Bradley Mathias Kaaya Jr. (born September 3, 1995) is a former

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 with ...

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 ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

from 2014 to 2016, and was drafted by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

in sixth round of the

2017 NFL Draft The 2017 NFL Draft was the 82nd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It was held in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 27–29, returning to Philadelphia f ...

. Kaaya is the all time passing yards leader at Miami.

Early years

Kaaya attended Chaminade College Preparatory School in

West Hills, Los Angeles West Hills is a suburban / residential community in the western San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles, California. The percentage of residents aged 35 and older is among the highest in Los Angeles County. The neighborhood was for ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, where he played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

for the Eagles. As a senior, he threw for a school-record 3,855 yards and 27

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

. During his high school career, he threw for 5,730 yards and 40 touchdowns while leading his school to their first ever CIF and CA State Championship (2013). He was ranked by the

Rivals.com Rivals.com 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 founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

recruiting network as the eighth best pro-style quarterback recruit in his class and was also a member of Nike’s

Elite 11 The Elite 11 is a quarterback competition for high school quarterbacks across the United States. Elite 11 was founded in 1999 by Andy Bark and continues to be run by his company, Student Sports Inc, hosted at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaver ...

, showcasing the top 11 QB recruits in the nation.

College career

Kaaya was named the Hurricanes starting quarterback as a true freshman over

Jake Heaps Jake Heaps (born June 19, 1991) is a former American professional football quarterback and the current personal quarterback coach for Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos. He was signed by the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2015. He ...

by head coach

Al Golden Alfred James Golden Jr. (born July 4, 1969) is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. He is a former head coach at Temple from 2006 to 2010. He has also served for five years as defensive ...

on August 24, 2014. Kaaya led the Hurricanes to a 6–7 overall record and a bowl appearance, losing to

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

in the

2014 Independence Bowl The 2014 Independence Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 27, 2014, at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the United States. The 39th annual Independence Bowl, it pitted the Miami Hurricanes of the Atlantic Coa ...

. In his second year starting, the 2015 Hurricanes improved to 8–5, with a loss to

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

in the

Sun Bowl The Sun Bowl is a college football bowl game that has been played since 1935 in the southwestern United States at El Paso, Texas. Along with the Sugar Bowl and Orange Bowl, it is the second-oldest bowl game in the country, behind the Rose Bowl. ...

. Kaaya had the 2016 Hurricanes off to their best start of his career, going 4–1 and reaching as high as #10 in the

AP Poll The Associated Press poll (AP poll) provides weekly rankings of the top 25 NCAA teams in one of three Division I college sports: football, men's basketball and women's basketball. The rankings are compiled by polling 62 sportswriters and broadca ...

. Miami finished the 2016 season with a 9–4 record and a win over

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 Bur ...

in the 2016 Russell Athletic Bowl. Kaaya was named bowl MVP and became Miami’s all time QB leader in nearly every passing statistic including yards. On January 2, 2017, Kaaya announced that he would be entering the

rather than returning to Miami for his final season of eligibility.

College statistics

Kaaya was named ACC Rookie of the year following a 2014 regular season in which he led the league in pass efficiency and touchdown passes.

Professional career

Detroit Lions

The

selected Kaaya in the sixth round (215th overall) of the

. He was the ninth quarterback selected in the 2017 NFL Draft. On May 12, 2017, the Lions signed Kaaya to a four-year, $2.52 million contract with a signing bonus of $123,352. He was waived by the Lions on September 2, 2017.

Carolina Panthers

On September 3, 2017, Kaaya was claimed off waivers by the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

. He was waived by the Panthers on October 17, 2017.

Detroit Lions (second stint)

On October 18, 2017, Kaaya was claimed off waivers by the Lions. On October 23, 2017, Kaaya was waived by the Lions and re-signed to the practice squad.

Indianapolis Colts

On December 27, 2017, Kaaya was signed by the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

off the Lions' practice squad. On August 24, 2018, Kaaya was waived/injured by the Colts and placed on injured reserve. He was waived from injured reserve on February 8, 2019.

Cincinnati Bengals

On February 11, 2019, Kaaya was claimed off waivers by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

. However, the Bengals declined to assign him a

restricted free agent A restricted free agent (RFA) is a type of free agent in the National Football League (NFL), National Hockey League (NHL), or National Basketball Association (NBA). Such players have special restrictions on the terms under which they can retain ...

tender for 2019, making Kaaya an unrestricted free agent at the start of the new league year in March.

Personal life

Kaaya's mother, Angela Means, is a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

cook and former actress, who is best known for her role as Felisha in the 1995 classic film ''

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth day ...

'' as well as Veda in ''

House Party 3 ''House Party 3'' is a 1994 American comedy film, starring Kid 'n Play, Bernie Mac, and TLC. It is the third installment of the ''House Party'' film series. This was intended to be the last film in the franchise, ending it as a trilogy, but a stan ...

'' and Aunt Vanessa in the TV series ''

Cousin Skeeter ''Cousin Skeeter'' is an American children's sitcom, that originally aired on Nickelodeon from 1998 to 2001. It starred Robert Ri'chard as Bobby, a young boy whose life changed when his strange cousin Skeeter came to live with his family. With Sk ...

''. His father Brad Kaaya Sr. coached him in Pop Warner football and is a former screenwriter who wrote for the film '' O'' and the TV series ''Cousin Skeeter'', '' Damon'', and ''

MADtv ''Mad TV'' (stylized as ''MADtv'') is an American sketch comedy television series originally inspired by '' Mad'' magazine. In its initial run, it aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009. After a one-off reunion show in 2015 to celebrate the twentiet ...

''. His surname originates from

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

References

External links

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Miami Hurricanes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaaya, Brad 1995 births Living people American people of Tanzanian descent People from West Hills, Los Angeles Players of American football from Los Angeles American football quarterbacks Miami Hurricanes football players Detroit Lions players Carolina Panthers players Indianapolis Colts players Cincinnati Bengals players Chaminade College Preparatory School (California) alumni