This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/nfl by /u/callahan09 on 2025-01-28 00:08:40+00:00.
Mahomes started his career with 53 straight starts (including post-season) without losing by more than a single score margin. The streak was ended in the Super Bowl loss to the Bucs on 2021-02-07. What an incredible start to a career!
I’m fairly sure that this is not only the longest such streak to start a career, but also the longest streak in NFL history at ANY point in a career.
I discovered this after it had recently felt to me like Lamar Jackson hadn’t lost by more than 1 score in a really long time, so I wanted to see when the last time it happened was.
What I found was that he is currently at 52 straight games, with his last loss by more than 1 score being on 2021-11-11, with a 10-22 loss at Miami. I wondered if that 52 streak might be a record, so I randomly chose Tom Brady to look into, and his longest streak was 45 games. I thought that very interesting, so then I looked into Mahomes next and saw that he’s at 53.
Then I decided to look at all the significant active QBs who have had some success in the league so far (playoff game starts being one of my criteria for this). Then I pulled in the recent significant players like Matt Ryan, Philip Rivers, Eli Manning, etc. And finally I pulled in every single Hall of Fame (or future HOF lock) QB, going all the way back to the days when the forward pass was just allowed (note, there are a couple of QBs on this list who played before 1933 and I couldn’t acquire gamelogs for them, so their data is incomplete or not available at all).
After all that, it looks to me like Mahomes is still #1 with that 53 game streak (though, perhaps Lamar Jackson will tie it in game 1 of 2025). I didn’t look into every QB to ever play, but I looked at all the significant current, recent, and HOF players, so I feel like the chances someone I didn’t look into has broken this record is probably pretty low, but if anyone has any suggestions of other players I should look at, let me know.
Here’s the list:
Asterisk (*) next to beginning or ending date indicates the player’s longest streak began with their first career start or was still active when they played their last game…
Patrick Mahomes: 53 games (*2017-12-31 thru 2021-01-24) *CURRENT STREAK = 8*
Lamar Jackson: 52 games (2021-11-28 thru *2025-01-19) *ONGOING/ACTIVE STREAK* *CURRENT STREAK = 52*
Tom Brady: 45 games (2010-11-14 thru 2013-01-20)
Aaron Rodgers: 43 games (2009-11-15 thru 2011-12-25) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Sid Luckman: 43 games (1940-10-06 thru 1943-11-14)
Otto Graham: 42 games (1946-11-03 thru 1949-10-02)
Russell Wilson: 38 games (*2012-09-09 thru 2014-09-04) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Bart Starr: 36 games (1965-12-05 thru 1968-09-15)
Drew Brees: 34 games (2017-09-24 thru 2019-09-09)
John Elway: 33 games (1995-12-03 thru 1997-11-30)
Troy Aikman: 31 games (1993-09-12 thru 1995-01-08)
Peyton Manning: 30 games (2012-10-15 thru 2014-01-19)
Fran Tarkenton: 30 games (1975-09-21 thru 1976-12-26)
Joe Montana: 29 games (1989-01-01 thru 1990-11-18)
Joe Flacco: 28 games (2014-12-28 thru 2016-12-25) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Steve Young: 28 games (1986-12-21 thru 1992-10-18)
Randall Cunningham: 27 games (1998-09-20 thru *2001-11-04)
Josh Allen: 26 games (2021-11-25 thru 2023-01-15) *CURRENT STREAK = 16*
Kurt Warner: 25 games (*1999-09-12 thru 2000-10-15)
Terry Bradshaw: 25 games (1978-09-03 thru 1979-10-07)
Roger Staubach: 25 games (1974-09-15 thru 1975-11-30)
Johnny Unitas: 25 games (1958-09-28 thru 1960-10-02)
Jared Goff: 24 games (2023-12-16 thru 2025-01-05) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Philip Rivers: 23 games (2009-10-25 thru 2010-11-28)
