In four days, the 2022 season begins. By the time Sunday night rolls around, more than half of the games will have featured a pair of quarterbacks who arrived in the NFL via round one of the draft.
Mike Reiss of ESPN.com notes that nine games feature first-round QB1 vs. first-round QB1. That’s the most since 1967. The prior record came in Week One of the 2012 season, with eight.
The nine games are Bills (Josh Allen, 2018) at Rams (Matthew Stafford, 2009), Saints (Jameis Winston, 2015) at Falcons (Marcus Mariota, 2015), 49ers (Trey Lance, 2021) at Bears (Justin Fields, 2021), Steelers (Mitch Trubisky, 2017, or Kenny Pickett, 2022) at Bengals (Joe Burrow, 2020), Patriots (Mac Jones, 2021) at Dolphins (Tua Tagovailoa, 2020), Ravens (Lamar Jackson, 2018) at Jets (Zach Wilson, 2021, or Joe Flacco, 2008), Jaguars (Trevor Lawrence, 2021) at Commanders (Carson Wentz, 2016), Giants (Daniel Jones, 2019) at Titans (Ryan Tannehill, 2012), and Chiefs (Patrick Mahomes, 2017) at Cardinals (Kyler Murray, 2019).
The number would be 10, if Deshaun Watson weren’t suspended. But for the suspension, the 2017 first-rounder would have been taking on the 2018 first overall pick when the Browns face the Panthers.
Only two games in Week One don’t have at least one first-round quarterback starting for either team, and they’re two of the biggest: Buccaneers (Tom Brady, round six) at Cowboys (Dak Prescott, round four) and Broncos (Russell Wilson, round three) at Seahawks (Geno Smith, round two).