Average Age Of Quarterback Starts

by Chase Stuart on June 2, 2017

Yesterday, I looked Josh McCown’s weird, winding career. McCown started 33 games through age 33, but has since started 27 more games. He’s had one of the weirdest and back-loaded careers in NFL history.

Which made me wonder: how can we measure which quarterbacks had the most front-loaded or back-loaded careers? Here’s one clean way to do it. For every quarterback, identify his exact age for every start of his career, and then calculate the average age in all games he started. For McCown, with 60 starts, his average age (summing his age in every start, and dividing by 60) so far is 30.7. If Josh McCown somehow starts 16 games for the Jets this year, the first will come when he is 38.2 years old, and the last will come when he is 38.5 years old. That will bring his average age of start up to 32.3. That would be pretty old, but not remarkably old the way his median age would be (more on this in a minute).

By this method, the quarterback with the oldest average age is Doug Flutie. The CFL superstar and Bills fan favorite started 66 games in his NFL career, but on average, he was 35.5 years old during his average start. If you read yesterday’s post, you won’t be surprised to learn that after Flutie, Warren Moon, Roger Staubach, and George Blanda have the next oldest average age. Babe Parilli, who is 5th in median age, is down at #10, thanks to 9 starts coming at the age of 22 or 23.

The table below shows the average age and median age of start for all 179 quarterbacks with at least 50 starts. Some fine print: this only covers starts beginning in 1950, so this list may overstate the average age for quarterbacks who played pre-1950; similarly, for current quarterbacks like Luck, this obviously is biased in the other direction. The table below is fully sortable and searchable; by default, it lists the 15 oldest players based on average age of start.

