Where are they now: All the QBs that Tom Brady faced during his 2 decades in the AFC East
- After 20 years in New England, Tom Brady left the Patriots to join the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
- The six-time Super Bowl champion is now headed to the Super Bowl with Bruce Arians’ squad.
- Now that his storied career in New England has officially come to an end, let’s take a walk down memory lane and recall all of the quarterbacks he faced on opposing AFC East teams.
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Miami Dolphins
Number of Dolphins starting quarterbacks: 18
Brady’s career record vs Dolphins: 23-12
Jay Fiedler
A career journeyman, Jay Fiedler faced off against Brady as the Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback from 2000 to 2004. He spent one more year in the league — as a backup for the New York Jets — before a shoulder injury ended his career.
These days, Fiedler operates multiple sports summer camps alongside his father and brother. He also briefly dabbled with a professional volleyball career in 2008.
Ray Lucas
After spending four seasons in the late 1990s with the New York Jets, Ray Lucas made his way to Miami to join the Dolphins. He made six starts and 17 appearances combined in the 2001 and 2002 seasons — his final two years in the league — and earned one win against Tom Brady and the Patriots in that span.
Since retiring, Lucas has worked as a studio analyst for SportsNet New York and has provided color commentary for the Rutgers Football Radio Network, covering his alma mater.
Brian Griese
Brian Griese — the son of Miami great and Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese — joined the Dolphins in 2003. He made five starts for the team — none of which came against New England — before getting released in February of the following year.
Griese finished out his career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears. He retired in 2009 and was hired by ESPN as a color commentator for the network’s college football coverage.
A.J. Feeley
A.J. Feeley’s lone season with the Miami Dolphins was sandwiched between two separate stints with the Philadelphia Eagles. He spent 2004 playing in Miami Gardens, starting eight games and appearing in both a win and a loss against the New England Patriots that season.
After returning to the Eagles a second time, Feeley briefly landed with the Carolina Panthers and later retired with the then-St. Louis Rams. He married USWNT Olympian Heather in 2010 and the couple has since had three children.
Sage Rosenfels
Sage Rosenfels was on the Miami Dolphins’ roster from 2002-2005. He made two starts in four seasons with the team and lost both games.
Rosenfels left the Dolphins for the Houston Texans for three seasons before bouncing around from the New York Giants back to Miami and to Minnesota. In 2012, the Vikings released him from their reduced roster, thereby ending his professional football career. Rosenfels has since gone on to write for The Athletic Minnesota and theScore.com. An Iowa State alum, Rosenfels also provides color commentary for his alma mater’s team on Cyclones TV.
Gus Frerotte
After 11 seasons in the NFL, Gus Frerotte landed the starting spot under center for the Miami Dolphins during the 2005 season. He led the team to a 9-6 record before departing for St. Louis during the offseason.
Frerotte finished his career with the Minnesota Vikings and later went on to coach a high school team in the St. Louis area. He’s now the president of business development at RC21X, a startup that helps monitor human performance.
Daunte Culpepper
After seven seasons with the Minnesota Vikings — six of which he spent as the team’s first-string quarterback — Daunte Culpepper demanded a trade. He landed with Miami and, despite starting four games for the team, struggled both with a lingering knee injury and with then-head coach Nick Saban.
He left the Dolphins after that season and bounced around to multiple teams before retiring, returning to the NFL, playing in the UFL, and finally ending his professional football career in 2011. Culpepper had some well-documented financial struggles after moving on from the gridiron and even lost his home. He currently lives in Florida.
Joey Harrington
Joey Harrington made 11 starts for the Miami Dolphins in 2006 — his lone season with the franchise — and recorded a win and a loss against Tom Brady’s New England Patriots.
Harrington left Miami to join the Atlanta Falcons, but from there, he spent the remainder of his career as a back-up quarterback. After leaving the field for good, Harrington moved into broadcasting and held roles with Oregon Sports Network, FOX Sports, and KGW Television.
Cleo Lemon
Though he signed with a handful of NFL teams, Cleo Lemon only found the field with the Miami Dolphins. He started eight games for the franchise between 2006 and 2007 and lost two of those games to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Lemon did not find success in the NFL after departing Miami in 2008, so he took his talents to the CFL beginning in 2010. He started for the Toronto Argonauts for two seasons before the team released him. From there, Lemon moved home to his native Mississippi, and after landing a few training and coaching gigs, he became the quarterbacks coach for the Jacksonville State Gamecocks.
