NFL Rookie QB Trivia Question

[albionmoonlight]

With last night's win, Mac Jones becomes the 4th QB of the Super Bowl era to win seven consecutive games as a rookie. Who were the other three?

(Hint: I knew one of them right off. Would have gotten the other one with some guessing/thinking. And was completely gobsmacked by the third one.)

[Swaggs]

One of them is Roethlisberger in 2004. He came in for an injured Tommy Maddox and won his first 13 or 14 games and then lost in the playoffs.

[Lathum]

Big Ben is the obvious one. Is Sanchez one with those Jets teams that went to 2 AFC title games?

[albionmoonlight]

Big Ben is, IMO, the easy one. And that is correct.

Sanchez is not one, but that's a good guess b/c you are right that they had a lot of success early on.

[Lathum]

Tebow with Denver?

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Tebow with Denver?

Nope. We'd still be hearing about it from some quarters if he had done that :-)

[jbergey22]

Dak Prescott?

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Dak Prescott?

Yup. That's the one that wasn't as easy as Ben, but wasn't too hard.

Only the hard one left.

[Swaggs]

I was able to find the answer via Google and it is definitely someone that I have never heard of before, despite it being near the time I started following the NFL.

[SirFozzie]

The only one I can think of it Don Maijkowski, but I'm not sure if he was a rookie when he took over when Farve was injured

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

The only one I can think of it Don Maijkowski, but I'm not sure if he was a rookie when he took over when Farve was injured

Not the Majik Man, sadly.

[Carman Bulldog]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I was able to find the answer via Google and it is definitely someone that I have never heard of before, despite it being near the time I started following the NFL.

I also Googled it. I was quite surprised you've never actually heard of the guy before. This made me think it went further back than I assumed, which was probably a mistake considering rookie QB's used to hardly ever play.

Most modern fans will know the guy and spoiler alert, he would be considered a contemporary of one other guy on this list.

[bhlloy]

Trying to think of a crappy QB who started on a good team in the last 15-20 years. For some reason my mind keeps coming back to the Ravens. Kyle Boller?

[NobodyHere]

I was thinking Joe Flacco myself but he only won 4 games straight.

[tarcone]

Jim Zorn?

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

The only one I can think of it Don Maijkowski, but I'm not sure if he was a rookie when he took over when Farve was injured

hmm, don't think you have the sequencing right there, Favre got his shot when Majkowski got hurt

I actually had Majkowski on my fantasy team during his huge year in 1989 or so... yeah, I know

[QuikSand]

also gobsmacked

[Swaggs]

Originally Posted by Carman Bulldog

I also Googled it. I was quite surprised you've never actually heard of the guy before. This made me think it went further back than I assumed, which was probably a mistake considering rookie QB's used to hardly ever play.

Most modern fans will know the guy and spoiler alert, he would be considered a contemporary of one other guy on this list.

I'm interested to hear more about your clues. It sounds like we may not be talking about the same guy, because the one I found is definitely not a contemporary of Big Ben, Dak, or Mac.

[sabotai]

Dave Brown? I remember him having a long-ish win streak with the giants his rookie year.

Edit: Googled it. Nope. He topped out at 6. Also wasn't his rookie year. He sat for 2 years.

[bhlloy]

Is it Chad Pennington? I remember he was surprisingly good his rookie season, then didn’t he get a shoulder injury or something and turned into 2020 Cam Newton.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

I'm interested to hear more about your clues. It sounds like we may not be talking about the same guy, because the one I found is definitely not a contemporary of Big Ben, Dak, or Mac.

The one I found is definitely a contemporary of Big Ben. And add me to the list of

[Swaggs]

Okay - I found the contemporary QB that you guys are talking about, but also found another rookie QB that won 7 straight.

This guy: Dieter Brock Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com

He was a 34-year old NFL rookie for the Rams in 1985 that had played 10-years in the CFL, before winning his first 7 starts en route to an 11-4 record. He took the Rams to the NFC Championship game, where they lost to da Bears. It looks like he injured his knee the following season in camp and then discovered that he had a degenerative disk in his back and he never played again. He is a CFL Hall of Famer.

I’d imagine some of the folks on the board remember him or the name, but this was right when I started following NFL football. The Bears’ Super Bowl beating of the Pats may be the first non-Steelers NFL game that I can remember watching.

Also, I forgot how awesome Eric Dickerson was in his first few years.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Swaggs

He was a 34-year old NFL rookie for the Rams in 1985 that had played 10-years in the CFL

I wonder if he's omitted in places because of questions about his "rookie" status.

