Ranking every Commanders starting quarterback from the Dan Snyder era

Taylor Heinicke
Taylor Heinicke / Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 7
Next

Ranking every starting quarterback for the Washington Commanders throughout Dan Snyder's turbulent reign as owner.

The Washington Commanders have had 27 different quarterbacks start at least one game during Dan Snyder’s 24 years of ownership. You don’t need me to tell you that is not a good statistic. It speaks to the constant state of turmoil and confusion that has plagued the franchise since 1999.

Of those 27 players, only seven managed to have double-digit wins as starters, and only six have career-winning records. That includes Sam Howell and his 1-0 record as a starter.

Only three players have had both – double-digit wins and a career starting record above .500. If you are looking for any glimmer of a silver lining in these abysmal numbers, you can take some solace in the fact that two of those players – Alex Smith and Taylor Heinicke – played during the Ron Rivera regime.

Both are now gone. But at least it suggests that Rivera has managed to foster some semblance of stability as head coach.

What follows is a ranking of each of those 27 signal-callers. The rankings only consider the player’s time with Washington. That matters because, under Snyder, the Commanders brought in six established veterans who had varying degrees of success elsewhere.

The intention was that these quarterbacks would stabilize the position. Two had modest success while the other four proved catastrophic.

I’m going to put them in tiers. Since I have been a teacher at various points in my life, those tiers will be the classic A, B, C, D, F, and I (for incomplete). We’ll begin at the bottom, and work our way up.