I’m not a big fan of quarterbacks getting plugged in late in the season, as the Chargers will do this week with Trey Lance. If a team is mailing it in, it makes it tough to hold out much hope of the player finishing with viable numbers.
We saw three guys hop in on Christmas with fizzling results – Max Brosmer, Chris Oladukon and Josh Johnson.
But some of these guys will hit. Recall specifically Jimmy Garoppolo and Joshua Dobbs showing up in Week 18 for the Rams and 49ers. Both went over 300 passing yards and both threw multiple touchdowns.
But the misses outweigh the hits.
In the last four seasons, I see 19 instances where a team put in a new starting quarterback for Week 18. All but five of those guys finished with fewer than 190 passing yards. The hit rate was better for touchdowns, with 7 of those 19 hitting multiple touchdowns.
The 19 are below. For the five who passed for each 240 yards, they’ve got a black dots. For those with 2 TD passes, they’ve got a black dot. (And those with both have two dots.)
| QUARTERBACKS PLUGGED IN FOR WEEK 18 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Opp | Result | Cmp | Att | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int |
| 2021 | • Gardner Minshew, Phi. | Dall. | L, 26-51 | 19 | 33 | 57.6 | 186 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | • Case Keenum, Cle. | Cin. | W, 21-16 | 17 | 24 | 70.8 | 176 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | Brandon Allen, Cin. | at Cle. | L, 16-21 | 15 | 29 | 51.7 | 136 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Jake Fromm, NYG | Was. | L, 7-22 | 15 | 31 | 48.4 | 103 | 1 | 2 |
| 2022 | • Anthony Brown, Balt. | at Cin. | L, 16-27 | 19 | 44 | 43.2 | 286 | 0 | 2 |
| 2022 | Davis Webb, NYG | at Phil. | L, 16-22 | 23 | 40 | 57.5 | 168 | 1 | 0 |
| 2022 | Skylar Thompson, Mia. | NYJ | W, 11-6 | 20 | 31 | 64.5 | 152 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | Nathan Peterman, Chi. | Min. | L, 13-29 | 11 | 19 | 57.9 | 114 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | Sam Darnold, S.F. | LAR | L, 20-21 | 16 | 26 | 61.5 | 189 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | • Jeff Driskel, Cle. | at Cin. | L, 14-31 | 13 | 26 | 50.0 | 166 | 2 | 2 |
| 2023 | • Carson Wentz, LAR | at S.F. | W, 21-20 | 17 | 24 | 70.8 | 163 | 2 | 1 |
| 2023 | Blaine Gabbert, K.C. | at LAC | W, 13-12 | 15 | 30 | 50.0 | 154 | 0 | 1 |
| 2023 | Tyler Huntley, Balt. | Pitt. | L, 10-17 | 15 | 28 | 53.6 | 146 | 1 | 0 |
| 2024 | •• Jimmy Garoppolo, LAR | Sea. | L, 25-30 | 27 | 41 | 65.9 | 334 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | •• Joshua Dobbs, S.F. | at Ari. | L, 24-47 | 29 | 43 | 67.4 | 326 | 2 | 2 |
| 2024 | •• Tanner McKee, Phi. | NYG | W, 20-13 | 27 | 41 | 65.9 | 269 | 2 | 0 |
| 2024 | • Trey Lance, Dall. | Was. | L, 19-23 | 20 | 34 | 58.8 | 244 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | Bailey Zappe, Cle. | at Balt. | L, 10-35 | 16 | 31 | 51.6 | 170 | 1 | 2 |
| 2024 | Carson Wentz, K.C. | at Den. | L, 0-38 | 10 | 17 | 58.8 | 98 | 0 | 0 |
—Ian Allan