Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the elder of the AFC East QB group. Despite being only 24 and following just his third NFL season, no other current QB in the division has been in the AFC East as long as Allen.
Allen joined the Bills on April 26th, 2018 just a few minutes after Sam Darnold joined the New York Jets. Earlier this week, the Jets traded Darnold to the Carolina Panthers.
On the Bills, Jake Fromm came to Buffalo in April 2020 while Mitchell Trubisky just joined the team this offseason. Davis Webb signed with the New York Jets practice squad in September of 2018 and the Bills in the following September.
For the Jets, they now have James Morgan, who was drafted in the fourth round in 2020 ahead of Fromm, plus Mike White, who signed on New Jersey’s practice squad in September 2019. He bounced on and off the active roster in 2020 with injuries to the QBs.
In New England, Cam Newton was signed a year ago while Jarrett Stidham was a fourth-round pick in 2019. Jake Dolegala, the Hamburg native and grandson of Bills’ great Al Bemiller, is also on the roster and signed with the practice squad in September 2020 and was on and off the taxi squad all season. Even if Brian Hoyer re-signs with the team, he only joined the Patriots on his most recent stint last March and is currently a free agent.
The Dolphins have Tua Tagovailoa, their top pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Reid Sinnett was signed to the practice squad in September 2020. Jacoby Brissett was signed this offseason. They are green, at least in terms of AFC East play.
Of course, Allen has a long way to go to match Tom Brady’s recent reign atop the AFC East. From April 2000 to 2019 he played in 285 regular season games over twenty seasons for the New England Patriots. Allen has
Longest-tenured AFC East QBs
- Bills’ Josh Allen (Round 1, 2018)
- Bills’ Davis Webb (September 4, 2018 with Jets, September 2, 2019 with Bills)
- Patriots’ Jarrett Stidham (Round 4 2019)
- Jets’ Mike White (September 25, 2019)
- Dolphins/ Tua Tagovailoa (Round 1, 2020)
- Jets’ James Morgan (Round 4, 2020)
- Bills’ Jake Fromm (Round 5, 2020)
- Patriots’ Cam Newton (July 8, 2020)
- Dolphins’ Reid Sinnett (September 14, 2020)
- Patriots’ Jake Dolegala (September 16, 2020/November 16, 2020)
- Bills’ Mitchell Trubisky AND Dolphins Jacoby Brissett (March 18, 2021)