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The New England Patriots are in the middle of a truly impressive stretch of quarterback play- not just from Tom Brady, but also from all of his back-ups. We could end up seeing an impressive 6 former and current Patriots quarterbacks starting in the NFL for 2017.
Matt Cassel (2005-08)
Cassel started in place of Marcus Mariota for the Tennessee Titans in week 5 where they lost 16-10 to the Miami Dolphins.
Brian Hoyer (2009-11)
Hoyer started the first six games of the season for the San Francisco 49ers before he was benched for rookie C.J. Beathard and ultimately released.
Ryan Mallett (2011-13)
Mallett has yet to start a game for the Baltimore Ravens in 2017, but could get his first start in week 9 as Joe Flacco battles a concussion injury.
Jimmy Garoppolo (2014-17)
Garoppolo has yet to start a game, too, but should get a fair run at the helm of the 49ers for the rest of the season.
Jacoby Brissett (2016)
Brissett has started seven games for the Indianapolis Colts in place of Andrew Luck.
Add in Tom Brady starting for the Patriots and that’s the new Brady 6. The Patriots scouting department deserves a major tip of the cap for landing all of these players, even if they’ve had varying degrees of success in their respective starts.
There are four other quarterbacks that either started or finishing the season on the Patriots roster dating back to 2005. Doug Flutie (2005) is 55 years old and happily retired, while Vinny Testaverde (2006) is 53 years old. Matt Guttierez (2007-08) bounced around the NFL and the Arena Football League and has been out of football since 2012.
Kevin O’Connell (2008) is still in the league, but he’s now the quarterbacks coach for Washington. So maybe we could consider him a starter in a different capacity.