The history (and demise) of left-handed quarterbacks in the NFL ahead of first southpaw matchup in 19 years

It wasn’t always this way. Take a ride with me on my lefty quarterback time machine. 

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Garrett Podell

John Doehring (first recorded lefty touchdown pass)

The first great lefty passer you never heard of was John “Bull” Doehring, a running back with the Bears in the 1930s. There was no quarterback position invented at the time but legend has it Doehring could throw 80 yards, including 60 behind his back. Yes, behind his back! This excerpt from “What a Game They Played” has the story. 

Bull took a lateral and started out toward the sidelines. He was supposed to throw a long pass to me, but he was in trouble, the defense was all over him. He didn’t even have room to raise his arm. I looked away, figuring the play had failed. Then I happened to look up and there, coming straight into my hands, was the ball. I was so surprised I dropped it! As we were walking to the dressing room later, I asked him how he got rid of the ball. Well, they were rushing me so I threw it behind my back. And that’s what he had done, thrown the ball behind his back. Forty yards. Right into my hands.

The video is astonishing. I have no idea if this was from a real game, but you need to watch this because the sheer physics of it seems impossible. My first reaction … why hasn’t Patrick Mahomes or somebody done this?!?! That’s the next trick shot that needs to happen in the NFL. Doehring should be remembered for that, plus the first touchdown pass by a lefty on record, at least according to the stats on Pro Football reference. He threw a 20-yard touchdown to Joe Zeller on Nov. 30, 1933, in a game between the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cardinals at Wrigley Field. 

That’s my lefty quarterback origin story and I’m sticking to it. 

1970s (Ken Stabler)

Lefty passers went dormant in the 1950s and 1960s mostly until Ken Stabler came along and ushered in the golden era of lefty quarterbacks which stretched from 1970 with Stabler until Young retired in the late ’90s. Stabler led the Raiders to five straight AFC title games, won an NFL MVP in 1974 and a Super Bowl in the 1976 season. 

“Snake” shared some of the lefty quarterback spotlight with Bobby Douglass in the 1970s. The Bears quarterback ran for 968 yards in 1972, a quarterback record that would hold for 34 years until Vick became the first quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards in 2006. 

1980s (Boomer Esiason)

Esiason took the torch from Stabler in the 1980s during the twilight of his career with the Houston Oilers. Esiason won an NFL MVP in 1988 and led the Bengals to the Super Bowl where they lost to the 49ers and Joe Montana. Esiason holds the NFL “record” for most career touchdown passes by a left-handed quarterback (247). 

1990s (Steve Young)

Young earned the title of best lefty quarterback in NFL history by assaulting the record books in the 1990s. He led the NFL in passer rating six times in a seven-year span from 1991-97, won two NFL MVPs and a Super Bowl MVP in 1994. He was the first lefty quarterback inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, later joined posthumously by Stabler. 

Mark Brunell also burst onto the scene in the 1990s, leading the expansion Jaguars to four straight playoff appearances from 1996-99. He is still the Jaguars all-time passing yards leader. 

But, you can’t tell the story of lefty quarterbacks in the ’90s without Todd Marinovich. The Raiders’ 1991 first-round pick from USC is an infamous and well-documented bust story. He recently released a memoir covering it all, as The Orange County Register wrote this week. 

2000s (Michael Vick)

The 2000s was the rise and fall of Vick, the most electrifying quarterback in NFL history who ushered in the era of dual-threat quarterbacks we live in today. He has one of the most unforgettable, polarizing and controversial careers in league history from his 1,000-yard rushing season and tape-measure throws to his prison sentence for his involvement in a dogfighting ring. 

2010s (Vick returns and Tebow mania)

Vick was the last lefty quarterback to start a conference title game back in the 2004 season. Who knew his divisional round victory vs. the Rams at age 24 in that year would be the last playoff win of his career. He returned from his two-year absence from the NFL with the Eagles in 2009 and reminded us he was one of the most gifted athletes on planet earth on occasion in the 2010s. His performance on “Monday Night Football” against Washington in 2010 is one of the greatest in NFL history: 333 yards passing, four touchdown passes, 80 yards rushing and two touchdowns runs. 