Chad Pennington
After eight years with the New York Jets, Chad Pennington joined one of his former team’s division rivals in the Miami Dolphins. He had a stellar first season with the team in 2008, earning MVP consideration and winning the league’s Comeback Player of the Year award for the second time in his career.
Injuries derailed his professional career from there, and he eventually left the gridiron for good in 2011. He moved to Kentucky with his wife and three sons and now coaches the Sayre School’s football team. He also breeds bulls, some of which have even appeared at the PBR Finals.
Chad Henne
Though he joined the Dolphins out of Michigan in 2008, Chad Henne didn’t become Miami’s primary starter until 2009. He started 27 games for the team between that year and the next, but lost the top spot after sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury four games into the 2011 season.
The Dolphins chose not to resign Henne, and he left for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2012. He later signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a back up to Patrick Mahomes and resigned with the team in 2020.
Tyler Thigpen
Tyler Thigpen made one start for the Miami Dolphins in his two seasons with the team. He appeared in one game against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and the Dolphins lost.
Thigpen later played for the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns. His time in the league came to an end in 2014, and he was arrested for driving under the influence down in South Carolina later that year.
Matt Moore
The Miami Dolphins signed Matt Moore as a back up for Chad Henne back in 2011, but after Henne went down with a shoulder injury relatively early in the season, Moore stepped up into the starting role. He’d return to his back up role for the next six seasons, making a handful of starts in 2016 and 2017.
Moore spent the 2018 season off of the gridiron but signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a backup in August of the next year. Moore is a free agent heading into the 2020 season, and it’s unclear whether or not he’ll rejoin the Chiefs.
Ryan Tannehill
Ryan Tannehill spent the 2012-18 seasons as the primary starter for the Miami Dolphins. He led the team to a winning record in just one of those six seasons and went 4-7 against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
The Dolphins traded Tannehill to the Tennessee Titans during the offseason in 2019. He went on to overtake Marcus Mariota as their starter and eventually led the team to a surprise playoff run. He signed a four-year extension with the Titans for $118 million following his Comeback Player of the Year season.
Jay Cutler
After eight years in Chicago, Jay Cutler retired from professional football and agreed to become a commentator for FOX Sports. But mere months later, the Miami Dolphins reached out to the veteran QB after Ryan Tannehill suffered a season-ending injury. He agreed to a one-year, $10 million deal and started 14 games for the Dolphins, the most impressive of which came in a stunning upset over Tom Brady and the Patriots in Week 14.
Nowadays, Cutler can be spotted on his wife’s reality television show — “Very Cavallari” — or making spot appearances as a bartender.
Brock Osweiler
Brock Osweiler signed with the Miami Dolphins before the 2018 season. He started five games — and won two — after Ryan Tannehill suffered a shoulder injury.
Osweiler was a free agent in 2019 and, after remaining unsigned midway through the season, announced his retirement from the NFL.
Josh Rosen
Just one year after the Arizona Cardinals selected him with the 10th overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Josh Rosen was traded to the Miami Dolphins. He backed up Ryan Fitzpatrick to start the 2019 season, made a few starts in the middle of the year, and then once again was relegated to the backup spot in Week 6.
Rosen remains on the Dolphins’ roster, but he’s likely to back up Fitzpatrick or whomever Miami selects in the 2020 Draft.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
One of the most beloved career journeymen in the league at present, Ryan Fitzpatrick signed with the Miami Dolphins prior to the 2019 season. He had already played for two of the Dolphins’ division rivals in the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills. The Harvard product split starting responsibilities with Josh Rosen in 2019 before earning the top spot permanently midway through the season. In the last game of the year, Fitzpatrick led the Dolphins to a shocking upset of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on the road.
It remains to be seen whether Fitzpatrick or Miami’s first-round draft pick — who is likely to be a quarterback — earns the starting nod under center next season.
