When Mason Rudolph starts at quarterback for the Steelers on Saturday against the Bengals, he will be the 58th different quarterback to start an NFL game this season.
It’s a reminder of how often teams have to turn to their second, third and even fourth quarterbacks in a season — and how the difference between a backup playing well, like Gardner Minshew for the Colts, and a backup playing poorly, like Zach Wilson for the Jets, can be the difference between remaining in the playoff race and being mathematically eliminated.
And we probably won’t be done with Rudolph at No. 58. If Wilson isn’t cleared to play on Sunday, Trevor Siemian is expected to start for the Jets. He would be the 59th starting quarterback in the NFL this season.
More injuries in Week 16 could lead to more new starting quarterbacks in Week 17. And there will almost certainly be some first-time starters in Week 18, when teams with nothing to play for often start their backups.
By the end of the season perhaps the NFL will have had 64 starting quarterbacks, an average of two per team, and an illustration of what backup quarterback play looks like. In most cases, it looks like bad football.