Forty-Five Different Quarterbacks Will Start a NFL Game By the End of this Week
By Jason Lisk
When Jason Campbell, Kellen Clemens, and Josh McCown take us back to party like it is 2007 in the upcoming week, that will mean that 45 different quarterbacks and counting will have started a NFL game this year, according to Andrew Siciliano. (Note: McCown and the Bears are on a bye this week, so his first start will come in two weeks with Cutler out for at least a month)
Crazy, right?
Well, actually just about normal. Finding specific starts would have taken a little longer, so I searched for players that have thrown at least 14 passes in a single game through the same point in time. It matches up this year, as 45 players have thrown 14 passes in at least one game to this point.
Last year was the anomaly. The average for 2002-2011 was exactly 45.0, with a range of 42 to 50 different quarterbacks throwing the minimum qualifying amount in a single game by this point in the year. Yes, it seems like there have been a lot of quarterback injuries. In truth, it’s been about normal when compared to the previous decade.
It’s not an epidemic. It’s business as usual.