John Paddock (born March 27, 2000) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

. He played college football at

Ball State Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. T ...

and

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

Early life and high school

Paddock attended

Bloomfield Hills High School Bloomfield Hills High School (BHHS) is a State school, public Secondary school, high school in Bloomfield Township, Oakland County, Michigan, Bloomfield Township, Michigan, United States. It is the sole comprehensive high school of the Bloomfie ...

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is ...

. He was rated as a two-star recruit by

Rivals.com Rivals.com (stylized as ''rivals'') is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was found ...

and committed to play

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State or BSU) is a public research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States. The university has three off-campus centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Fishers, Indiana. The university is composed of seven aca ...

College career

Ball State

In Paddock's first four seasons with Ball State, he appeared in only four games as a backup quarterback, completing 24 of 32 passes for 180 yards and an

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

. He earned the starting job ahead of the 2022 season. In week 3, Paddock completed 27 of 44 passing attempts for 227 yards and three touchdowns with one interception in his first win as a starter, shutting out

Murray State Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky, in the Southern United States. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper-level an ...

. He finished the 2022 season completing 286 of 480 pass attempts for 2,719 yards and 18 touchdowns with 14 interceptions, going 5-7 as a starter. After the season, Paddock entered the

NCAA transfer portal The NCAA transfer portal is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) application, database, and compliance tool created to manage and facilitate the process for student athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It is i ...

Illinois

Paddock transferred to the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

as a walk-on for his final season. In week 9 of the 2023 season, he entered the game in the fourth quarter down by one score after starter Luke Altmyer went down with an injury. Paddock completed all three of his passes for 85 yards including the game-winning touchdown as he helped Illinois beat

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

27-26. He started the following week, throwing for 507 yards and four touchdowns with one interception in a 48–45 overtime win over

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

Professional career

Paddock signed with the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

as an undrafted free agent on April 28, 2024. He was waived on August 25.

References

External links

Illinois Fighting Illini bio

Ball State Cardinals bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paddock, John 2000 births Living people People from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Players of American football from Oakland County, Michigan American football quarterbacks Ball State Cardinals football players Illinois Fighting Illini football players Atlanta Falcons players