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The Left-Handed Quarterback Has Disappeared

Look around the NFL these days, and you won’t see any left-handed quarterbacks. The last touchdown pass in the NFL that came from a left-handed player came from Tennessee Titans defensive back Kevin Byard. The 2015 season was the last time an NFL team started a left-handed quarterback, with former Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore and Steelers backupMichael Vick each seeing some action.

The heyday of the southpaw signal caller was in 1995 and 1996, when Steve Young, Boomer Esiason, Mark Brunell, and Scott Mitchell were all regular starters.

Zero passing yards came from left-handed passers in ’16 and ’17, and Byard was the only southpaw to gain any yards in ’18 (again, ignoring those quarterbacks who sometimes throw with their left hand under pressure). There have not been many great left-handed passers in NFL history: include the names already mentioned today, add in Frankie Albert, Jim Zorn, Ken Stabler, Bobby Douglass, and Tim Tebow and you pretty much have every notable southpaw in NFL history. Still, the game is better off, in my opinion, when the league is more diverse, and having a couple of lefty starters is a good thing.

The graph below shows the percentage of passing yards in each season that have come from left-handed passers.

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