KANSAS CITY, Mo. – For years, sportswriters contacted Black quarterback pioneers James “Shack” Harris and Doug Williams, seeking comment each time a young, African American passer led a team to the NFL playoffs for the first time.

Aware of the cultural significance of Black men thriving at the most important position in sports – a position that, historically, was off limits to them – the journalists gained insight and context from Harris and Williams about a seismic shift occurring on the field.

Then, suddenly, reporters stopped calling. So many Black men have become star QBs, Williams explained, their rise to the top of the league is no longer a novelty.

“What you have now is that they’re part of the fabric of the game,” Williams told Andscape recently. “When you look across the league today, you see these guys are everywhere, leading their teams to the playoffs, [to the] Super Bowl, winning [awards] … it’s just obvious. What you’ve got is a new day. It’s not going back, so everybody just needs to get used to it.”

Welcome to the Era of the Black Quarterback.

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson warms up before a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium on Aug. 9 in Baltimore

AP Photo/Elise Amendola

As the NFL this week prepares to kick off its 105th season with the Kansas City Chiefs playing host to the Baltimore Ravens in Thursday’s season opener, African American passers now run the most successful and powerful league in professional sports. Sidelined until relatively recently because of racism, players who once supposedly lacked the smarts and leadership skills to play the position are excelling on the strength of their intellect, determination and physical gifts. They’re seizing opportunities while standing on the shoulders of Harris, Williams and other trailblazers. What’s more, the unprecedented reordering of things on the field has forced the NFL to adjust off of it writ large, because influential Black quarterbacks are Black men first.

Among active QBs, Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs stands alone.

At only 28, Mahomes is not only the face of the game, he’s also already an all-time great. With a playoff mark of 15-3, he trails only Tom Brady and Joe Montana, who have 35 and 16 postseason victories, respectively, on the career list.

Mahomes is a two-time Associated Press NFL MVP, and both a three-time Super Bowl winner and a three-time Super Bowl MVP. Last season, the Chiefs became the first team since the New England Patriots in 2004 and 2005 to win back-to-back Super Bowl championships (no team in the Super Bowl era has won three straight titles).

For the second time in five seasons, Lamar Jackson, 27, of the Ravens won the AP MVP Award. Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud, 22, the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year, is widely regarded as one of the league’s best newcomers in years. Cleveland Browns three-time Pro Bowler Deshaun Watson, 28, has the biggest guaranteed contract in NFL history. After his breakout first season as a starter, Jordan Love, 25, of the Green Bay Packers received an NFL record $75 million signing bonus as part of his new deal. Additionally, in the last two seasons, African American signal-callers were selected first- and second-team AP All-Pro.

And there’s no shortage of talent in the pipeline.

During each of the past two NFL drafts, Black QBs were selected first overall, and three were picked in the opening round. On the ESPN 300 ranking of high school football players in the class of 2025, the top two spots are occupied by Black QBs.

There have been 88 NFL drafts (the league’s first was in 1936), during which only 31 Black passers were selected in the first round, and none were until Williams finally kicked down the door in 1978. But 19 have been chosen since 2011, including one in every draft except 2016 and 2022.

Black quarterbacks starting on opening day this season

An NFL record 15 Black quarterbacks will open the NFL season behind center, breaking the previous mark of 14 Week 1 starters set in the 2023-24 season.

Jacoby Brissett (New England Patriots)
Jayden Daniels (Washington Commanders)
Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles)
Lamar Jackson (Baltimore Ravens)
Jordan Love (Green Bay Packers)
Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs)
Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals)
Dak Prescott (Dallas Cowboys)
Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis Colts)
Geno Smith (Seattle Seahawks)
C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans)
Deshaun Watson (Cleveland Browns)
Caleb Williams (Chicago Bears)
Russell Wilson (Pittsburgh Steelers)
Bryce Young (Carolina Panthers)

From the grassroots level up, the structure is in place for Black quarterbacks to have a long reign, renowned quarterback coach Quincy Avery told Andscape.

“For the first time, we’ve seen a generation of Black kids who have gotten the opportunity to play quarterback since they were seven, eight years old,” said Avery, who counts Cleveland’s Watson and Jalen Hurts, 26, runner-up for the 2022-23 AP MVP award, of the Philadelphia Eagles among his clients.

“When they were the best athletes on the field in the past, they were told, ‘No. You can’t be the quarterback.’ It was just understood. But no longer. Now, there are no limitations on them. Since they were kids, they’ve expected to get the opportunities to play.

“So when we turn on our TVs today, we’re seeing this generation that has benefited from knowing they have always been quarterbacks and would be quarterbacks all the way up the line. And the kids who are coming behind them, they now see a league full of Black quarterbacks with more on the way.”

In this Jan. 31, 1988, photo, Washington Redskins (now Commanders) quarterback Doug Williams throws a pass in Super Bowl XXII against the Denver Broncos in San Diego.

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

The influx of talent over the past decade is evident by who’s atop NFL depth charts.

Of the league’s 32 teams, 15 are projected to have Black starting quarterbacks — a record that eclipses last season’s record of 14. That group includes 10 former first-round picks. The AFC North is a haven for Black exceptionalism at the position: Three of the division’s four teams (Baltimore, Cleveland and the Pittsburgh Steelers) have African Americans listed as starters and primary backups.

Years ago, Williams saw into the future.

The first Black passer to start in the Super Bowl and be selected the game’s MVP, Williams shattered racists myths while leading the then-Washington Redskins to a 42-10 victory over the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII. Williams envisioned a day when at least half of the NFL’s teams would be led by quarterbacks of color, “but it’s even happening faster than I thought,” Williams said. “You have so many talented guys coming from college, and these teams can’t [pass on] anyone who can play this game and help them win. It’s not like before, when most guys had to change positions if they wanted to play in the NFL.”

What changed?

It’s simple: green finally trumped Black.

As the NFL’s revenue grew to billions of dollars annually, it became a league in which coaches and general managers have deals that pay out many millions annually in salary, bonuses and perks. For that type of investment in their football people, franchise owners expect big results. Quickly. Over time, it became untenable for coaches to force talented college QBs to move to other positions solely because of one’s degree of melanin.

As a player and as an NFL player-personnel executive, Harris had an outsized role in spurring positive change. The trailblazer holds the distinction of being the first Black quarterback to start in a season opener during the modern era of major pro football in the United States. Harris also became the first Black signal-caller to start in and win a playoff game.

After his playing days ended, Harris made a long, steady climb from being a scout to a front-office official for several clubs. Harris helped build the Baltimore Ravens’ 2001 Super Bowl championship team. He was the vice president of player personnel for the Jacksonville Jaguars. In 2015, Harris retired from his role as a senior personnel adviser with the Detroit Lions.

Whenever Harris watches NFL games these days, a sense of pride washes over him “because there are just so many of these young guys doing great things all over the league now …  and it makes you feel like everything you went through may have just helped move the ball along a little,” Harris told Andscape. “We’ve seen this building for a while now, we’ve seen years where there was [significant] progress, but not like this. This is new.”

During the 2019-2020 season, Black players at the position accomplished more than they had at any point previously. Of course, that season could have been a one-off. Williams’ myth-busting Super Bowl performance in 1988, for example, didn’t result in an immediate leveling of the playing field. NFL decision-makers still weren’t convinced that Black men were the future at quarterback.