It’s been a rough year for Eagles quarterbacks. Here are 50 things about Philly’s QB history to help ease (?) the pain.

Ron Jaworski once summed up perfectly what it’s like to be an Eagles quarterback.

“I’ve been cheered by 70,000 in Philadelphia. And I’ve been booed by 70,000 in Philadelphia,” said Jaworski, who played for the Eagles from 1977-86. “And a lot of times in the same game.”

We took some time ahead of the bye to look at some of the guys who’ve quarterbacked the Eagles throughout the years. Some notable, some obscure, some long forgotten.

1. Dick Thornton was the first Eagles starting quarterback, and he didn’t last very long. The Eagles lost to the Giants, 56-0, in 1933 and Thornton played in just three more games in his career. His son, also named Dick Thornton, was born in 1939 and went on to become a Hall of Fame defensive back in the CFL.

2. Thornton was replaced by Red Kirkman who tossed the first touchdown pass in Eagles history, a 35-yarder to Swede Hanson. After being shut out in their first two games, Kirkman and Hanson combined for the first points in franchise history.

3. Tanner McKee (born April 27, 2000) is the first quarterback born in the 2000s to start a game for the Eagles. Joe Milton (March 6, 2000) is the second. Cole Payton (Oct. 26, 2002) could be the third.

4. Norm Van Brocklin (born in 1926) was at the back end of his career when he joined the Eagles in 1958 following a dispute with Rams coach Sid Gillman. Van Brocklin, 32, had enough left in the tank to lead the Eagles to the 1960 NFL Championship. “The Dutchman” passed for 204 yards and a touchdown (to Tommy McDonald) to beat Green Bay. It was the only playoff game the Packers lost under coach Vince Lombardi.

5. Van Brocklin joined the Navy in 1943 while he was still in high school. He was stationed on a destroyer and fought in the Pacific during World War II. He began his career with the Rams in 1949 (at age 23) and played in the 1949 NFL championship game loss to the Eagles.

Bonus: Van Brocklin’s record of 554 passing yards in a game in 1951 still stands — 75 years later! He’s one of 22 QBs to toss for 500-plus yards in a game.

6. The Eagles’ record for most passing yards in a game is held by Nick Foles, who had 471 yards against Houston in 2018. That was the last time an Eagles QB threw for 400 yards or more.

7. Tavern trivia I: The seven Eagles quarterbacks to throw for 400 or more yards in a game (in chronological order): Bobby Thomason, Sonny Jurgensen, Randall Cunningham, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick, Vince Young, and Foles.

8. The Eagles entered the bye 29th in the league in passing yards, and their season-high is 252 in Week 2 against Tennessee.

9. Allie Sherman (1943-47) had a creative football mind, but not much of an arm. “I was the best left-handed ball holder on conversion kicks in the history of the NFL,” he once joked.

10. Sherman, who died in 2015, is best known for coaching the New York Giants from 1961-68. He joined the Giants coaching staff in 1959 as offensive coordinator, replacing Lombardi, who became the Green Bay Packers head coach.

11. “Obviously, I think it’s different here. Since I’ve been here, I’ve learned that it’s a great sports town. People are passionate here. They really care.” — Sam Bradford, a few days after throwing three interceptions in a 2015 win over the Giants.

12. There have been 14 touchdown passes of 99 yards in NFL history. Jaworski to Mike Quick to beat Atlanta in 1985 is the only one that occurred in overtime.

13. The first true quarterback ever drafted by the Eagles was TCU’s Davey O’Brien with the fourth overall pick in 1939. O’Brien played only two NFL seasons as the Eagles went a miserable 2-19-1. He retired after 1940 (can you blame him?) and joined the FBI.

14. The Davey O’Brien Award has been given out to the nation’s top collegiate quarterback since 1981 when BYU’s Jim McMahon won it. McMahon, who was the QB when the Bears won the 1985 Super Bowl, started 12 games for the Eagles from 1990-92.

15. Eagles quarterbacks who won the Heisman Trophy with the year they won it in parentheses: O’Brien (1938), John Huarte (1964), Ty Detmer (1990), Bradford (2008), and Marcus Mariota (2014).

