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List of Washington Commanders starting quarterbacks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in 1932 as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise.[1] The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in 1937.[1] In 2020, the team retired the Redskins name after controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in 2022.[1] The team's current starting quarterback is Jayden Daniels, having started since 2024.
Since 2000, the Commanders have 27 different starting quarterbacks[2][3] and only two have started entire consecutive seasons: Jason Campbell (2008–2009) and Kirk Cousins (2015–2017).[2] Only two Washington quarterbacks have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Sammy Baugh (1937–1952) and Sonny Jurgensen (1964–1974).[4]
The early era of the NFL and American football in general was not conducive to passing the football, with the forward pass not being legalized until the early 1900s and not fully adopted for many more years.[5] Although the quarterback position has historically been the one to receive the snap and thus handle the football on every offensive play,[6] the importance of the position during this era was limited by various rules, like having to be five yards behind the line of scrimmage before a forward pass could be attempted.[7] These rules and the tactical focus on rushing the ball limited the importance of the quarterback position while enhancing the value of different types of backs, such as the halfback and the fullback.[8] Some of these backs were considered triple-threat men, capable of rushing, passing or kicking the football, making it common for multiple players to attempt a pass during a game.[9]
As rules changed and the NFL began adopting a more pass-centric approach to offensive football, the importance of the quarterback position grew.[7][8] Beginning in 1950, total wins and losses by a team's starting quarterback were tracked.[10]
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Summary by year
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Prior to 1950, the Commanders had numerous players identified as playing the quarterback position. However, the combination of unreliable statistics in the early era of the NFL and the differences in the early quarterback position make tracking starts by quarterbacks impractical for this timeframe.
Regular season
Postseason
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Footnotes
- In 1961, the NFL expanded its regular season schedule, which had been 12 games since 1947, to 14 games.[35]
- In 1978, the NFL expanded its regular season schedule, which had been 14 games since 1961, to 16 games.[35]
- In 2021, the NFL expanded its regular season schedule, which had been 16 games since 1978, to 17 games.[35]
References
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