Deshaun Watson: 22 games (*2017-09-14 thru 2018-12-30) *CURRENT STREAK = 2*
Bob Griese: 22 games (1972-09-17 thru 1974-01-13)
Sammy Baugh: 22 games (1941-11-23 thru 1943-11-21)
Matthew Stafford: 21 games (2015-11-15 thru 2016-12-11) *CURRENT STREAK = 7*
Ben Roethlisberger: 21 games (2008-12-28 thru 2010-10-24)
Jim Kelly: 20 games (1990-09-24 thru 1991-09-29)
Jalen Hurts: 19 games (2022-11-20 thru 2023-11-26) *CURRENT STREAK = 14*
Jayden Daniels: 18 games (2024-09-15 thru 2025-01-18) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Kirk Cousins: 18 games (2021-01-03 thru 2022-09-11) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Jimmy Garoppolo: 18 games (2019-09-08 thru 2020-01-19) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Cam Newton: 18 (2015-09-13 thru 2016-01-24)
Brett Favre: 18 games (1997-10-05 thru 1998-09-27)
Warren Moon: 17 games (1997-09-14 thru 1998-09-27)
Dan Marino: 17 games (1983-11-20 thru 1984-11-26)
Ken Stabler: 17 games (1977-10-23 thru 1978-10-15)
Arnie Herber: 17 games (1940-10-27 thru 1945-10-14) *FIRST 3 YEARS OF HIS CAREER ARE NOT AVAILABLE*
Justin Herbert: 16 games (2022-11-06 thru 2023-10-16) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Y.A. Tittle: 16 games (1953-09-27 thru 1954-11-07)
Joe Burrow: 15 games (2021-12-12 thru 2022-10-23) *CURRENT STREAK = 9*
Baker Mayfield: 15 games (2020-11-15 thru 2021-10-10) *CURRENT STREAK = 11*
Dak Prescott: 15 games (*2016-09-11 thru 2016-12-26) *CURRENT STREAK = 2*
Eli Manning: 15 games (2011-12-24 thru 2012-11-04)
Dan Fouts: 15 games (1978-10-29 thru 1979-10-21)
Joe Namath: 15 games (1968-11-24 thru 1969-11-09)
Bobby Layne: 15 games (1952-10-03 thru 1953-10-11)
Earl “Dutch” Clark: 15 games (*1934-09-23 thru 1935-11-03) *FIRST 2 YEARS OF HIS CAREER ARE NOT AVAILABLE*
Matt Ryan: 14 games (2016-11-27 thru 2017-10-15)
Andy Dalton: 14 games (2012-10-21 thru 2013-09-22) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Norm Van Brocklin: 14 games (1953-09-27 thru 1954-10-03)
Sam Darnold: 13 games (2022-11-27 thru 2024-10-20) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
George Blanda: 13 games (1960-09-11 thru 1961-09-09)
Marcus Mariota: 13 games (2016-09-18 thru 2016-12-18) *CURRENT STREAK = 3*
C.J. Stroud: 12 games (2024-09-29 thru 2024-12-21) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Geno Smith: 12 games (2022-09-25 thru 2022-12-15) *CURRENT STREAK = 3*
Sonny Jurgensen: 12 games (1967-09-24 thru 1967-12-10)
Bob Waterfield: 12 games (1952-10-03 thru *1952-12-21)
Jordan Love: 11 games (2023-12-24 thru 2024-10-27) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Derek Carr: 11 games (2022-11-06 thru 2023-09-24) *CURRENT STREAK = 5*
Len Dawson: 11 games (1967-12-03 thru 1968-10-27)
Brock Purdy: 10 games (2023-12-31 thru 2024-10-10) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Trevor Lawrence: 10 games (2022-01-09 thru 2022-11-06) *CURRENT STREAK = 4*
Kyler Murray: 10 games (2021-09-12 thru 2021-12-13) *CURRENT STREAK = 4*
Ryan Tannehill: 10 games (2013-10-06 thru 2013-12-15) *CURRENT STREAK = 5*
Clarence “Ace” Parker: 9 games (1940-10-26 thru 1941-10-05)
Bo Nix: 8 games (*2024-09-08 thru 2024-10-27) *CURRENT STREAK = 0*
Kenny Pickett: 8 games (2022-11-13 thru 2023-01-08) *CURRENT STREAK = 1*
Daniel Jones: 8 games (2021-11-28 thru 2022-10-23) *CURRENT STREAK = 3*
Tua Tagovailoa: 8 games (*2020-11-01 thru 2020-12-26) *CURRENT STREAK = 3*
Benny Friedman: 3 games (1933-10-29 thru 1933-11-26) *ONLY 8 GAME LOGS FROM HIS CAREER ARE AVAILABLE*
John Driscoll: N/A *ENTIRE CAREER WAS PRE-1933, NO GAME LOGS AVAILABLE*
Jimmy Conzelman: N/A *ENTIRE CAREER WAS PRE-1933, NO GAME LOGS AVAILABLE*
Sources: I compiled this information by parsing through game logs on Pro Football Reference / StatHead.