Kyle Christian Queiro (born December 18, 1994) 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

. 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 ...

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

and professionally for the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

and the Seattle Dragons.

Early years

Queiro attended Bergen Catholic High School, where he practiced football,

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

. In football, he was a two-way player at

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

and wide receiver. He was a teammate of future

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

player

Garrett Dickerson Garrett Dickerson (born December 30, 1995) is a former American football tight end. He played college football at Northwestern. Early life Dickerson grew up in Englewood, New Jersey and attended Bergen Catholic High School. While at Bergen Cat ...

. He helped the team play in the state championship game in 3 straight years. He received All-state and All-metro honors as a senior. He competed in the

triple jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

and

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

, receiving All-county honors as a senior.

College career

Queiro accepted a football scholarship from

. As a redshirt freshman, he started in the season finale against the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, collecting 5 tackles. As a sophomore, he appeared in 5 games as a reserve player. He was forced to miss 8 contests after fracturing his arm against

Ball State University Ball State University (Ball State, State or BSU) is a public university, public research university in Muncie, Indiana. It has two satellite facilities in Fishers, Indiana, Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, indust ...

. He had a key fourth quarter interception against

Stanford University 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 ...

, helping the team preserve a 16–6 upset win. As a junior, he started 10 games at

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

, registering 53 tackles (32 solo), 3.5 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions and 6 pass breakups (tied for sixth on the team). He had a highlight one-handed interception against

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

. He made 8 tackles against

Ohio State University 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 publ ...

. He had 9 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss against the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

. He helped secure a 31–24 win against the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

in the

2016 Pinstripe Bowl The 2016 Pinstripe Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game played on December 28, 2016 at Yankee Stadium in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The seventh edition of the Pinstripe Bowl featured the Pittsburgh Panthers of th ...

, after intercepting a pass with less than 2 minutes left in the game. As a senior, he started 13 games at

, posting 60 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, 5 interceptions (led the team) and 9 pass breakups (led the team). He had 9 tackles against

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. He made 6 tackles, 2 interceptions and 3 pass breakups against the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

. He had a critical interception against the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentu ...

, in the fourth quarter of the

2017 Music City Bowl The 2017 Music City Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 29, 2017, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. It was one of the 2017–18 bowl games concluding the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The 20th annual M ...

, to help the team win 24–23. He finished his college career with 132 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, and 8 interceptions (tied for tenth in school history).

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Queiro was signed by the

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 ...

after the

2018 NFL draft The 2018 NFL Draft was the 83rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2018 NFL season. The draft was held on April 26–28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; it was the first draft ...

on April 29. He dropped in the draft because his

40-yard dash The 40-yard dash is a sprint covering . It is primarily run to evaluate the speed and acceleration of American football players by scouts, particularly for the NFL Draft but also for collegiate recruiting. A player's recorded time can have a he ...

time was considered slow compared to other

s, so he was also tried at

outside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

during training camp. He was waived on September 1 and signed to the

practice squad In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

the next day. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Cowboys on January 14,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

. He was released on August 31,

Seattle Dragons (XFL)

In October 2019, Queiro was selected by the Seattle Dragons during the open phase (phase 5) of the

2020 XFL Draft The 2020 XFL Draft was the inaugural player selection process to fill the rosters of the eight teams of the 2020 reboot of the XFL. The draft was held on October 15–16, 2019, via conference call, with results released through the XFL's social m ...

. On March 9, 2020, he was placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. In March, amid the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the league announced that it would be cancelling the rest of the season. Playing in all 5 games, he registered 11 tackles and one interception. He had his contract terminated when the league suspended operations on April 10, 2020.

References

External links

Northwestern Wildcats bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Queiro, Kyle 1994 births Living people People from Verona, New Jersey Players of American football from Essex County, New Jersey American football safeties Northwestern Wildcats football players Dallas Cowboys players Seattle Dragons players