Nolan Michael Henderson (born June 26, 1998) 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 ...

for the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League (UFL). He played

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 ...

for the

Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens are the athletic teams of the University of Delaware (UD) of Newark, Delaware, in the United States. The Blue Hens compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) of Division I of the National Collegiat ...

Early life and education

Henderson was born on June 26, 1998, in

Smyrna, Delaware Smyrna is a town in Kent and New Castle counties in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is part of the Dover metropolitan statistical area. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2020, the population of the town is 12,883. The international juri ...

. He attended Smyrna High School and was a three-year starter and two-time team captain. In his final two seasons, Henderson led them to an overall record of 24–1 and the school's first two state championships, while throwing for 5,614 yards and 68

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. He was twice named first-team all-state, set several state records, including career passing touchdowns (104), single season passing yards (3,380) and passing touchdowns (36), and in 2016 was given the Maxwell Jim Henry Award for best player in Delaware, as well as Gatorade State Player of the Year and DIFCA Offensive Player of the Year honors. At the annual Delaware High School All-Star game in June 2017, Henderson was named

most valuable player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

after leading the gold team to a 44–0 victory. In addition to football, Henderson also started four years on the Smyrna High School baseball team as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

, playing under his father who was the head coach.

College career

After visiting several schools in the

Colonial Athletic Association The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...

(CAA), Henderson announced his commitment to play

for the

. As a true

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

in 2017, Henderson saw no game action, being a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

and operating the scout team. The following season, he appeared in a total of three games, making his collegiate debut against Lafayette and seeing the most action against Villanova, where he threw a touchdown pass after coming in for the injured

Pat Kehoe Patrick Kehoe (born December 23, 1996) is a former American football quarterback who played for the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens. Early life Kehoe was born on December 23, 1996, in Madison, Connecticut. He was part of a set of triplets. Kehoe at ...

. On the season, he completed 12-of-20 passes for 152 yards and one touchdown, in addition to rushing for 36 yards. Four games into the 2019 season, Henderson was named starter, replacing Kehoe and becoming the first starting quarterback for the Blue Hens from a Delaware school since Sam Postlethwait in 2001. In his first career start, against Penn, he threw for three touchdowns and 260 yards. He finished the season having played in nine games, and recorded 71 pass completions on 126 attempts for 933 yards. Henderson became a full-time starter in the 2020–21 season, being team captain and throwing for 1,482 yards and 10 touchdowns in eight games. He led them to a 7–1 mark and set the school record with a 70.7 completion percentage, helping them reach the NCAA semifinals. His completion percentage ranked first in the CAA and third in the FCS, and he was named first-team all-conference. In 2021, Henderson started the first four games before suffering a season-ending abdominal injury. In four games, he went 47-of-80 passing for 646 yards and four touchdowns. He posted his best year as a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in 2022, setting the single-season school record for passing touchdowns with 32 while completing 285-of-442 passes for 3,216 yards, the latter of which was the third best mark in Delaware history. He was named second-team All-CAA, and led Delaware to the FCS playoffs, where they lost to eventual national champion

South Dakota State South Dakota State University (SDSU or SD State) is a public land-grant research university in Brookings, South Dakota, United States. Founded in 1881, it is the state's largest university and is the second oldest continually operating universit ...

42–6, in a game that saw Henderson break his fibula on the first drive. Although Henderson had one year of eligibility remaining coming into 2023, he opted to declare for the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

. He finished his college career second all-time in Delaware history for touchdown passes (56), and completed 550-of-850 pass attempts for 6,429 yards. Additionally, he ran for 418 yards, scoring eight times.

Statistics

Professional career

Baltimore Ravens

After going unselected in the

2023 NFL draft The 2023 NFL draft was the 88th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2023 NFL season, 2023 season. The NFL draft, draft was held outside of Kansas City Union Station, Union Station i ...

, Henderson was signed by the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

on May 5, 2023. He was released on June 6.

Houston Roughnecks

On January 22, 2024, Henderson signed with the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League (UFL). He re-signed with the team on September 18, 2024.

UFL career statistics

Personal life

Henderson grew up a Delaware fan and his childhood dream was to play for the school; his family held season tickets for several years.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Nolan 1998 births Living people American football quarterbacks People from Smyrna, Delaware Players of American football from Delaware Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football players Baltimore Ravens players Houston Roughnecks (2024) players