Every Green Bay Packers starting quarterback ever: Full list
By Mike Luciano
The Green Bay Packers are one of the league's gold star franchises, as legends are woven into the very fiber of the team. Grab any position, and you're sure to unearth multiple Hall of Famers and legends of the game.
The stability at the quarterback position is uncommon for a team that has been around for as long as Green Bay has. Between three different Hall of Fame careers lasting well over a decade each, the Packers have put themselves in spots to compete for championships regularly.
The list of Packers starting QBs is still quite exhaustive, as Green Bay had some lean years in the 1970s and 1980s that saw names rotate in and out in the quest to find their next big franchise name.
Every Packers starting quarterback ever
Brett Favre: 253 starts
Favre held just about every major passing record when he retired, which is a result of arguably having the strongest arm in NFL history. A three-time MVP and Super Bowl winner who had a comically long durability streak, Favre's peak has been equalled by a select few across the league.
Aaron Rodgers: 223 starts
Favre may have more starts, but Rodgers' four MVP awards make him one of the three or four best quarterbacks to ever play this game. Rodgers may not have landed the dismount in his Green Bay career, but the rest of his time with the Packers made him one of the greatest players in league history.
Bart Starr: 157 starts
Starr may not have had the gaudiest numbers, but he executed Vince Lombardi's system to perfection. Routinely challenging for the league lead in completion percentage and lowest interception percentage, Starr helped the Packers take home five NFL championships and two Super Bowl wins. Starr was 9-1 in the postseason, losing his first and never being defeated again.
Lynn Dickey: 101 starts
When Starr became the head coach of the Packers, he did not operate like Vince Lombardi. He was chucking bombs all over the field. Despite not becoming the full-time starter until age 31, Dickey finished his Packers career with over 20,000 career passing yards. In 1983, Dickey led the NFL with 4,458 yards (a Packers record until 2011) and 32 touchdowns.
Tobin Rote: 73 starts
Rote was Lamar Jackson before Lamar Jackson, as he held many quarterback rushing records upon his retirement. Having twice led the league in touchdown passes while running for over 3,000 yards, Rote and his 148 career touchdown tosses had to overcome some poor rosters around him with the pre-Lombardi Packers.
Arnie Herber: 53 starts
Positions were more flexible back in the day, but it was Herber who was on the initiating end of many of Don Hutson's touchdown passes. The stats look below average, but Herber was a pioneer, as he was the first quarterback who showed that the forward pass can be the primary foundation of an offense, not something done out of necessity.
Don Majkowski: 49 starts
The "Majik Man" put up numbers that would have made Ann Wilson proud in his 1989 All-Pro season, as he led the league in passing yards and threw 27 touchdowns. While he flamed out after that and bounced around the league as a backup, the memories he left in 1989 were fabulous.
David Whitehurst: 37 starts
The 70s were a tough decade for the Packers, and Whitehurst epitomized that struggle. With 51 interceptions against just 28 touchdowns, Whitehurst tried and failed to give the Packers a franchise quarterback for six seasons. Ultimately, Dickey was brought on to upgrade over him.
Randy Wright: 32 starts
The Packers tried to make it work with Wright, and it just never seemed to click. Wright started 32 games for Green Bay, but he won seven of them and never had more touchdowns than interceptions in any of his five seasons with the team in the late 1980s. The post-Dickey, pre-Favre times were brutal.
Scott Hunter: 29 starts
Hunter may have led the Packers to a 10-4 record in 1972, but he threw just six touchdown passes all season long. Hunter could manage a game, but his low ceiling is what ultimately prompted coach Dan Devine to go in a different, also bad direction.
Cecil Isbell: 24 starts
Isbell is a weird case. After three years as an average passer, Isbell in both passing yards and touchdowns in 1941 and 1942, compiling an 84.5 passer rating at a time when a rating in the 50s was not considered poor. Right after, Isbell retired to become a coach at Purdue before helming the Colts in 1947. Isbell was quoted, however, as saying he should have kept playing.
John Hadl: 19 starts
Frustrated with Hunter, Jerry Tagge, and Jim Del Gaizo, Devine infamously traded for a Chargers great in Hadl, who was 34 in 1974. While he was second in MVP voting with the Rams the year before, his age was obvious in Green Bay. The Packers traded two firsts, two seconds, and a third-round pick for 19 starts, nine touchdowns, and 29 interceptions. Yikes.
Jordan Love: 18 starts
If everything goes according to plan, Love is going to shoot up this list. With a promising arm and a postseason win already under his belt, Love will try to do his best to succeed Rodgers and keep the Packers' decade-long streak of unbroken quality quarterback play alive.
Every Packers starting quarterback with fewer than 16 starts
Quarterback | Starts | Years with Packers |
---|---|---|
Babe Parilli | 14 | 1952-53, 1957-78 |
Jerry Tagge | 12 | 1972-74 |
Lamar McHan | 11 | 1959-60 |
Zeke Bratkowski | 9 | 1963-71 |
Brett Hundley | 9 | 2015-17 |
Anthony Dilweg | 7 | 1989-1990 |
Mike Tomczak | 7 | 1991 |
Don Horn | 6 | 1967-1990 |
Matt Flynn | 6 | 2008-11, 2013-14 |
Jim Zorn | 5 | 1985 |
John Roach | 4 | 1961-63 |
Jim Del Gaizo | 3 | 1973 |
Carlos Brown | 3 | 1975-76 |
Alan Risher | 3 | 1987 |
Jack Concannon | 2 | 1974 |
Blair Kiel | 2 | 1988-91 |
Scott Tolzien | 2 | 2013-15 |
Joe Francis | 1 | 1958-59 |
Don Milan | 1 | 1975 |
Randy Johnson | 1 | 1976 |
Seneca Wallace | 1 | 2013 |