Journeyman quarterback
A journeyman quarterback, in professional American football, is a quarterback who plays short stints for several teams over a career. Such a player is typically signed to year-by-year contracts, and may be signed by a team to fill in for an injured starter. The term journeyman is normally pejorative.
The journeyman quarterback term is descriptive and subjective rather than definitive, and players may begin their careers as established franchise players before becoming journeymen later in their careers. Dave Krieg enjoyed a stable 11-year career with the Seattle Seahawks, before leaving through Plan B free agency, and then played for five different teams (usually as a starter) over the remaining seven years of his career. Similarly, Mark Rypien played for seven years with the Washington Redskins (including a Super Bowl MVP performance in Super Bowl XXVI) before playing for seven different teams for a single season each over the remainder of his career (and several years later briefly coming out of retirement for an indoor team in Rochester).
Stereotype
Journeymen quarterbacks tend to follow a career path in which they play a short time as a team's starter, the team decides they can improve at the position by drafting or signing someone else, and the journeyman leaves in free agency to find another opportunity to play; they are generally talented enough to find work as a professional quarterback but not consistently among the league's best. A journeyman quarterback may also be known as a game manager, especially if his teams are successful while his statistics are mediocre. Journeymen quarterbacks play for several teams in a career, and may go several years between starting jobs, occasionally resorting to work in alternative leagues to stay employed and/or ensure more game time (such was the career path of Jim "King" Corcoran, whose nine-season professional career was almost entirely in the minor leagues).[1] Some journeyman quarterbacks have brief moments of major success, including starting Super Bowls and receiving Pro Bowl selections. Journeymen can amass significant career statistics if they are willing and able to stay in the NFL for a long period of time.
Notable examples
There have been countless examples of journeymen quarterbacks in the NFL, but the following players are especially famous for their sporadic careers. Despite the caricature of the journeyman quarterback, they include players who finished their careers ranked in the top 20 of many key statistical categories, received Pro Bowl selections, and even All-Pro selections and an MVP award (Rich Gannon).[2][3] They also include Super Bowl finalists and winners; for instance Super Bowl XXXV was contested between two journeyman quarterbacks (Trent Dilfer and Kerry Collins), and arguably so was Super Bowl XXXVII (Brad Johnson and Rich Gannon), with Nick Foles being the first journeyman quarterback to be named Super Bowl MVP (Super Bowl LII).[4] (This is disputable, as Kurt Warner, who played for six professional teams in his career and went on to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV.) Incidentally, Philadelphia Eagles journeyman quarterbacks had played most of the playoffs from 2017-19 due to injuries to regular starter Carson Wentz; Foles started all postseason games in the 2017-18 seasons while Josh McCown became the oldest player to make his postseason debut in the 2019 season (taking over for Wentz in the first quarter).
References
- Matt Schudel, Jim Corcoran Dies; 'Poor Man's Joe Namath' Reigned in Minor League Football, The Washington Post, August 1, 2009.
- See in particular statistical summaries below for Vinny Testaverde, Kerry Collins and Steve DeBerg.
- "Have arm, will travel: Life of NFL journeymen quarterbacks". USA Today. Associated Press. November 20, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2018.