Tebow stole the spotlight from pretty much everyone during “Tebow mania” in 2011. The former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback went 7-1 in an eight-game stretch from Weeks 7-14 that year in one of the craziest stretches in NFL history because of the impossible comebacks from a polarizing player who completed less than half of his passes. If you didn’t see it, I’d say it was like 58 minutes of Anthony Richardson and two minutes of Mahomes capped by miracle comebacks every week. 

Craziest stats from Tebow mania

• Tebow had five wins with Denver trailing in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter from Weeks 7-14. It’s still tied for the most wins by any team in a season in those situations on record. 
• The Broncos won four straight games when trailing in the final two minutes from Weeks 11-14. 
• The Broncos outscored teams 57-6 in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and in overtime from Weeks 7-14 (they were outscored 156-107 in the first 55 minutes in that stretch).
• They won three games in overtime. 
• They won two games without scoring in the first 57 minutes of the game. 
• Tebow had a 66.1 passer rating in the first three quarters and a 105.8 mark in the fourth quarter and overtime from Weeks 7-14. 

Miracle comebacks from Tebow mania

• Week 7 vs. Miami: The Broncos won in overtime after trailing 15-0 in the final three minutes thanks to a pair of Tebow touchdown passes and a two-point conversion. It’s the only win this century by a team down 15 points in the final 2:55 of regulation.
• Week 11 vs Jets: Tebow engineered a 95-yard touchdown drive capped by his game-winning 20-yard touchdown run with under a minute left after Denver had punted on eight straight drives.
• Week 12 vs. Chargers: Tebow leads Denver on a game-winning drive in overtime.
• Week 13 vs. Vikings: Tebow leads Denver on back-to-back field goal drives to tie and then win in the final two minutes. 
• Week 14 vs. Bears: The Broncos won after trailing 10-0 with under three minutes left. Matt Prater hit two 50+ yard field goals to tie and win. 

Tebow time. What a time to be alive and cover sports for a living. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and probably won’t again. 

2020s (Tua time)

Tua time didn’t quite land the same. But, Tagovailoa did lead one of the most entertaining offenses in the NFL from 2022-23 when the “Greatest Show on Surf” dominated after Miami traded for Tyreek Hill. Tagovailoa led the NFL in passer rating in 2022 and in passing yards in 2023 but hasn’t been the same since. He’s one of three lefty quarterbacks currently starting in the NFL between himself, Gabriel and Penix. Somehow they are the NFL’s only lefty starting quarterbacks in the 2020s and they are all facing each other in the next two weeks on CBS.

The fall of the lefty quarterback

The question is, how did we get here? How did we go two decades between lefty quarterback matchups? How has it been nearly 15 years since a southpaw slinger won a playoff game? 

There are plenty of theories out there:

• All the talented lefties are playing baseball (2025 was the year of the southpaw).
• It’s harder to catch passes from lefties because the football spins in the opposite direction (as opposed to righties).
• It’s harder to block for lefties since the best offensive lineman usually plays left tackle to protect the traditional blind side.
• An NFL team’s playbook is designed for right-handed quarterbacks. This is at least an excuse to perhaps not carry a lefty backup. I mean, who wouldn’t overhaul their system for a stud lefty?

There’s probably some truth to all of that. The biggest reason, though, is there just haven’t been good enough lefty quarterbacks. Tebow and Matt Leinart both won Heisman trophies and national championships in college in the 2000s but were busts in the NFL. Vick should have had a better career, too. There’s been five lefty quarterbacks drafted in the first round this century. Vick, Leinart, Tebow, Tagovailoa and Penix. There were two prior to that (Cade McNown, Marinovich). So, the talent has been there but the performance has not. We’ll see if we get a brief reprieve from the demise of the lefty quarterback in the next two weeks.