The Washington Commanders are a professional American football franchise based in the Washington metropolitan area. They are members of the East division in the National Football Conference (NFC) of the National Football League (NFL). The Commanders were founded in as the Boston Braves, named after the local baseball franchise.[1] The franchise changed its name the following year to the Redskins and moved to Washington, D.C. in . In, the team retired the Redskins name after longstanding controversies surrounding it and briefly played as the Washington Football Team before becoming the Commanders in .
The Commanders have had 70 quarterbacks start at least one game in the history of their franchise. Recently, the team has been notable for its instability at the quarterback position.[2] [3] Since 2000, the Commanders have 27 different starting quarterbacks and only two have started entire consecutive seasons: Jason Campbell and Kirk Cousins . Only two Washington quarterbacks have been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Sammy Baugh and Sonny Jurgensen .[4]
| Quarterback(s) | Notes | Ref | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Riley Smith (0–1) | |||
| 1937 | Sammy Baugh (1–0) | Baugh led the Redskins to the NFL Championship game against the Chicago Bears, where he finished 17 of 33 for 335 yards and his second-half touchdown passes of 55, 78 and 33 yards gave Washington a 28–21 victory.[153] His 335 passing yards remained the most ever in a playoff game by any rookie quarterback in NFL history until Russell Wilson broke the record in 2012. | ||
| 1940 | Sammy Baugh (0–1) | |||
| 1942 | Sammy Baugh (1–0) | |||
| 1943 | Sammy Baugh (1–1) | |||
| 1945 | Sammy Baugh (0–1) | |||
| 1971 | Billy Kilmer (0–1) | |||
| 1972 | Billy Kilmer (2–1) | |||
| 1973 | Billy Kilmer (0–1) | |||
| 1974 | Billy Kilmer (0–1) | |||
| 1976 | Billy Kilmer (0–1) | |||
| 1982 | Joe Theismann (4–0) | |||
| 1983 | Joe Theismann (2–1) | |||
| 1984 | Joe Theismann (0–1) | |||
| 1986 | Jay Schroeder (2–1) | |||
| 1987 | Doug Williams (3–0) | Williams led the team to Super Bowl XXII in which they routed the Denver Broncos, becoming the first black quarterback to both play in and win a Super Bowl.[154] [155] | ||
| 1990 | Mark Rypien (1–1) | |||
| 1991 | Mark Rypien (3–0) | |||
| 1992 | Mark Rypien (1–1) | |||
| 1999 | Brad Johnson (1–1) | |||
| 2005 | Mark Brunell (1–1) | |||
| 2007 | Todd Collins (0–1) | |||
| 2012 | Robert Griffin III (0–1) | |||
| 2015 | Kirk Cousins (0–1) | |||
| 2020 | Taylor Heinicke (0–1) | [156] |
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