While he was the PFWA 1st Team All-Rookie QB that year, he received no votes in the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year voting (which Eddie Brown beat out Kevin Mack & Bill Fralic for)

Granted, Jerry Rice also received no votes for the award either so maybe it was just a really narrow spread by the 52 voters but it did make me wonder.

[QuikSand]

I did remember the name Deiter Brock, would have gotten he played for the Rams at some time, likely could have told you he was a quirky story of some sort, but no chance I'd have come up with him for this question.

[Sweed]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

I did remember the name Deiter Brock, would have gotten he played for the Rams at some time, likely could have told you he was a quirky story of some sort, but no chance I'd have come up with him for this question.

As a Rams fan I remember when they got Brock and I thought who? Then there was talk of his big arm but he was short. I was surprised to see him listed as 6' on the linked page, I thought he was more like 5'10. They said he could throw the ball 75 yds and we went to see the Rams play the Chiefs at Arrowhead. There was a play where he dropped back and had Henry Ellard on a fly. He cranked up that big arm, stepped into the throw, and I was so excited to see this ball come out and fly. But he was short and a DT jumped up and blocked the pass

It was Dickerson's first game back from a hold out and he looked rusty. The Rams won 16-0 in a pretty dull game.

[Kodos]

I do remember the name, and would have correctly picked the Rams I believe, but I wouldn't have many other details.

A slightly less long-lived version of Marc Bulger?

[Swaggs]

In trying to figure out who the contemporary player was (I feel like I looked everywhere before finding it), I got excited for a minute because I thought I'd found it with Vince Young. He somehow managed to win 6 in a row his rookie season and was 31-19, overall, as a starter.

Fun Fact: Young had that record, has been out of the NFL for over 10 years now, and is still younger than Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, and Ryan Fitzpatrick.

[albionmoonlight]

No one has named this guy yet, though several of you seem to have located him with google.

A hint is that he was never considered a good QB, and almost everyone (correctly, IMO) attributed his team's wining streak to elite defense and special team.

[albionmoonlight]

dola hint: Almost everyone associates this era of this team with a different below-average QB who was dragged to success by defense and special teams.

[Ksyrup]

I just spent about 20 minutes going through NFL Reference. Kyle Orton?

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I just spent about 20 minutes going through NFL Reference. Kyle Orton?

Yup. Mr. Neck Beard himself. I remembered he played for the Bears. But I had no recollection whatsoever of him going on a winning streak for them as a rookie.

[Ksyrup]

Putting my post-surgery recovery time to good use! I found that on Valium, too.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Yup. Mr. Neck Beard himself. I remembered he played for the Bears. But I had no recollection whatsoever of him going on a winning streak for them as a rookie.

Well, it looks like Orton had a 7:7 td:int ratio and only once threw for more than 145 yards in a single game during that 8-game streak. The number of defensive and special teams touchdowns during that stretch was just up to Bears' standards, this wasn't the season where Devin Hester and Mike Brown were scoring a touchdown every other week. In a way a series of 8 games that should have made him memorable, but, I guess that didn't happen. It looks like Rex Grossman took over in late December en route to a one and done trip to the playoffs, but it also warmed him/them up for the even more successful 2006 season.

[Carman Bulldog]

So Dieter Brock is kind of notorious in Winnipeg. He's the only Blue Bomber to win back-to-back CFL Most Outstanding Player awards and is one of only four players to ever do it (Jackie Parker, Anthony Cavillo and Doug Flutie are the others - Flutie with a remarkable 6 MOP's in 7 years).

The team/city and player had a huge falling out although these days it's mostly been all forgiven.

Top 10 CFL feuds: Dieter Brock vs the City of Winnipeg

[Swaggs]

The Dieter Brock story feels like it just missed being a Disney movie because it happened the same season as the ‘85 Bears. Without the Bears, we probably have a 34-year old rookie winning an open competition at QB, reeling off 7 wins to start the season, hitting the wall but then vanquishing the reigning champion 49ers to win the division, win the Super Bowl, and then career ending injury the next preseason. Supporting characters with a bitter, looking to get paid Eric Dickerson, gigantic Jackie Slater coming back from an injury plagued season, emerging star Henry Ellard, and crazy ass rookie Kevin Greene.

Disney+ needs to drop Marvel and insert the NFL into season 2 of “What If…” What if the Rams upset the Bears and went on to win the Super Bowl? With the butterfly effect, we probably wouldn’t have gotten to see Jim “Chris” Everett choke out Jim Rome or SNL’s Superfans or Mike Ditka selling the farm for Rickey Williams and then publicly wearing fake dreads. Maybe we have Dieter Brock rather than Phil Simms or Boomer Essiason in the studio before games kick off.