My favorite backup quarterback of all-time, just for his name, is Marques Tuiasosopo (TOO-ee-ah-so-SO-poe). 7 seasons, 13 games (2 starts).
I’m pretty sure I signed him in a Madden game.
What NFL backup quarterback was in the league the longest without ever playing in a meaningful game?
I’m old enough to remember when his father, Manu Tuiasosopo, played defensive tackle for the Seahawks. I had him on my APBA football draft team.
Well if you’re anything like me, you’ll start out by remembering the ad and Googling something along the lines of “quarterback Super Bowl Miller Lite ad” and getting nowhere with that. Then you’ll remember that you liked the guy who was in it and that he was fairly funny doing stand up years back but you can’t quite recall his name. Then you’ll remember that he was in the McHale’s Navy movie from the mid-90s (along with Tom Arnold, Dean Stockwell, Tim Curry, and Bruce Campbell, which is great that you can remember their names) so you’ll look that up and remember that he’s Brian Haley, then you can Google “Brian Haley beer commercial” and get it from there.
“If you’re anything like me…”
Gale Gilbert set an NFL record by appearing in five consecutive Superbowls teams - without ever going on the field.
Gilbert was a second and third string backup quarterback and didn’t play a lot during his eight season career. But he doesn’t quite meet the OP’s criteria. He started in two games (one each in his seventh and eight season). And he was called into the game as a non-starter on several occasions.
Another factor is teams wanting to protect their starting quarterbacks by keeping them off the field once a game has been decided.
Passes thrown might be a better metric. That at least gives some distinction from handing off to a RB or taking a knee to run down the clock in garbage time. Also, some backup QBs have been the holder on FG attempts on a regular basis.
And it’s easy to look up on pro-football-reference.com.
They have been, at least in the past, though in the past decade or so, it’s become pretty close to universal that NFL teams have their punters act as the holders. This change is, as I understand it, primarily to not take practice time with the offense away from the quarterbacks, in order for them to practice with the long snapper and kicker.
Yes I include that statistic for many QBs in this thread.
Also, for holding on FGs, I think punters do it because they’re probably less costly (salary) than backup QBs. A guess.
Well, every team has to carry a punter, anyway, so I’d be surprised if it’s a cost-saving thing. In doing a little more reading on the topic, the reasons seem to be:
- Punters (and kickers) are actually not that busy at practice – most teams limit them to a certain number of kicks/punts per day. So, the punter has time to devote to practice holding for placekicks, in addition to practicing his punting.
- Teams want their quarterbacks (even the backups) to devote their time to offensive practice, and learning the team’s game plan, because of the relatively high likelihood that they may have to play, if the starting QB gets injured. Time spent practicing with the kicker and long snapper is time taken away from practicing with the offense.
- Punters rarely get injured; having a position player hold (WRs and DBs also used to commonly be holders) means that, if that player gets hurt while playing their primary position, you now have to have a backup do the holding for the rest of the game.
- Punters, generally, have pretty good hands, as half of their job (as a punter) is to reliably catch the snap.
Here’s a link to a Reddit thread about the topic, specifically to a lengthy quote from Bill Belichick, on why punters are now holders, which mentions several of the above.
Good article, thanks.
Thanks for the info! I basically gave up football-watching nearly a decade ago, so it’s not surprising that changes like this one have snuck in in the meantime.
Early in his career, Joe Montana was not only the 49ers starting QB, but he also acted as holder!
Yes, for Ray Wersching in SB XVI. And many other games.
The guy could do it all! 
Someone can correct me if I’m remembering wrong, but IIRC Joe Theismann held on FG attempts when he was the starting Redskins QB.
He did; up through at least the '80s, it wasn’t uncommon for a starting position player (often the quarterback) to act as the holder.
Here’s Theismann holding for a kick by Mark Moseley.
Similarly, Bart Starr holding for a kick in the 1965 playoffs.
And, Nolan Cromwell (#21), an all-pro defensive back for the Rams in the '70s and '80s (and who had been a run-first quarterback at the University of Kansas):
This is, of course, a plot point in the Ace Ventura Pet Detective movie (the QB was Dan Marino).
I think the most recent example was Tony Romo when he was with the Cowboys. Of course, they lost a playoff game when he fumbled a hold.
And even that was 16 years ago (the playoffs for the 2006 season), during Romo’s first season as the Cowboys’ starting quarterback. In 2004 and 2005, while he was serving as Drew Bledsoe’s backup at QB, he’d apparently also been the holder.