16. Ty Detmer (1996-97) and Koy Detmer (1998-06) are the only set of brothers to play quarterback for the Eagles.

17. Koy Detmer was mostly a holder on special teams. He did start eight games, however, the most notable being the first three quarters of an upset win at San Francisco on a Monday night in 2002. Unfortunately for Detmer, he dislocated his elbow and had to be replaced by A.J. Feeley.

18. Len Barnum, who also was a terrific punter, played for the Eagles in 1941 and 1942 before joining the Navy. He reached the rank of lieutenant and, according to a newspaper report, was assigned to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific in May, 1945.

19. Tommy Thompson, who split the quarterback job with Barnum in 1941, received a Purple Heart during the Normandy invasion in 1944. He served despite being legally blind in his left eye since childhood, and returned to football in 1945.

20. Thompson was the quarterback on the NFL Championship teams in 1948 and 1949. He retired after the 1950 season. He was inducted into the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame in 2012.

21. The Eagles and Steelers consolidated their rosters in 1943 and were known as the Steagles. Their quarterback, Roy Zimmerman, was acquired from Washington following a heated disagreement with owner George Marshall involving compensation for an exhibition game against a team of college all-stars, which was common back then. This dispute indirectly led to NFL players forming a union.

22. The NFL record for touchdown passes in a game is seven, which has been done by eight QBs. The Eagles are the only franchise with two of those players — Adrian Burk in 1954 and Foles in 2013.

23. Burk’s seventh TD pass was a bit contrived. The Eagles were way ahead of Washington when coach Jim Trimble learned from the PR staff that Burk was one away from tying the record. After Thomason drove the Eagles down the field, Trimble reinserted Burk to throw a 3-yard TD pass to Pete Pihos.

24. “We didn’t know what was going on,” Pihos said later. “I couldn’t figure out why they were lifting Bobby. We didn’t know about the record. I’m glad I didn’t or I might have dropped the damn ball … “

25. When Minnesota’s Joe Kapp threw his seven touchdown passes in a game in 1969, Burk was on the field as the back judge. Burk also was the official who ruled Franco Harris’ “Immaculate Reception” was a legal catch and subsequent game-winning touchdown in a 1972 playoff game in Pittsburgh. Pretty cool.

Bonus: That was the first playoff win in Steelers history. They entered the league in 1933, same year as the Eagles.

26. Sonny Jurgensen started for the Birds from 1961-63 before he was traded away to Washington in a deal that was a bomb for the Eagles. The Eagles spent a decade-plus pretty much in the league’s basement while Jurgensen went on to a Hall of Fame career with Washington. Whoops.

27. Norm Snead was the key return piece of the Jurgensen trade. He quarterbacked the Eagles from 1964-70, and threw more interceptions (124) than touchdowns (111).

28. Snead was the QB for two important victories, however. The Eagles were 0-11 before they beat Detroit and New Orleans and fell out of the top spot for the No. 1 draft pick in 1969. Buffalo ended up with the first pick and selected O.J. Simpson. The Eagles, at No. 3, selected Leroy Keyes, a running back/safety, who injured his Achilles tendon playing basketball in the offseason following his rookie year and hardly ever played running back again.

29. But if Jurgensen was the one-that-got-away, getting Jaworski in 1977 was a trade that paid in spades. Jaworski in 1978 helped the Eagles end a playoff drought that dated to the 1960 championship. Though that Birds team didn’t deliver a title, they beat the Cowboys a few times which back then was a big deal.

30. Scott Tinsley started three games for the Eagles in 1987, crossing the picket line during a players’ strike that season. He was recruited to play for the Eagles by then-assistant coach Jeff Fisher, who was a roommate of Tinsley’s at USC. The Eagles lost all three of those games as head coach Buddy Ryan often ridiculed the replacement players.

31. Five quarterbacks since 1948 have made just one start for the Eagles, according to sports-reference.com: Jack Myers (1948), John Huarte (1968), George Mira (1969), Kenny Pickett (2024) and Milton (2026).

32. Assuming Milton starts when the Eagles come off the bye and host Pittsburgh on Nov. 22, he will join a small list of players who made exactly two starts for the Eagles at quarterback: Matt Cavanaugh (1986), Brad Goebel (1991) and Jeff Kemp (1991).

