Question
With Jared Goff traded to the Lions, there’s the potential that two teams in the NFC North will feature quarterbacks who played their college football at Cal (assuming Aaron Rodgers shows up for the Packers). What was the last division with two teams whose primary quarterbacks both came from the same college? Hint: for this pair, one of them completed only 20 passes in his college career.
Answer
AFC West in 2012. Carson Palmer started 15 games for the Raiders that year, while Matt Cassel started eight for Kansas City. Both played their college ball at Southern Cal. In the 2011 season, both Palmer and Cassel played for the same teams, starting nine games each. This has happened a few times in the 32-team era. In the 2009-10 seasons, Tom Brady and Chad Henne were the primary quarterbacks for the Patriots and Dolphins; both played at Michigan. In 2006, Jake Plummer started 11 games for Denver, while Andrew Walter started eight for the Raiders (both came from Arizona State). In the 2004 season, the AFC South had Billy Volek (8 starts) playing for Tennessee and David Carr going the distance for Houston.