‘Wouldn’t have believed it.’ Matt Moore: From high school coach to Chiefs’ starting QB
Zach Johnson is a senior at Hart High School in California, a star of the football team with a Division I scholarship on the horizon. He skips the lunchroom most days, instead heading into a classroom, where for about a weeklong stretch early this fall, he had a reserved seat next to his quarterback advisor.
Matt Moore.
You might know Moore now as the backup-turned-starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Patrick Mahomes fill-in when the team plays host to Green Bay Sunday night.
But as recently as August, Johnson and his teammates at Hart knew him more simply.
As “Coach.”
“With his expertise and knowledge, it was really cool to pick his brain and learn about footwork, coverages and everything else,” Johnson said. “It was awesome.”
Nine weeks after coaching Johnson, who has committed to California, Moore will start an NFL Sunday Night Football game under the Arrowhead Stadium lights.
His coaching career lasted all of one week. But he left some high school kids with a cool story to tell — not only about those handful of days, but how that stint concluded, too.
After all, how many high school quarterbacks lose their position coach to the NFL?
The call from the Chiefs
In an honest moment, Moore will tell you he thought his NFL playing days were finished. He missed being part of a pro football locker room more than he had anticipated. Missed the competition. The emotions. All of that.
But nobody was calling. He sat out the entire 2018 season, a decision NFL teams made on his behalf. He’d had a longer run in the league than most probably expected — it lasted more than a decade after every team passed on him in the 2007 NFL Draft.
But this felt like the end.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen,” Moore said. “I thought that was over.”
The year off provided adequate time to reflect on what was, and then to look forward to what could be next. He attended a few games at Hart, his alma mater, during the fall of 2018 and wondered if he might be able to coach. A week before the 2019 opener, he officially signed on.
Johnson was ecstatic. Moore taught some of the finer intricacies of the position. Footwork within the pocket to set up improved throwing lanes. How to detect when a cornerback is revealing his coverage.
And there was one particular point he hammered home, day after day, drill after drill.
“The Drive for Five,” Johnson said. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget that phrase. He taught me a lot of things, but he really stressed that.”
The concept sounds quite simple, but it’s one quarterbacks so often ignore. Moore instructed Johnson to carry out his fakes for five full steps, keeping a defense on its collective toes. It would make the running game more effective. It would make play-action more effective.
In the school’s season opener, Johnson sought out Moore on the sideline after every offensive drive, the two of them looking at a TV screen stationed there and analyzing what they just saw. Over the ensuing weekend, Moore had become comfortable suggesting some plays for head coach Mike Herrington, who has coached multiple NFL quarterbacks at Hart.
That includes Moore, who went undefeated in the division his senior season.
“I was having a good time doing what I was doing,” Moore said of his time on the high school sidelines.
He became content that he had found a calling in his post-NFL life.
Then the phone rang. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. The Chiefs needed a backup quarterback after Chad Henne fractured his ankle in a preseason game. A year earlier, the Chiefs had chosen Henne over Moore as their No. 2 quarterback behind Mahomes.
Within 24 hours, Moore was departing for Kansas City. He had time to text his coach an apology for leaving his staff in the middle of the season.
“I was on Twitter or Instagram and saw the news,” Johnson said. “Someone on the team had taken a screen shot and sent it in our group chat. We were all kind of shocked but just really excited for him.”
Opportunity awaits Sunday against Green Bay
Johnson’s phone buzzed at at about 6 p.m. on a Thursday night. Then it buzzed again. And again. And again.
By the time he looked down, a group text message between the team’s football players had taken off.
Dude, Matt’s playing!
Johnson rushed to his TV, flipped to the Chiefs-Broncos game and saw for himself. Chiefs starter Patrick Mahomes had departed the game with a dislocated kneecap, opening the door for his former coach.
Johnson sat and watched the remainder of the game. Couldn’t help but laugh when Moore hit Tyreek Hill for a 57-yard touchdown to cement Kansas City’s road win.
“If someone would’ve told me during my first game of the season that my coach would be throwing touchdown passes for an NFL team, I wouldn’t have believed it,” Johnson said. “It’s definitely pretty wild.”
To be fair, Moore would have said the same. He joined the Chiefs after their offseason programs, after training camp had concluded. He didn’t even have the chance to play in the preseason.
“It was kind of funny. I was super-excited to sign here, and then once I got here, I was like, ‘Holy smokes,’” he said. “No camp. No OTAs. No nothing. And there’s always that potential case where you have to play soon. That was always in my mind the first couple weeks.”
He feels more comfortable now after eight whole weeks in Kansas City. This represents opportunity, and perhaps not just for one night. Maybe it opens the door for another job next season.
“I think any day in this league is an opportunity,” Moore said. “You earn everything you get in this league, good or bad. You constantly are playing for something. So, yes ... that could happen.”
If not, he still sees coaching potentially in his future. As it was his past. Briefly. But enough to make a connection. On Sunday night, as national TV cameras converge on Moore inside Arrowhead Stadium, there will be heavy rooting interests in Kansas City and Wisconsin.
And a small portion of California north of Los Angeles.
“We’ll all turn it on,” Johnson said. “One hundred percent — I’ll be watching. It’s going to be pretty cool.”