2025 Cowboys will potentially face 17 quarterbacks with a combined 64 years of NFL experience

How many young QBs will the Cowboys face this season?

The Dallas Cowboys’ week two opponent, the New York Giants, traded up into the first round of the draft just a few weeks ago to select QB Jaxson Dart. The understanding in New York is that Russell Wilson is the likely starter – head coach Brian Daboll, speaking to reporters, said that Wilson “will be our starter” as they began OTAs – but the Jaxson Dart excitement is building in New York.

This week, NBCSports analyst Chris Simms said he ‘would not be shocked’ if Jaxson Dart is Giants’ Week 1 starter.

If this happens, there could be up to nine rookie or second-year quarterbacks starting in week one. The table below summarizes the QBs penciled in as the presumptive starters on the Ourlads.com depth charts (with Dart getting the nod over Wilson in New York) along with their NFL experience in years.

Greybeard Joe Flacco is the presumptive starter in Cleveland, which means the AFC North QBs have 34 years of combined NFL experience, the highest total of any division in the league. Add a potential Aaron Rodgers signing in Pittsburgh, and that number would climb to 49, clearly outpacing the NFC West (32 years) and AFC West (25).

At the other end of the spectrum, the AFC South features a rookie in Tennessee, two guys entering their third seasons in Houston and Indianapolis, and four-year veteran Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville. Combined NFL experience: eight years.

All of this got me wondering: How many young QBs will the Cowboys face this season? Turns out, a lot!

Here’s the Cowboys’ 2025 schedule, including the projected starting QBs and their respective NFL experience in years:

A lot can happen between now and Week 1, but going by the data above, the Cowboys would face seven opponents whose quarterback is either a rookie or a second-year guy. Four other teams do as well (Raiders, Giants, Eagles, and Packers), but when you add up the QB experience of each team’s opponents, the Cowboys play 17 games against quarterbacks with a combined 64 years of NFL experience, the lowest value in the league.

Notwithstanding what the Giants are trying to sell us about Jaxson Dart sitting behind Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston being “beneficial,” the days where teams would groom a young quarterback for a couple of years seem to be mostly behind us. The fact that a good quarter of the 32 starting QBs this season could end up being players with a year or less of NFL experience on opening weekend signals that the way the NFL operates has changed.

These days, young quarterbacks are thrown into the NFL waters immediately, and they either sink or swim. It’s learning by doing instead of learning by sitting. In each of the last two years, three rookie QBs started for their team on opening weekend. In 2023, 10 rookie quarterbacks started at least one game over the course of the season, setting a new NFL record.

Expectations for the young QBs in the league may be at the highest level they’ve ever been. So this is a good time to remember that Offensive Rookie of the Year performances like those from Jayden Daniels (2024) or C.J. Stroud (2023) are the exception, not the rule.

This year, three rookies could end up starting at quarterback in Week 1. Cam Ward in Tennessee looks like a lock, Tyler Shough currently looks like the favorite in New Orleans, and Jaxson Dart in New York is also a possibility.

It’s not going to be pretty for those young QBs, and a good defense will make them pay their NFL dues. Let’s hope the Cowboys are one of those defenses.