Russell Wilson could become fifth QB in NFL history to defeat all 32 teams following blockbuster trade
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on March 11, 2022
With Russell Wilson headed to Denver following Tuesday’s blockbuster trade, the former Seahawks quarterback is going to have a chance to join a very exclusive club this year: Wilson could become just the fifth quarterback in NFL history to beat all 32 teams.
Over the course of his career, Wilson has beaten 30 of the NFL’s 32 teams and it just so happens that during the 2022 season, the Broncos will be playing the two teams that Wilson has yet to beat. As you can probably guess, one of the teams that Wilson has yet to beat is the Seahawks. After spending his entire 10-year career in the Pacific Northwest, Wilson will get to face his former team at some point during the 2022 season in a game that will be played in Seattle (We won’t know the exact date until the NFL schedule is released in the spring).
The other team Wilson has yet to beat is the Chargers, and since they’re in the same division as Denver, the Broncos’ new quarterback will get two cracks at beating them in 2022.
If Wilson beats both the Seahawks and the Chargers during the upcoming season, he’ll become just the fifth quarterback ever to beat all 32 NFL teams. The only quarterbacks who have pulled that off are Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Brett Favre. It’s one of the most exclusive clubs that a quarterback can join and Wilson could be getting his membership in 2022 (Joe Montana and Fran Tarkenton are also kind of in the club. Even though they haven’t beaten 32 teams, they did get at least one win against all 28 teams that were in existence during their career).
The one notable aspect of Wilson joining the club is that he would be the youngest player to ever gain membership. Depending on how the schedule goes, Wilson could join the club at age 33 or 34 (His birthday is on Nov. 29, so he’d need to beat both teams before then to join the club at 33). The youngest QB to join the club was Manning, who did it at age 38. Brady didn’t join the club until last season, when he beat the Patriots at age 44 to complete the 32-team gauntlet.
If Wilson does beat both the Chargers and Seahawks this year, it could be a while before we see another quarterback beat all 32 teams. As things currently stand, there’s only one active quarterback who’s beaten 31 of the league’s 32 teams and that’s Aaron Rodgers. The only way Rodgers can hit 32 is if he somehow finds a way to beat the Packers, which isn’t going to happen as long as he’s in Green Bay.
Besides Wilson, there’s only one other quarterback who’s even beaten 30 teams and that’s Joe Flacco. To get to 32, Flacco needs to beat both the Ravens and the Seahawks. If he re-signs with the Jets for the upcoming season, that could actually happen because New York plays both of those teams in 2022, but he’d need to win the starting QB job to even have a chance at that and no one expects him to win the starting QB job.
Wilson, Rodgers and Flacco are the only three active quarterbacks who have beaten at least 30 teams.
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