Top 25 Quarterbacks by Longevity

There are about a thousand ways to figure longevity. Attempts? Is that really fair to quarterbacks from running eras? How about years played? Sure, but what about the George Blandas? Do you give him credit for the years he barely played? How about the years he was a regular kicker, and threw a few times on fakes? Games played. Well, some guys played in leagues where the schedule was 12 games long. Does it really make sense to give them less credit for playing a whole season?

What I'm actually going to do is give credit for the number of seasons someone was the starting quarterback for the majority of his team's games. Start 9 of 16 games? That's a season as a starter. Start 8? Sorry, doesn't count. Is that totally fair? Heck no. Is it good enough for what we're doing? Sure. Total attempts will work as the tiebreaker.

Players will be listed in ascending order, with their years as a starter behind them. Hall of Famers are in bold. Players who are currently active, or were active recently enough that they are not yet eligible for the Hall are in italics.

25) Steve DeBerg - 11
24) Boomer Esiason - 11
23) Dave Krieg - 11
22) Kerry Collins - 11
21) Bob Griese - 12
20) Terry Bradshaw - 12
19) Troy Aikman - 12
18) Joe Montana - 12
17) Peyton Manning - 12
16) Drew Bledsoe - 12
15) Sammy Baugh - 13
14) Bart Starr - 13
13) Bobby Layne - 13
12) YA Tittle - 13
11) Ken Anderson - 13
10) John Hadl - 13
9) Jim Hart - 13
8) Dan Fouts - 13
7) Vinny Testaverde - 13
6) Johnny Unitas - 14
5) Warren Moon - 14
4) John Elway - 16
3) Dan Marino - 16
2) Fran Tarkenton - 18
1) Brett Favre - 18

There really shouldn't be any surprises here. 15 Hall of Famers out of the possible 25. You think this might be measuring something important? Naturally, anyone who sticks around for 10+ seasons as a starter has to be good. The majority of the guys who are good for that long wind up in the Hall.