Alphonso Tyrone Swoopes Jr. (born November 14, 1994) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense (sports), offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide ...

who is a free agent. He played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and a ...

and signed with the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 a ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

in 2017. He has also been a member of the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

and

Washington Commanders The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) ...

High school career

Swoopes was a highly recruited high school football player from a small town (Whitewright, TX). He played in the 2013 U.S. Army All-American Bowl, and consistently was rated among the top 10 quarterback recruits in the country. In addition to football, he played guard in basketball, in baseball, and competed in the long jump, triple jump, 4 × 400 m, 4 × 200 m, 4 × 100 m and shot put in track and field. A 4-star recruit, he committed to play college football at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

over offers from

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

, Auburn, Baylor,

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, Oklahoma,

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M Unive ...

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas ...

, and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

College career

2013 season

In his lone season with head coach Mack Brown, Swoopes saw limited play in the 2013 season, coming in mostly for relief in six games. On November 2, Swoopes completed his first career collegiate pass against

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

. On November 28, he had his first career rushing touchdown, which came in the fourth quarter against

. On December 30, Swoopes saw time in the

2013 Alamo Bowl The 2013 Alamo Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on December 30, 2013, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The 21st edition of the Alamo Bowl, it featured the Oregon Ducks from the Pac-12 Conference and th ...

against

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

. In the bowl game, Swoopes had eight rushes for 38 yards.

2014 season

Swoopes entered the 2014 season with a new head coach,

Charlie Strong Charles Rene Strong (born August 2, 1960) is an American football coach who is currently the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at the University of Miami. He recently served as the assistant head coach and inside linebackers co ...

. In the first game of the 2014 season, Swoopes entered the game only for the last series, but after a career-ending injury to David Ash, Swoopes was thrown into the unexpected role of starter for the second game against

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

. He remained the starter for the rest of the season. Swoopes described the season as one of "ups and downs." Despite solid play by Swoopes, his debut game against BYU represented the worst home loss, 41–7, for Texas since

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

. Swoopes had another solid performance the following week against #12

, but despite a late lead, the Longhorns again came up short. Swoopes led Texas to a win over unranked

, then a loss to #7 Baylor before throwing for a career-high 334 yards in a close loss to Oklahoma. That was followed by a gutsy win over

Iowa State Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State became one of the n ...

in which Swoopes, who set a career-high for total offense, led the Longhorns on a game-winning drive with only 28 seconds left, after having led them on a touchdown drive only a minute earlier. The next game brought a shutout loss to #11

Kansas State Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

. Then the team won three straight over

, #24

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the ...

, and

Oklahoma State Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. The highlight of the season was arguably the upset win of then #24 West Virginia, which was not a great game for Swoopes, but was a necessary one for Texas to become bowl-eligible. The next week, against Oklahoma State, Swoopes had the best game of his career, with 305 yards, two touchdowns, and a career-high quarterback rating of 170.4. In the last game of the regular season, Texas was beaten badly by #5 TCU in a game in which Swoopes threw a career-high four interceptions. Swoopes and the Longhorns went to the

Texas Bowl The Texas Bowl is an annual postseason NCAA-sanctioned Division I FBS college football bowl game first held in 2006 in Houston, Texas. Each edition of the bowl has been played at NRG Stadium, previously known as Reliant Stadium. The bowl replac ...

where they met an old Southwest Conference rival

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the ...

, but the offense, which struggled all season due to injury and disciplinary losses to the offensive line, was able to muster only 59 yards of offense. It was Swoopes's worst game. He produced only 25 yards of total offense (57 yards of passing and −32 yards of rushing) and registered a career low quarterback rating of 63.2. His performance during the last two games of the season and his 5–7 record as a starter left analysts questioning his role in 2015. Before the bowl game, Max Olson of ESPN wrote of him "he will have to fight for his job next year."

2015 season

Swoopes played a significant role for the Longhorns in the 2015 season. He started the season shaky in a loss in the season opener against

; Swoopes was 7-of-22 for 93 yards and had ten rushing attempts for 17 yards. On September 26, he had his first rushing touchdown of the season against

. In the next game against

, he had his first passing touchdown of the season. In the next game against Oklahoma, Swoopes had a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown. Two weeks later, against

, he had a career-high three rushing touchdowns to along with 50 rushing yards. On November 7, Swoopes had a career-day against

. Against the Jayhawks, he had 98 yards passing and one passing touchdown. In addition, he had a career-high four rushing touchdowns to along with 59 rushing yards. On November 26, against

, he had 98 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He started at quarterback in the last game of the year at #12 Baylor. Texas won the game in an upset by a score of 23-17. In the victory, Swoopes had a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown. Overall, Swoopes was 47-of-93 for 537 passing yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. On the ground, he had 451 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns on 74 attempts.

2016 season

Swoopes started the 2016 season by appearing in the game against #10

. He had a strong performance in the 50-47 2OT victory. He had 13 carries for 53 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner. A few weeks later, against

, Swoopes had six carries for 24 yards and two touchdowns. Over the course of the rest of the season, Swoopes appeared in seven games and recorded two other rushing touchdowns. Overall, in the 2016 season, Swoopes had 54 rushes for 174 yards and seven touchdowns.

College statistics

Awards

Professional career

Seattle Seahawks

Swoopes signed with the

as an undrafted free agent on May 12, 2017. He was waived on September 2, 2017, and was signed to the Seahawks' practice squad the next day. He was promoted to the active roster on December 30, 2017. On September 1, 2018, Swoopes was waived by the Seahawks. He was re-signed to the practice squad on October 9, 2018. He was promoted to the active roster on October 13, 2018 and started the game the next day against Oakland during which he had one reception. He was waived on October 27, 2018, and was re-signed to the practice squad. He was released on November 6, 2018, but re-signed on November 28. On January 7, 2019, Swoopes signed a reserve/future contract with the Seahawks. He was waived/injured on August 3, 2019, and placed on injured reserve. He was released on August 14, 2019. He was re-signed to the practice squad on October 15. He was promoted to the active roster on November 22, 2019. He played in 5 of the last 6 games for the Seahawks, including two starts. Swoopes did not receive an

exclusive-rights free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player 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 contract at present but who is a ...

tender from the team after the season, and became a free agent on March 18, 2020. Swoopes had a tryout with the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division, an ...

on August 14, 2020, and with the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team pla ...

on August 20, 2020.

Philadelphia Eagles

He visited the

on August 23, 2020 and was signed by the team on August 25. He was waived soon after on September 3, 2020.

Washington Commanders

On December 23, 2020, Swoopes was signed to the

's practice squad. He played one game for Washington that season. Swoopes re-signed with the team on January 11, 2021, but was released after failing to report to training camp.

NFL career statistics

References

External links

Collegiate statistics at Sports-Reference.com

Texas Longhorns bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swoopes, Tyrone 1994 births Living people People from Stephenville, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football quarterbacks American football running backs American football tight ends Texas Longhorns football players Seattle Seahawks players Philadelphia Eagles players Washington Football Team players