Buffalo Bills
Number of Bills starting quarterbacks: 18
Brady’s career record vs Bills: 32-3
Rob Johnson
Rob Johnson split starting quarterback responsibilities for the Buffalo Bills from 1998 to 2001, so he briefly overlapped with Tom Brady at the helm of an AFC franchise. He famously feuded with fellow QB Doug Flutie over the starting role in Buffalo and found consistent work in the NFL until 2003 before stepping away for good in 2008.
Johnson worked as an assistant football coach at Mission Viejo High School under his father, head coach Bob Johnson, and alongside his brother, fellow assistant coach Bret Johnson, following his NFL departure. The trio also ran a camp for quarterbacks.
Alex Van Pelt
Alex Van Pelt briefly faced off against Tom Brady at the beginning of the future great’s career. Van Pelt started for the Bills for much of the 2001 season and played some snaps for Buffalo in 2002 and 2003.
After his career came to an end, Van Pelt went into coaching. He was named offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns before the 2020 NFL season.
Drew Bledsoe
After losing his longtime starting role with the New England Patriots to none other than Tom Brady, Drew Bledsoe spent the 2002-04 seasons competing against him in the AFC East as starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.
Bledsoe finished out his career with the Dallas Cowboys and then moved home to Washington state to start a winery, now known as one of the region’s best.
J.P. Losman
J.P. Losman spent the 2004-08 seasons with the Buffalo Bills but reached his peak when he started every game for the franchise in 2006.
Losman spent a season in the UFL before enjoying brief stints with the then-Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins to round out his professional football career. Losman has since joined the Clemson Tigers’ coaching staff as an offensive analyst.
Kelly Holcomb
Kelly Holcomb spent just one year in Buffalo. He started eight games for the Bills during the 2005 season and faced off against Tom Brady and the Patriots once in that span. The Bills lost.
Since retiring from the NFL in 2008, Holcomb has spent time coaching high schoolers in his home state of Tennessee.
Trent Edwards
Trent Edwards started for the Buffalo Bills during the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons. He lost his starting spot under center after struggling in the first two games of the 2010 season.
Edwards bounced around the league for the remainder of the year before landing with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2012. From there, he had brief stints with the Chicago Bears and Oakland Raiders but eventually left the league for good in 2014. According to his LinkedIn, he went on to get an MBA at the University of Miami before co-founding Strivr — a company that provides employees with training via virtual reality.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
One of the most beloved career journeymen in the league at present, Ryan Fitzpatrick spent 2009-2012 as the starting quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.
The Harvard product is now entering his second season with the Miami Dolphins — his eighth career team.
Brian Brohm
Brian Brohm spent two years with the Buffalo Bills, starting two games and appearing in another over the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
He left the NFL and played in the UFL and CFL in subsequent years. In 2016, he joined his brother’s coaching staff at Western Kentucky and, shortly after his brother was named head coach at Purdue, Brohm joined his staff for the Boilermakers. As of 2020, he was a co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the team.
EJ Manuel
A product of Florida State, EJ Manuel started 10 games for the Bills as a rookie before injuries and inconsistencies derailed his career. He made just seven starts for Buffalo over the next three seasons before spending the 2017 season backing up Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders.
After a brief stint with the Kansas City Chiefs — in which he never saw the field — Manuel officially retired from the NFL and joined the ACC Network as a broadcaster.
Thad Lewis
Thad Lewis spent the 2013 season in Buffalo, starting five games for the Bills and facing off against Tom Brady’s Patriots once. Lewis threw for 247 yards and a touchdown in the loss.
He left the Bills for the Houston Texans the following season before signing with and later getting released by multiple other NFL franchises. He last found himself on an NFL roster in 2017 and has switched over to coaching. Lewis has been an offensive analyst for the UCLA Bruins since January of 2018, per his LinkedIn.
Jeff Tuel
Jeff Tuel was a third-string quarterback for the Buffalo Bills in 2013 and 2014. He made one start for the team and never faced the Patriots.
He spent some time with the Jacksonville Jaguars before his NFL career came to a close. According to his LinkedIn, Tuel is now a Vice President of Sales at Greenbrier Holdings, a medical and recreational cannabis company.
Kyle Orton
Kyle Orton spent the last season of his nine-year career in Buffalo. Though he initially signed as a backup for EJ Manuel, the Bills named him QB1 in Week 5 of the 2014 season and remained under center for the rest of the year.