33. The Eagles Super Bowl aspirations in 1991 ended when Cunningham tore his ACL in the season opener. McMahon came in and helped the team to a 3-1 start before HE got hurt. Brad Goebel started the next two games, threw six interceptions, zero touchdowns and never started again. Jeff Kemp started the final two games, went 1-1, then retired. The Eagles still managed to go 10-6 behind their ferocious defense, but missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.

34. Nowadays, Goebel is a real estate agent, and Kemp is a minister, author and motivational speaker. McMahon recently served as a grand marshal of the Veterans Day parade in Phoenix.

35. The 1991 season is the only one of the Super Bowl era the Eagles started four different quarterbacks. This season, Jalen Hurts started five, McKee three and Milton one — and there’s still eight games left to be played.

36. Three quarterbacks were taken with the first three picks in the 1999 draft. Donovan McNabb was the only one to have a successful career. McNabb, who went after Cleveland took Tim Couch and before Cincinnati selected Akili Smith, holds the franchise record for touchdown passes (216), passing yards (32,873), completions (2,801) and attempts (4,746).

37. For the record, McNabb insists he did not throw up in the Super Bowl and since there’s no video evidence, it’s hard to dispute — especially at an event where cameras are everywhere.

38. Perhaps the most stunning move of the Jeffrey Lurie ownership era was the Eagles’ decision to sign Michael Vick in the summer of 2009. Vick, who spent nearly two years in federal prison for his role in a dogfighting scandal, played five seasons for the Eagles. They reached the playoffs three times, but did not win a postseason game.

39. Tavern Trivia II: The 12 quarterbacks to start a playoff game for the Eagles are (alphabetically) Cunningham, Ty Detmer, Foles, Jeff Garcia, Hurts, Jaworski, McNabb, Rodney Peete, Tommy Thompson, Van Brocklin, Vick and Carson Wentz.

40. Peete was under center when the Eagles set the team record for points in a playoff game with a 58-37 drubbing of Detroit in a 1995 wild-card game. Peete had 270 yards passing and three touchdowns, and the Eagles defense forced seven turnovers, including six interceptions.

41. Peete also was a solid baseball player who was drafted three times while he was at USC. He stuck with football and in 1988 finished second in the Heisman to Barry Sanders, who (by the way) was held to 40 yards on 10 carries in that 58-37 playoff game.

42. No Eagle has ever won the AP NFL MVP award, but Wentz in 2017 was among the front-runners before he tore his ACL in Week 14. Foles came in and … well, you know the rest.

Bonus: The first two picks of the 2012 draft were Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. The 88th pick was Foles.

43. There is a mural of the Philly Special play diagram on a wall at 2nd & Sigel streets in South Philly that remains fabulous almost 10 years later.

44. Wentz finished third in the MVP voting in 2017 behind Tom Brady and Todd Gurley. Hurts was a distant second in 2022 when Patrick Mahomes received 48 of the 50 first-place votes.

45. When Saquon Barkley ran for 2,005 yards in 2024, he was third in the MVP voting behind Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson.

46. Ed Storm, who played quarterback and tailback back when the positions were interchangeable, was one of the first NFL players to use the jump pass — a signature play during the leather-helmet days. Storm was 42 when he was killed in a five-car accident in Salinas, Calif. in 1950.

47. Dave Smukler, another hybrid from that era who played collegiately at Temple, served in the Army during World War II and achieved the rank of sergeant.

48. McNabb (142), Jaworski (137) and Cunningham (107) are top-3 in Eagles’ history for most regular-season starts by a quarterback. Hurts (87) is fourth.

49. Hurts was the fifth quarterback selected in 2020, and he’s the only QB from that class to win a Super Bowl. Joe Burrow came close. Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert and Jordan Love have not.

50. This is the first time in his life that Hurts, 28, is missing significant time because of an injury. It’ll be interesting to see what the Eagles quarterback room looks like when he turns 29 next August.

Listen to the latest episode

A crucial crossroads is here. The Eagles have reached the bye and, as timing would also have it, the NFL trade deadline, mired in their worst stretch of the Nick Sirianni era. There’s no doubt the franchise needs to course correct, but how? With who? Will players be on the move? Could coaches’ jobs be on the line? The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Olivia Reiner conduct an autopsy of the Eagles after their seventh straight loss — a 19-11 defeat to the New York Giants — and look at the big picture of an organization that has swiftly fallen far from its Super Bowl glory two years ago. Listen here.

Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.