If he’d still been the starter in Cleveland, it would have been a story last week. Now that Joe Flacco has been traded to the Bengals (and immediately installed as the starting quarterback), it’s a nugget worth highlighting in advance of Thursday night’s game.
Flacco vs. Aaron Rodgers. A pair of quarterbacks on the wrong side of 40. That has happened only three times before.
All three occasions occurred in the same season: 2020. It was Tom Brady’s first year in Tampa and Drew Brees’s last year in the NFL. The Bucs and Saints squared off three times that year, with Brady at 43 and Brees at 41.
It’ll likely happen again in four weeks, when the Bengals and Flacco visit the Steelers and Rodgers. Then, who knows when it will happen next?
Brady’s ability to play until 45 has caused many to believe quarterbacks can fend off Father Time into their 40s. It also has prompted players like Russell Wilson and Dak Prescott to openly declare an intention to do the same.
But while the spirit may be willing, the flesh will only cooperate for so long. Wilson, who turns 37 next month, seems to be out of chances to start. His only opportunity to play past 40 will likely come from sticking around as a backup and getting onto the field via injury.
Current candidates to make it to and beyond 40 are Matthew Stafford (37) and Geno Smith (34). Last year, Smith told PFT that he hopes to have a 20-year career, which would take him past his 40th birthday, too.
Other starters in their 30s are Prescott (32), Jared Goff (who turned 31 two days ago), Baker Mayfield (30), and Patrick Mahomes (30). (Carson Wentz, the temporary starter in Minnesota, is 32. Kirk Cousins, the backup in Atlanta, is 37.)
All other starting quarterbacks are in their 20s. It could be more than a few years before another 40-vs.-40 matchup happens.
Especially since plenty of the quarterbacks who aspire to keep starting beyond their 40th birthdays may find out before then that their skills have eroded to the point where none of the 32 NFL franchises will be willing to put them under center.
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