He retired from the NFL in December of that year and has since spent time working with high school players down in Louisiana.
Tyrod Taylor
Tyrod Taylor was a backup quarterback in Baltimore for four seasons before joining the Bills in 2015. He started under center in Buffalo for three seasons and led the Bills to their first playoff berth in nearly two decades in 2017.
Taylor was traded to the Cleveland Browns that offseason and then took his talents to Los Angeles to backup the Chargers’ Philip Rivers. With Rivers’ move to the Indianapolis Colts before the 2020 season, Taylor is primed to take on a larger role for his fourth career team.
Matt Cassel
Matt Cassel only spent a few weeks with the Buffalo Bills. He took the first snap of the team’s 2015 season opener, as starter Tyrod Taylor lined up at wide receiver. By the end of September, Cassel was traded to the Dallas Cowboys.
He finished off the season in Texas before taking his talents to Tennessee and eventually finishing his career in Detroit with the Lions. He’s since become a television analyst for NBC Sports Boston.
Nathan Peterman
Nathan Peterman made two starts in each of the two seasons — 2017 and 2018 — he played for the Buffalo Bills. In his eight total appearances with the team, he suffered two losses to the New England Patriots.
The Bills released Peterman towards the end of the 2018 season, and he signed with the now-Las Vegas Raiders a few months later.
Derek Anderson
Derek Anderson lost both of his two starts for the Bills in 2018 — one of which came against Tom Brady and the Patriots.
The seasoned QB had spent 13 seasons in the NFL prior to joining Buffalo that year, and he retired at the end of the season. According to his LinkedIn profile, Anderson is now based out of Scottsdale, Arizona, and, as a self-described “golf lover,” is presumably spending his time hitting the links.
Matt Barkley
Matt Barkley bounced around the league before joining the Buffalo Bills in 2018. He appeared in three games over the next two seasons — including a loss against Tom Brady’s Patriots — and remains on the Bills’ roster as a backup for Josh Allen.
Josh Allen
Buffalo Bills fans hope that Josh Allen — the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft — and his tremendous arm will lead the Bills to a playoff win for the first time since 1995.
New York Jets
Number of Jets starting quarterbacks: 16
Brady’s career record vs Jets: 29-7
Vinny Testaverde
Another career journeyman, Vinny Testaverde spent seven years — 1998-2004 and 2006 — with the New Jersey Jets, many of which involved facing off against Tom Brady twice per season. He split starting quarterback responsibilities for much of that span.
Testaverde retired in 2007, but now his son is embarking on a professional football career of his own. In addition to helping Vincent Jr. navigate that terrain, the elder Testaverde told the Jets that he has become “an active investor in different things. I’ve been in some restaurant deals with some big companies that have gone well and it has helped me to stay retired.”
Chad Pennington
Chad Pennington spent his entire career facing off against Brady in the AFC East — first with the Jets for eight seasons and then with the Miami Dolphins for another three.
Pennington has enjoyed quite a unique life post-retirement. He co-founded a bull-breeding stable in Oklahoma and has even brought some to the PBR Finals. Additionally, Pennington is the head football coach for a Kentucky high school.
Quincy Carter
Though he never got a start against Brady and the Patriots, Quincy Carter had a brief stint with the Jets in 2004.
Carter’s professional football career fizzled out when he was cut by the Dallas Cowboys later that year after failing a drug test for marijuana use. The former QB has since gone to rehab and now resides in north Austin, Texas, to become a high school coach, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Brooks Bollinger
Brooks Bollinger played 12 total games in his two-year tenure with the Jets in the mid-2000s. He became the quarterbacks coach at the University of Pittsburgh shortly after retiring from the NFL. Later, he became the head coach at a high school in the Minneapolis area but chose to distance himself from football to pursue a career in finance, per the Jets.
Kellen Clemens
Kellen Clemens only started nine games in his five seasons with the Jets from 2006-2010. He later spent three years with the then-St. Louis Rams and another four with the San Diego-turn-Los-Angeles Chargers before retiring.
In an article published in early 2019, Clemens said: “I’m just enjoying getting back into small-town life, coaching my son’s AAU basketball team, reading books from Dynamic Catholic, and helping to home school the kids.”