Quarterback	Starts	Median Age	Average Age	Diff	Med Age Rk	Avg Age Rk
Doug Flutie	66	37.0	35.5	-1.5	1	1
Warren Moon	203	34.8	34.7	-0.1	3	2
Roger Staubach	114	34.6	34.1	-0.5	4	3
George Blanda	104	35.2	34.1	-1.0	2	4
Charlie Conerly	89	33.1	33.9	0.8	15	5
Jeff Garcia	116	33.2	33.8	0.6	13	6
Brad Johnson	125	33.3	33.5	0.2	12	7
Kurt Warner	116	33.4	33.4	0.0	9	8
Billy Kilmer	114	33.2	33.2	0.0	14	9
Babe Parilli	101	34.4	33.0	-1.3	5	10
Jeff Hostetler	83	33.4	33.0	-0.4	10	11
Trent Green	113	33.3	33.0	-0.2	11	12
Craig Morton	144	33.7	33.0	-0.7	7	13
Len Dawson	159	32.4	32.9	0.5	20	14
Vinny Testaverde	214	32.9	32.9	0.0	17	15
Ken Stabler	146	32.9	32.8	-0.1	18	16
Rich Gannon	132	33.9	32.4	-1.5	6	17
Steve DeBerg	140	32.2	32.3	0.1	21	18
Sonny Jurgensen	147	32.2	32.2	0.0	23	19
Steve Young	143	32.9	32.1	-0.8	16	20
Joe Theismann	124	32.1	32.1	0.0	24.5	21
Brett Favre	298	32.1	32.1	0.0	24.5	22
Y.A. Tittle	133	32.1	31.9	-0.1	26	23
Matt Hasselbeck	160	31.6	31.9	0.2	31	24
Tom Brady	235	32.2	31.7	-0.5	22	25
Jim Kelly	160	31.7	31.7	0.0	29	26
Frank Tripucka	52	33.4	31.7	-1.7	8	27
Danny White	92	31.7	31.7	0.0	30	28
Jake Delhomme	96	31.0	31.6	0.6	44	29
Lynn Dickey	111	32.0	31.5	-0.6	28	30
Ed Brown	96	31.1	31.4	0.3	38	31
Steve Beuerlein	102	32.5	31.4	-1.1	19	32
Wade Wilson	69	30.8	31.4	0.6	51	33
Otto Graham	71	31.0	31.4	0.4	42	34
Chris Chandler	152	32.0	31.4	-0.7	27	35
Jon Kitna	124	31.0	31.4	0.4	43	36
Earl Morrall	102	31.5	31.3	-0.2	33	37
Phil Simms	159	31.1	31.3	0.2	39	38
Johnny Unitas	185	30.6	31.2	0.6	56	39
Dave Krieg	175	31.0	31.1	0.1	41	40
John Brodie	158	31.2	31.1	-0.2	35	41
Jim Harbaugh	140	30.8	31.1	0.3	52	42
Jim Hart	180	31.5	31.0	-0.5	32	43
Erik Kramer	67	31.1	31.0	-0.1	40	44
John Elway	231	31.2	31.0	-0.2	36	45
Drew Brees	232	30.9	30.9	0.1	47	46
Tony Romo	127	31.4	30.9	-0.6	34	47
Joe Montana	164	30.4	30.8	0.4	60	48
Ron Jaworski	143	30.6	30.8	0.2	58	49
Carson Palmer	174	30.8	30.8	-0.1	48	50
Bart Starr	157	30.8	30.8	-0.1	50	51
Billy Wade	85	31.1	30.8	-0.4	37	52
Josh McCown	60	28.5	30.7	2.3	105	53
Cotton Davidson	53	30.8	30.7	-0.1	49	54
Peyton Manning	265	30.5	30.6	0.1	59	55
Gary Danielson	60	30.0	30.6	0.6	66	56
Bobby Hebert	100	30.2	30.5	0.4	63	57
David Garrard	76	30.7	30.5	-0.2	53	58
Jay Fiedler	60	30.0	30.4	0.5	67	59
Norm Van Brocklin	101	30.6	30.4	-0.1	57	60
Brian Sipe	112	30.3	30.4	0.1	61	61
Mark Brunell	151	30.1	30.3	0.2	64	62
Fran Tarkenton	239	30.6	30.3	-0.3	54	63
Jim Plunkett	144	29.0	30.2	1.3	90	64
Mike Livingston	75	30.9	30.2	-0.8	45	65
John Hadl	166	30.6	30.1	-0.5	55	66
Charley Johnson	124	30.9	30.1	-0.8	46	67
Eli Manning	199	29.9	30.1	0.2	68	68
Dan Marino	240	30.0	30.1	0.1	65	69
Philip Rivers	176	29.9	29.9	0.0	69	70
Ryan Fitzpatrick	116	29.9	29.9	0.0	70	71
Boomer Esiason	173	29.6	29.8	0.2	76	72
Chad Pennington	81	30.3	29.7	-0.5	62	73
Dan Fouts	171	29.5	29.7	0.2	78.5	74
Mike Tomczak	73	29.1	29.7	0.6	88	75
Kerry Collins	180	29.7	29.7	0.0	73	76
Bill Kenney	77	29.8	29.7	-0.1	72	77
Roman Gabriel	157	29.4	29.6	0.2	81	78
Stan Humphries	81	29.6	29.6	0.0	75	79
Bobby Layne	132	29.8	29.6	-0.2	71	80
Jack Kemp	105	29.3	29.5	0.1	82	81
Joe Ferguson	171	29.5	29.4	-0.1	78.5	82
Ken Anderson	172	29.7	29.4	-0.3	74	83
Randall Cunningham	135	27.7	29.3	1.6	123	84
Gus Frerotte	93	28.3	29.3	1.0	110	85
Matt Schaub	92	29.3	29.3	0.0	83	86
Neil O'Donnell	100	29.2	29.3	0.0	86	87
Jim Everett	153	28.9	29.2	0.3	91	88
Matt Cassel	80	28.5	29.2	0.6	104	89
Marc Bulger	95	29.5	29.1	-0.4	77	90
Steve McNair	153	28.9	29.1	0.3	93	91
Mark Rypien	78	29.1	29.1	0.0	89	92
Elvis Grbac	70	29.3	29.0	-0.3	84	93
Marc Wilson	60	28.8	29.0	0.2	97	94
Bob Berry	52	28.7	29.0	0.2	99	95
Rodney Peete	87	27.6	29.0	1.3	127	96
Bob Griese	151	28.8	28.9	0.1	94	97
Bubby Brister	75	28.2	28.9	0.7	113	98
Aaron Rodgers	135	28.9	28.9	0.0	92	99
Donovan McNabb	161	28.8	28.8	0.0	95	100
Ben Roethlisberger	183	28.7	28.7	0.0	100.5	101
Scott Mitchell	71	28.7	28.7	0.0	100.5	102
Jay Schroeder	99	29.2	28.6	-0.6	85	103
Tommy Kramer	110	28.2	28.6	0.5	114	104
Daryle Lamonica	88	28.4	28.6	0.2	107	105
Tobin Rote	116	27.8	28.6	0.8	119	106
Vince Ferragamo	53	29.4	28.6	-0.8	80	107
Terry Bradshaw	158	29.1	28.5	-0.6	87	108
Frank Ryan	87	28.4	28.5	0.1	106	109
Bill Munson	66	28.2	28.5	0.3	115	110
