Eli Manning is going to be the Giants starting quarterback today, for the 15th consecutive season opener. Drew Brees and Philip Rivers are the week 1 starters for the Saints and Chargers, respectively, for the 14th straight year. The 2019 season marks the 12th time in a row that Matt Ryan and Aaron Rodgers opened up under center for the Falcons and Packers. And Matthew Stafford is Detroit’s opening game starter for the 11th straight year.
Those six teams have had the same week 1 starter for over a decade; meanwhile, 11 teams are turning to a different week 1 starter than they had this time last year. We can group them into three categories:
The Returning Starters (5): Baker Mayfield, Josh Allen, and Lamar Jackson were first round picks in the 2018 NFL Draft and ended their rookie seasons as starting quarterbacks; they will all be starting for their teams in week one of the 2019 season. Carson Wentz is the Eagles franchise quarterback, but he wasn’t fully recovered from the torn ACL injury that ended his 2017 season in time for the 2018 season opener. Jameis Winston was suspended for three games to begin the 2018 season for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, in connection with a female Uber driver accusing Winston of groping her.
The Rookie (1): Kyler Murray was the first overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, and he will start for the Cardinals in week one. There were two other first round quarterbacks — Daniel Jones in New York, Dwayne Haskins in Washington — and it is likely that both will follow the Mayfield/Allen/Jackson path, finishing their rookie years as starters and being the opening day starter in 2010.
The New Veteran Starters (5): In Washington, Alex Smith was the starter in 2018, but after suffering a gruesome knee injury, his future is in doubt. The Redskins brought in Case Keenum to replace him. Keenum was Denver’s starter last year, and the Broncos brought in Joe Flacco to replace him, after Flacco lost his job to Jackson in Baltimore. With Wentz and Winston back as starters, that left Nick Foles and Ryan Fitzpatrick without jobs: Foles landed in Jacksonville to replace Blake Bortles (backup for the Rams), while Fitzpatrick is the starter in Miami with the Ryan Tannehill era (now a backup in Tennessee) over. Finally, the surprise retirement by Andrew Luck has left the Colts turning to 2018 backup Jacoby Brissett as the team’s starter.
For the Browns, Mayfield has so clearly entrenched himself as the team’s starting quarterback that it’s easy to forget that he wasn’t the starter entering last season. And while the dysfunction appears to be over, Mayfield will now be Cleveland’s 7th different starting quarterback in week 1 in 7 seasons, tying an NFL record. The ’13-’19 Browns are the fourth team to have 7 different opening day starting quarterbacks in 7 years, joining the Ravens from ’97 to ’03, the Chargers from 1987 to 1993, and the Colts from 1984 to 1990.
The table below shows each team’s week 1 starting quarterback in each year since 2010.