Kyle Sloter

Kyle Joseph Sloter (born February 7, 1994) is an American football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Southern Miss before transferring to Northern Colorado. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Denver Broncos in 2017. He also previously played for the Minnesota Vikings.

Early years
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Sloter attended Mount Pisgah Christian School, where he was a two-sport star. In football, he set nearly every record with 9,200 total yards, including roughly 6,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards with 87 career touchdowns. He was a two-time first team All-State selection, four times first team All-District, All-Area, All-Region and All-Metro honoree. He also played basketball, helping his team win two Regional Championships and advance to the Final Four and earned All-State, All-Region, All-District and Team MVP honors. Sloter scored 2,100 career points, ranking in the Top 10 in the state in scoring and averaged 18.2 points per game with nine rebounds per game as a senior.

Sloter was regarded as a two-star recruit by the Rivals.com, ESPN.com and Scout.com recruiting networks. He received scholarship offers to play as quarterback from Tulane and Southern Miss. Sloter had been recruited hard by then Tulane assistant Rickey Bustle, and when Bustle wound up at Southern Miss to be the offensive coordinator, Sloter committed to Southern Miss.

Southern Miss
In his first season at Southern Miss, Sloter got red-shirted by the coaches in order for him to be able to compete for the starting job the next spring with a chance to be the Golden Eagles’ 2013 starter as a redshirt freshman. Academically, he was named to the Conference USA Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll.

Prior to the 2013 season, head coach Ellis Johnson was fired and replaced by Todd Monken. With the new regime, Sloter found himself fourth on the quarterback depth chart, so he asked the coaches to work with the wide receivers and by season’s end he was granted a starting role as a slot receiver, finishing the year with 5 catches for 35 yards and a touchdown. As a sophomore, Sloter concentrated on developing his receiving skills but was buried down the depth chart, posting only 2 catches for 12 yards during the season. Heading into his junior season, Sloter was informed that his scholarship was being pulled. He decided to transfer to the University of Northern Colorado to have a chance to play quarterback.

Northern Colorado
In his first year with the Bears, Sloter was initially used in a variety of position groups that included wide receiver and kickoff and punt return units until halfway through the regular season the team lost their backup quarterback, so Sloter was asked to move back to be the backup quarterback. Statistically, he had two rushes for 5 yards and caught 6 passes for 60 yards on the season.

Entering his senior season in 2016, Sloter was named the backup to starting quarterback Jacob Knipp. In the opening game of the season against Rocky Mountain College, Sloter ended up playing an entire half but threw only three passes, going 0-for-3 with an interception on his first attempt. The following week, the Bears faced Abilene on the road when Knipp injured his shoulder in the first drive of the game. Sloter came in and threw for 408 yards and 7 touchdowns and won the game 55-52. He was named the Big Sky Player of the Week and FCS Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts. In his final college game, he passed for a school-record 438 passing yards and 6 touchdowns against Cal Poly. Sloter finished the season with 2,656 passing yards, 29 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions in ten games. His 29 TD passes set a new UNC Division I single season program record.

College statistics
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Professional career
After graduating from college, Sloter did not receive an invitation to attend the 2017 NFL Combine but he hoped to showcase his athletic ability at Northern Colorado’s pro day, where 45-miles-an-hour winds kicked up and the players were forced to run their workouts indoors on the basketball court. He ran a laser-timed 4.65 40-time and posted a 9'1" broad jump in someone else’s sneakers (scouts added time to his 40-yard dash and took away inches from his broad jump because of the indoor settings). The next day, Sloter was scheduled to perform at the Colorado University pro day. Ready to get his timings properly (he had been running a 4.5 in the 40 with a sub-7.0 three-cone drill), he was told he could not do the timed/measured events because he was on record at the Northern Colorado pro day the prior day, so his basketball court workout times would have to stand. However, he was allowed to throw the ball for scouts, registering an arm speed of 58 mph, which was 1 mph shy of the best-clocked throwing speed at the NFL Combine.

Denver Broncos
Sloter signed with the Denver Broncos as an undrafted free agent on May 13, 2017. In the preseason, Sloter completed 31 of 43 passes for 413 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 125.4, the highest of any rookie quarterback. He was waived by the Broncos on September 2, 2017.

Minnesota Vikings
On September 4, 2017, Sloter was signed to the Minnesota Vikings' practice squad. Since the signing, Sloter has posted some of the best preseason stat lines of all time. He was promoted to the active roster on September 16, 2017.