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It is the Cradle of Quarterbacks for a reason, and on Thursday Purdue football fans will once again get to see multiple signal-callers play in the NFL. Drew Brees, of course, will continue his assault on the NFL record book Thursday night as New Orleans faces Atlanta. In the first of three games rookie David Blough will make his NFL regular season debut for the Detroit Lions against the Chicago Bears.
The #Lions are expected to start QB David Blough tomorrow against the #Bears, sources tell @StaceyDales and me. Jeff Driskel’s hamstring has hindered him greatly, though he’ll end up backing up. A major challenge for Detroit.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 28, 2019
Per Pro Football Reference, Blough is the 14th different Purdue quarterback to start at least one game in the NFL. He is the 15th if you count Jeff George, who played most of his career at Illinois, but did start a year at Purdue. Purdue quaterbacks have started more games and thrown for more yards than any other college in the NFL.
Here are your Purdue NFL starters and the number of games they have started:
Drew Brees - 269 (and counting)
Len Dawson - 159 games
Jim Everett - 153 games
Bob Griese - 151 games
Jeff George - 124 games
Kyle Orton - 82 games
Mike Phipps - 71 games
Gary Danielson - 60 games
Sam Vacanti - 16 games
Scott Campbell - 13 games
Mark Herrmann - 12 games
Curtis Painter - 8 games
Wayne Gift - 1 game
John Galvin - 1 game
In addition, Mark Stevens played QB, but did not start, in two games for the 49ers in 1987. Bob DeMoss also played in 3 games, but is not credited with a start, as a quarterback in 1949.
Blough rates very high on Purdue’s career passing lists. He finished 4th behind Brees, Painter, and Herrmann with 9,743 yards and likely would have broken the record had he been the full time starter in 2017. He has the season school record for completion percentage (66% in 2018), and is third in career completions with 871 behind Brees and Painter. He finished third with 69 (nice) touchdowns behind Herrmann (71) and Brees (90) and third in total offense with 9,996 yards.
Being an undrafted third string rookie, expectations are not high. In fact, the New York Post says Blough could “ruin the start to your Thanksgiving”. It is true that Blough is good at ruining things.
Just ask Ohio State’s 2018 College Football Playoff chances.
Good luck, David. We’re pulling for you.