Every Detroit Lions starting QB ever: Full list

Heading into the franchise's 95th season in 2024, the Detroit Lions have of course had a lot of starting quarterbacks over their history. For the last decade-plus though, after Matthew Stafford shook off an injury-plagued start to his career, they've basically had two (Stafford and Jared Goff).

But the overall list is fairly eclectic. First-round busts, retreads, a future head coach, a future Super Bowl starter filling in for a Hall of Famer who ended up with three Super Bowl rings as a backup, even a future prominent college football analyst.

Here is the full list of starting quarterbacks the Detroit Lions have had in their history (starting as the Portsmouth Spartans from 1930-1933 of course).

Notes:

• The number of starts is regular season starts.
• "Games started" data is tough to pin down from the very early days of the NFL, so where it was iffy I've either not included it or put an asterisk
• As best as possible, with overlapping years, I've put the quarterbacks chronologically based on the first year each quarterback started a game for the Lions
• The years or year spans are over which someone made starts for the Lions, not necessarily their entire career with the team

Every starting quarterback in Detroit Lions history: Full list

• Chuck Bennett (1930)
• Glenn Pressnell (1931-1936; 41 starts*)
• Dutch Clark (1931-1937; 49 starts*)
• Vern Huffman (1938; 8 starts)
• Bill Sheppard (1938; 3 starts)
• Johnny Pingel (1939; 9 starts)
• Darrell Tully (1939; 1 start)
• Dwight Sloan (1939-1940; 2 starts)
• Byron White (1940-1941; 16 starts)
• Cotton Price (1940-1945; 6 starts)
• Billy Jefferson (1941; 1 start)
• Harry Hopp (1942; 5 starts)
• Chet Wetterlund (1942; 3 starts)
• Tommy Colella (1942; 2 starts)
• Murray Evans (1942; 1 start)
• Frank Sinkwich (1943-1944; 13 starts)
• Chuck Fenenbock (1943,1945; 8 starts)
• Bob Westfall (1944; 1 start)
• Dave Ryan (1945-1946; 11 starts)
• Jim Callahan (1946; 7 starts)
• Roy Zimmerman (1947; 7 starts)
• Joe Margucci (1947; 1 start)
• Clyde LeForce (1947-1949; 6 starts)
• Frank Enke (1948-1949; 16 starts)
• Frank Tripucka (1949; 4 starts)
• Bobby Layne (1950-1958; 84 starts)
• Jim Hardy (1952; 1 start)
• Tom Dublinski (1953-1954; 5 starts)
• Harry Gilmer (1955; 2 starts)
• Tobin Rote (1958-1959; 23 starts)
• Earl Morrall (1959-1964; 26 starts)
• Jim Ninowski (1960-1961; 18 starts)
• Milt Plum (1962-1967; 52 starts)
• George Izo (1965; 3 starts)
• Karl Sweetan (1966-1967; 16 starts)
• Bill Munson (1968-1975; 48 starts)
• Greg Landry (1968-1978; 84 starts)
• Joe Reed (1975-1977, 1979; 11 starts)
• Gary Danielson (1977-1978,1980-1982,1984; 52 starts)
• Jeff Komlo (1979, 1981; 16 starts)
• Jerry Golsteyn (1979; 1 start)
• Eric Hipple (1981-1986, 1989; 57 starts)
• John Witkowski (1984; 1 start)
• Joe Ferguson (1985-1986; 5 starts)
• Chuck Long (1986-1988; 21 starts)
• Todd Hons (1987; 3 starts)
• Rusty Hilger (1988; 9 starts)
• Bob Gagliano (1989-1990; 11 starts)
• Rodney Peete (1989-1993; 47 starts)
• Andre Ware (1990, 1992, 1993; 6 starts)
• Erik Kramer (1991-1993; 15 starts)
• Scott Mitchell (1994-1998; 57 starts)
• Dave Krieg (1994; 7 starts)
• Don Majkowski (1996; 2 starts)
• Frank Reich (1998; 2 starts)
• Charlie Batch (1998-2001; 46 starts)
• Gus Frerotte (1999; 6 starts)
• Stoney Case (2000; 1 start)
• Ty Detmer (2001; 4 starts)
• Mike McMahon (2001-2002; 7 starts)
• Joey Harrington (2002-2005; 55 starts)
• Jeff Garcia (2005; 5 starts)
• Jon Kitna (2006-2008; 36 starts)
• Dan Orlovsky (2008; 7 starts)
• Daunte Culpepper (2008-2009; 10 starts)
• Matthew Stafford (2009-2020; 165 starts)
• Drew Stanton (2009-2010, 4 starts)
• Shaun Hill (2010; 10 starts)
• Jeff Driskel (2019; 3 starts)
• David Blough (2019; 5 starts)
• Tim Boyle (2021; 3 starts)
• Jared Goff (2021-present; 48 starts as of end of the 2023 season)