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The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. They are a member of the East Division of the American Football Conference (AFC). The team began as the Boston Patriots in the American Football League, a league that merged with the National Football League before the start of the 1970 season. In 1971, the team relocated to Foxborough, where they then became the New England Patriots. Between 1971 and 2001, the Patriots played their home games at Foxboro Stadium. Since 2002, the Patriots have played their home games at Gillette Stadium (formerly CMGI Field), which was built adjacent to Foxboro Stadium (which was then demolished, and the site was turned into a parking lot for Gillette Stadium).
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There have been 28 starting quarterbacks (QB) in the history of the franchise. The most starting quarterbacks the Patriots have had in one season is five quarterbacks, in 1987. Past quarterbacks for the Patriots include Patriots Hall of Fame inductees Babe Parilli, Steve Grogan, and Drew Bledsoe. Butch Songin became the first starting quarterback for the Patriots in 1960, when the franchise was first established. He was replaced by Tom Greene for the final two games of the season. Hall of Famer Parilli was the next starting quarterback for the Patriots, from 1961 to 1967. As of 2017, New England's starting quarterback is Tom Brady, whom the Patriots selected in the 6th round (199th pick overall) of the 2000 NFL Draft. He is the only quarterback to have led the Patriots to a Super Bowl victory.
History
Butch Songin became the first starting quarterback for the Patriots in 1960, when the franchise was first established. He went on to start for the first 12 games of the season, and Tom Greene replaced him as starting quarterback for the final two games of the season. Babe Parilli was the next starting quarterback for the Patriots, from 1961 to 1967.
In 1971, when the team moved to Foxborough and renamed from the "Boston Patriots" to the "New England Patriots", Jim Plunkett took over as quarterback. Plunkett started every regular season game for four straight seasons, until he was replaced by Steve Grogan as the first-string starting quarterback in 1975. Grogan was the only starting quarterback for six straight seasons, until Matt Cavanaugh started for four of the sixteen games in 1980. Grogan would continue to start for the Patriots for parts of seasons until his retirement in 1990. Grogan finished his career with 135 games as starting quarterbacks, the second-most of any Patriots starting quarterback ever.
From 1987 until 1993, the Patriots had no regular starting quarterback, with as many as five in one season, until Drew Bledsoe was drafted as the #1 overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft. Bledsoe led the team to four playoff appearances (1994, 1996, 1997, and 1998), two AFC East championships (1996 and 1997), and an AFC Championship (1997). Bledsoe was the team's primary starting quarterback for eight straight seasons until a hit by New York Jets linebacker Mo Lewis sheared a blood vessel in his chest, which put Bledsoe out for the rest of the season. Before the start of the 2002 season, Bledsoe was traded to the Buffalo Bills and did not get to see the opening of the new Gillette Stadium in September 2002.
Tom Brady, the current quarterback since 2001, has led the team for more regular season games (207), post-season games (29), Super Bowl appearances (7), and complete seasons (13) than any other quarterback in franchise history. Brady's only incomplete seasons were 2001, when he replaced Bledsoe as the starting quarterback, 2008, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury in the first game of the regular season, and 2016 when he was suspended by the NFL for the first four games of the season as a result of the Deflategate incident. In 2008, Matt Cassel started the remaining 15 games, and despite missing the playoffs, the team finished with an 11-5 record and second place in the AFC East. In 2016, Jimmy Garoppolo served as the starting quarterback for the first two games of the season in Brady's absence before Garoppolo was injured and replaced by Jacoby Brissett. Brady also has led the team to all five of the franchise's Super Bowl victories, doing so in 2001, 2003, 2004, 2014 and 2016 . He is one of only four Patriots quarterbacks to have started at Gillette Stadium, the others having been Cassel, Garoppolo, and Brissett. Steve Grogan has started the second-most games in franchise history (135), 56 games fewer than Brady.
Starting quarterbacks
The number of games they started during the season is listed to the right in parentheses.