Kellen Clemens

Kellen Vincent Clemens (born June 7, 1983) is an American former professional football player who was a quarterback for 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL).

Born and raised in Burns in eastern Oregon, Clemens played high school football for the Burns Hilanders and led them to the Oregon state 3A championship game in 1999.

In his high school career, he threw for a state-record 8,646 yards (610-of-1,112) and 102 touchdowns.

He also received USA Today All-American honors and Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year while in high school, where he completed 218 of 395 passes for 3464 yd and 37 touchdowns with 325 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns in his senior season.

He was coached by Terry Graham using the run and shoot offense.

Clemens played college football at the University of Oregon in Eugene.

He played for head coach Mike Bellotti while at Oregon.

He assumed the role of starting quarterback in all 13 games in 2003 and responded by throwing for more touchdown passes and yards than any sophomore in school history, surpassing Dan Fouts—who had 16 touchdowns and 2,390 yards, in 1970.

Clemens posted three rushing touchdowns, three passing touchdowns and a career-best 437 passing yards in a road victory over Washington State as a junior.

As a senior in 2005, he broke his ankle while playing against Arizona.

Despite missing remaining three games of the season, Clemens finished 2005 with 2,406 passing yards, 19 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a 152.87 passer efficiency rating.

He played college football for the Oregon Ducks and was selected by the New York Jets in the second round of the 2006 NFL draft.

He was also been a member of the Washington Redskins, Houston Texans, St. Louis Rams, and San Diego / Los Angeles Chargers.

Clemens was selected by the New York Jets in the second round of the 2006 NFL Draft, the 49th overall pick, to serve as the secondary quarterback to Chad Pennington.

A healthy Pennington resulted in little playing time for Clemens in 2006.

He made his NFL debut in relief appearance against the Jacksonville Jaguars, recording his first career pass attempt and rushing once for two yards in the 41–0 loss.

He entered in a Week 14 31–13 loss to the Buffalo Bills, rushed once for eight yards but did not attempt a pass.

He recorded only two attempts and 0 completions in his rookie season.

Due to an injury to Pennington in the Jets's 2007 season opener against the New England Patriots, Clemens recorded his first completed pass in the NFL with a final record for the day of five complete passes on ten attempts in the 38–14 loss.

Clemens made his first career start in Week 2 of the 2007 season.

His effectiveness was minimized by the Ravens's defense for the first three quarters, with the Jets trailing 20–3 at one point.

However, in the fourth quarter, Clemens led the Jets on a scoring drive that cut Baltimore's lead to 20–13.

On the last drive, he attempted what would have been a game-tying touchdown pass to Jets wide receiver Justin McCareins, but the pass was dropped by McCareins and intercepted by the Ravens' Ray Lewis.

His next appearance came in week 8 against the Buffalo Bills.

A struggling Pennington was pulled by head coach Eric Mangini in the middle of the fourth quarter and replaced by Clemens.

Clemens led two drives against the Buffalo defense.

Down 13–3 and pressed for time, Clemens attempted to quickly move the Jets offense down the field but was intercepted twice.

The following day, on October 29, 2007, Clemens was named the starting quarterback for the next game against the Washington Redskins.

In the 23–20 loss, he had 226 passing yards and a passing touchdown.

He finished the 2007 season with 1,529 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, and ten interceptions in 11 games.

In 2008, Clemens was only on the field in two games to attempt five passes as the backup to Brett Favre.

When Mike Nugent, the Jets's kicker, injured his thigh in the September 7 game against the Miami Dolphins, Clemens filled in as the team's placekicker, but was not called upon to kick.

On August 26, 2009, Jet's head coach Rex Ryan announced that Mark Sanchez would be the starting quarterback for the 2009 season, a position left vacant after Brett Favre was released from the Jets in February.

On December 3, Clemens was forced to come in against the Buffalo Bills after Mark Sanchez sprained his PCL.

Clemens started the Jets's next game against the 1-11 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Despite an unexceptional personal performance by Clemens, the Jets were still able to pick up an important 26–3 victory.

Clemens threw for 125 yards with no touchdowns in 2009 and played mostly when Mark Sanchez was injured.

He was re-signed to a one-year contract for the 2010 season on April 13, but the only action he saw was in the Week 17 game against the Buffalo Bills.

On July 27, 2011, Clemens signed a one-year contract with the Washington Redskins where he competed for a backup role during the 2011 preseason.

He finished his Oregon career with 7,555 passing yards, which ranked third in school history at the time before being passed up by Marcus Mariota in the 2014 season.