Norm Snead	159	28.3	28.4	0.2	111	111
Troy Aikman	165	28.8	28.4	-0.4	96	112
Jay Cutler	139	28.4	28.4	0.0	108	113
Eddie LeBaron	85	28.8	28.4	-0.4	98	114
Jim McMahon	97	28.2	28.4	0.1	112	115
Steve Bartkowski	127	28.1	28.3	0.2	116	116
Archie Manning	139	28.6	28.1	-0.5	103	117
Bill Nelsen	74	28.7	28.1	-0.6	102	118
Ken O'Brien	110	27.9	28.1	0.2	118	119
Jeff Blake	100	26.9	28.0	1.1	140	120
Steve Grogan	135	27.1	28.0	0.8	134	121
Brian Griese	83	27.5	28.0	0.4	130	122
Greg Landry	98	26.9	27.9	1.1	141	123
Drew Bledsoe	193	27.7	27.9	0.2	125	124
Mike Phipps	71	26.9	27.9	1.0	139	125
Joe Namath	129	27.3	27.9	0.6	133	126
Alex Smith	136	28.4	27.8	-0.6	109	127
Mark Malone	53	28.0	27.8	-0.2	117	128
Jason Campbell	79	27.8	27.8	0.0	121	129
Joe Flacco	138	27.7	27.7	-0.1	124	130
Aaron Brooks	90	27.6	27.7	0.1	129	131
Milt Plum	103	27.7	27.6	-0.1	126	132
Michael Vick	113	26.3	27.6	1.2	147	133
Trent Dilfer	113	26.6	27.5	0.9	145	134
Matt Ryan	142	27.5	27.5	0.0	131	135
Kordell Stewart	82	27.1	27.5	0.4	135	136
Jake Plummer	136	27.7	27.5	-0.2	122	137
Don Meredith	83	27.6	27.5	-0.1	128	138
Richard Todd	108	27.8	27.5	-0.3	120	139
Jeff George	124	27.0	27.4	0.4	136	140
Dan Pastorini	117	27.4	27.3	-0.1	132	141
Kyle Orton	82	27.0	27.1	0.1	137	142
Daunte Culpepper	100	26.8	27.1	0.3	142	143
Colin Kaepernick	58	27.0	27.0	0.1	138	144
Jim Zorn	106	26.6	27.0	0.4	146	145
Charlie Batch	55	25.9	26.9	1.0	157	146
Eric Hipple	57	26.2	26.9	0.6	149	147
Tom Flores	68	26.7	26.7	0.0	143	148
Don Majkowski	57	25.8	26.7	0.9	159	149
Bert Jones	96	26.2	26.7	0.5	151	150
Doug Williams	81	25.3	26.6	1.2	167	151
Tony Eason	51	26.2	26.6	0.4	150	152
Neil Lomax	101	26.7	26.5	-0.1	144	153
Chris Miller	92	26.1	26.5	0.4	153	154
Andy Dalton	93	26.1	26.5	0.3	152	155
Rick Mirer	68	25.6	26.5	0.9	163	156
Dave Brown	60	25.8	26.4	0.6	158	157
Chad Henne	53	25.5	26.4	0.9	164	158
Joey Harrington	76	26.1	26.3	0.3	154	159
Ryan Tannehill	77	26.2	26.2	-0.1	148	160
Pat Haden	55	25.8	26.1	0.3	160	161
Tony Banks	78	25.6	26.1	0.5	162	162
Russell Wilson	80	25.9	25.9	0.0	155	163
Bobby Douglass	53	25.5	25.8	0.4	165	164
Sam Bradford	78	25.1	25.8	0.7	168	165
Bernie Kosar	108	25.9	25.8	-0.1	156	166
Matthew Stafford	109	25.8	25.7	0.0	161	167
Byron Leftwich	50	24.9	25.6	0.6	170	168
David Carr	79	25.4	25.5	0.1	166	169
Vince Young	50	24.6	25.4	0.8	174	170
Lamar McHan	70	24.8	25.2	0.3	172	171
Mark Sanchez	72	24.9	25.0	0.1	171	172
Andrew Luck	70	25.0	25.0	-0.1	169	173
Cam Newton	92	24.6	24.9	0.3	173	174
Bob Avellini	50	24.2	24.4	0.2	176	175
Mike Pagel	54	24.0	24.4	0.4	177	176
Tim Couch	59	24.3	24.2	-0.1	175	177
David Woodley	53	23.9	24.0	0.1	178	178
Josh Freeman	61	23.8	23.7	0.0	179	179

As Richie guessed yesterday, Josh Freeman checks in as the player with the youngest average (and median) age. In retrospect, Freeman’s career is hard to explain: at the age of 22, he started 16 games, threw 25 touchdowns against just 6 interceptions, and led the Bucs to a 10-6 record. At the age of 24, he threw for 4,065 yards and 27 touchdowns. And then he started just five more games in his career to date. Is a McCown-like resurgence in his future?

Second on the list is David Woodley, who was the beneficiary of a great supporting cast. From ’80 to ’83, Woodley went to a Super Bowl and posted a 27-12-1 record despite having some of the worst passing numbers in the league. The Dolphins drafted Dan Marino, and Woodley’s career was all but over.

Third youngest by average age is Tim Couch. The Browns number one overall pick started 14 games as a 22-year-old rookie, but never played in another regular season game after his age 26 season. Unlike with Freeman, injuries were the prime culprit, mostly due to a shoulder injury.

One other note: median age can be a little bit funky. McCown’s median age of start right now is 28.5, but with 7 more starts this year, it will jump to 34.4! That won’t change his average age by as much, but I thought presenting both (and even the difference column, which McCown currently has the largest spread) might be interesting.

What stands out to you? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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