Brett Favre
Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre is best known for his 16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, but he spent the 2008 NFL season in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with the New York Jets. That year, Favre and the Jets lost to Brady’s Patriots at home before beating them in overtime at Gillette Stadium later in the season.
Favre spent the following two seasons back in the NFC North with the Minnesota Vikings before calling it a career. Since then, Favre has spent his time traveling, hosting a radio show, coaching high school football, watching his daughter play high school and now college volleyball, filming TV commercials, and more, per Packers News.
Mark Sanchez
Mark Sanchez spent the first four seasons of his career starting for the New York Jets. Though he may just be most well known for his infamous butt fumble, Sanchez did lead the Jets to a surprising victory against the Patriots in their 2010 AFC Divisional Round playoff game at Gillette Stadium.
Nowadays, you can find Sanchez on ABC as a studio analyst for college football. He also regularly appears on ESPN shows, including “College Football Live,” “Get Up!” and “SportsCenter.”
Greg McElroy
Greg McElroy only played one NFL season, in 2012, and only appeared in two games in that span. Neither of his appearances came against Brady and the Patriots.
After his short-lived career in the NFL came to a close, the former Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback joined the SEC Network as an analyst.
Geno Smith
Geno Smith spent four seasons — from 2013-2016 — with the Jets, starting the majority of games in his first two seasons in New York.
Smith last started a game for the New York Giants in 2017, but he’s currently a backup for Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks.
Michael Vick
Atlanta Falcons-turned-Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Michael Vick found himself in East Rutherford, New Jersey, for one lackluster season with the Jets. He only started three games that year, none of which came against the New England Patriots.
After officially retiring from the NFL in 2017, Vick briefly coached the Atlanta franchise of the short-lived Alliance of American Football. He’s also worked as an NFL Analyst for FOX’s coverage of the Eagles.
Ryan Fitzpatrick
One of the most beloved career journeymen in the league at present, Ryan Fitzpatrick spent 2015 and 2016 as the starting quarterback for the New York Jets — two years after leaving their division rival Buffalo Bills.
The Harvard product is now entering his second season with the Miami Dolphins — his eighth career team.
Bryce Petty
In 2016 and 2017, Bryce Petty made a combined seven starts for the New York Jets. He twice saw the field against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in that span and lost both contests.
Pretty briefly spent time with the Miami Dolphins in 2018, but never saw the field.
Josh McCown
Another career journeyman, Josh McCown spent the 2017 and 2018 seasons with the New York Jets. He started 13 games in that first year with the Jets before backing up rookie Sam Darnold for the majority of 2018.
McCown is a backup for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Trevor Siemian
Trevor Siemian entered the season as back up for Sam Darnold, but once the Jets’ QB1 fell ill with mononucleosis, Siemian stepped up. The fourth-year quarterback’s starting stint was shortlived, however, as he tore ligaments in his ankle and was sidelined for the season after his first start.
Siemian is still on the Jets’ roster.
Luke Falk
After starting the 2019 NFL season as the Jets’ third option under center, Luke Falk found himself starting two games after Sam Darnold fell ill and Trevor Siemian suffered an injury. He made his first career start against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots and lost.
He was released by the Jets midseason and is a free agent heading into the 2020 season.
Sam Darnold
Selected with the third-overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, Sam Darnold is the current starter for the New York Jets and widely seen as the future of the franchise.
Indianapolis Colts
Number of Colts starting quarterbacks (while in AFC East): 1
Brady’s career record vs Colts (while in AFC East): 23-12
Peyton Manning
Before either Tom Brady or Peyton Manning became two of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game, the high-achieving tandem faced off against one another as conference foes. Manning’s Indianapolis Colts competed in the AFC East against Brady for two years before moving to the AFC South as part of the 2002 realignment.
Manning retired after winning Super Bowl 50 with the Denver Broncos in 2015. Since then, the 14-time Pro Bowler has mostly laid low. He’s starred in an ESPN+ show about NFL history titled “Peyton’s Places” while fielding incessant speculation about a future in coaching, franchise ownership, or broadcasting.
Now check out how Brady and Gisele Bündchen spend their money:
Tom Brady is leaving the Patriots. Here’s how the quarterback and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen make and spend their millions.
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