The Minnesota Vikings first entered the football scene in 1961 and were fortunate to have a great quarterback right from the jump. Fran Tarkenton is the best Vikings quarterback in franchise history and he spent 13 of his 18 NFL seasons with Minnesota.
Minnesota also had some other notable names at the position such as Daunte Culpepper, Kirk Cousins, Tommy Kramer, Wade Wilson, and Brett Favre. While they had plenty of talented names at quarterback, they've unfortunately had their fair share of duds too.
Let's take a trip through each decade and revisit every quarterback to start a game for the Minnesota Vikings during that decade.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 1960 to 1969
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Fran Tarkenton (1961-1966, 1972-1978) | 77 (170) | 0 (11) |
George Shaw (1961) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Ron Vander Kelen (1963-1967) | 5 (5) | 0 (0) |
Bob Berry (1965-1967, 1973-1975) | 1 (2) | 0 (0) |
Joe Kapp (1967-1969) | 38 (38) | 4 (4) |
Gary Cuozzo (1968-1971) | 1 (21) | 0 (1) |
Fran Tarkenton was the first quarterback to start a game for the Vikings and went on to start 77 regular season games for them in their first decade of existence. The second-most regular-season starts in the 1960s belonged to Joe Kapp, who had 38 regular-season starts and four playoff starts under his belt.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 1970 to 1979
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Gary Cuozzo (1968-1971) | 20 (21) | 1 (1) |
Bob Lee (1969-1972, 1975-1978) | 11 (11) | 3 (3) |
Norm Snead (1971) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Fran Tarkenton (1961-1966, 1972-1978) | 93 (170) | 11 (11) |
Bob Berry (1965-1967, 1973-1975) | 1 (2) | 0 (0) |
Tommy Kramer (1977-1989) | 17 (110) | 0 (4) |
The Vikings had six different quarterbacks start games for them in the 1970s with all but two of them starting double-digit games. Gary Cuozzo started the decade as the starting signal-caller, eventually making way for Bob Lee and then Fran Tarkenton's return to the organization where he made 93 starts in his second stint.
The 70s closed out with Tommy Kramer taking over as the starter but he'd do most of his quarterbacking in the following decade.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 1980 to 1989
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Tommy Kramer (1977-1989) | 93 (110) | 4 (4) |
Steve Dils (1979-1984) | 15 (15) | 0 (0) |
Wade Wilson (1981-1991) | 39 (48) | 5 (5) |
Archie Manning (1983-1984) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Tony Adams (1987) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Tommy Kramer went on to start 93 regular season games and four playoff games for the Vikings in the 1980s. His 93 starts were the most of the decade by a mile with the second-most starts belonging to Wade Wilson, who started 39 games. Wilson started the most playoff games of the decade with five.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 1990 to 1999
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Rich Gannon (1987-1992) | 35 (35) | 0 (0) |
Wade Wilson (1981-1991) | 9 (48) | 0 (5) |
Sean Salisbury (1992-1994) | 9 (9) | 1 (1) |
Jim McMahon (1993) | 12 (12) | 1 (1) |
Warren Moon (1994-1996) | 39 (39) | 1 (1) |
Brad Johnson (1994-1998, 2005-2006) | 23 (46) | 1 (1) |
Randall Cunningham (1997-1999) | 23 (23) | 4 (4) |
Jeff George (1999) | 10 (10) | 2 (2) |
The 1990s kicked off with Rich Gannon quarterbacking the Vikings and he had the second-most starts of the decade. Warren Moon owned the title of most regular-season starts with 39 but Randall Cunningham owned the most playoff starts with four. All but one of the Vikings eight starting quarterbacks started at least one playoff game during the 90s.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 2000 to 2009
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Daunte Culpepper (1999-2005) | 80 (80) | 4 (4) |
Todd Bouman (2001-2002) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Spergon Wynn (2001) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Gus Frerotte (2003-2004, 2008) | 13 (13) | 0 (0) |
Brad Johnson (1994-1998, 2005-2006) | 23 (46) | 0 (1) |
Tarvaris Jackson (2006-2010) | 19 (20) | 1 (1) |
Kelly Holcomb (2007) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Brooks Bollinger (2006-2007) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Brett Favre (2009-2010) | 16 (29) | 2 (2) |
Nine different quarterbacks started games for the Vikings in the 2000s with Daunte Culpepper leading the way with 80 regular-season starts and four playoff starts. Tarvaris Jackson and Brett Favre were the only other quarterbacks to start playoff games for Minnesota during the first decade of the new millennium.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 2010 to 2019
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Brett Favre (2009-2010) | 13 (29) | 0 (2) |
Tarvaris Jackson (2006-2010) | 1 (20) | 0 (1) |
Joe Webb (2010-2013) | 4 (4) | 1 (1) |
Christian Ponder (2011-2014) | 36 (36) | 0 (0) |
Donovan McNabb (2011) | 6 (6) | 0 (0) |
Matt Cassel (2013-2014) | 9 (9) | 0 (0) |
Josh Freeman (2013) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Teddy Bridgewater (2014-2017) | 28 (28) | 1 (1) |
Sam Bradford (2016-2017) | 17 (17) | 0 (0) |
Shaun Hill (2005, 2015-2016) | 1 (1) | 0 (0) |
Case Keenum (2017) | 14 (14) | 2 (2) |
Kirk Cousins (2018-2023) | 31 (88) | 2 (3) |
Sean Mannion (2019-2021) | 1 (2) | 0 (0) |
There was a lot of quarterback rotation for the Vikings during the 2010s with 13 different signal-callers starting games. There are some solid names here, such as Brett Favre and Kirk Cousins but there are also some not-so-good names here like Joe Webb, Matt Cassel, and Josh Freeman. I mentioned Webb as one of the not-so-good of the decade but funny enough, he's one of four Vikings quarterbacks this decade to start a playoff game.
Vikings starting quarterbacks from 2020 to Present
Name (Time spent with MIN) | Starts this decade (Career starts with Vikings) | Playoff starts this decade (Career playoff starts with Vikings) |
|---|---|---|
Kirk Cousins (2018-2023) | 57 (88) | 1 (3) |
Sean Mannion (2019-2021) | 1 (2) | 0 (0) |
Joshua Dobbs (2023) | 4 (4) | 0 (0) |
Nick Mullens (2022-Present) | 3 (3) | 0 (0) |
Jaren Hall (2023-Present) | 2 (2) | 0 (0) |
Kirk Cousins started the majority of games for Minnesota in the 2020s but he departed for Atlanta following the 2023 season. The second-most starts behind Cousins' 57 are Joshua Dobbs' four starts that he made during the 2023 season when Cousins was injured.