passing for 219 yards as Baltimore trounced New York 37-14 at M&T Bank Stadium. Boller was 14-11 as the Ravens starter entering the 2005 NFL season, and he is currently 18-16 for his total career, with an impressive 13-4 home record. He posted the highest passer rating of his young career at 136.8 against the Green Bay Packers on December 20, 2005, throwing three touchdowns, no interceptions, completing 19 of 27 of his passes and amassing 253 yards, as Baltimore defeated the Green Bay Packers 48-3 at M&T Bank Stadium on Monday Night Football.
Boller then followed up that game with another strong performance, throwing 3 touchdowns in knocking the Minnesota Vikings out of the 2006 NFL Playoffs.
Notable
- Boller's total yards his senior year under Tedford were greater than his first three years as a starting quarterback combined.
- The Ravens initially attempted to trade up to draft Marshall quarterback Byron Leftwich, but instead traded two picks (2003 2nd round pick and 2004 1st round pick) to the New England Patriots for their 2003 1st round pick (#19 overall) which the Ravens used to draft Boller.
- Boller wore uniform #8 in 2003, as incumbent quarterback Chris Redman wore #7, but when Redman left following the '03 season, Boller switched back to #7, which he wore in college. His favorite quarterback growing up also wore #7 - John Elway.
- Boller's father, three uncles, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all firefighters.
Trivia
- Majored in American studies while at UC Berkeley, but did not graduate.
External links
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