In the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 the quarterback is the only position player to be credited with a record of wins and losses as a starter. At the time of the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, Johnny Unitas

Johnny Unitas

John Constantine Unitas , known as Johnny Unitas or "Johnny U", and nicknamed "The Golden Arm", was a professional American football player in the 1950s through the 1970s, spending the majority of his career with the Baltimore Colts. He was a record-setting quarterback, and the National Football...

 held the record for most regular season wins as a starting quarterback with 103. He retired after the 1973 season with 118 wins, and was later surpassed by Fran Tarkenton

Fran Tarkenton

Francis Asbury "Fran" Tarkenton is a former professional football player, TV personality, and computer software executive....

 with 124 in 1978. John Elway

John Elway

John Albert Elway, Jr. is a former American football quarterback and currently is the executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He played college football at Stanford and his entire professional career with the Denver Broncos...

 moved ahead of Tarkenton during the 1996 season, and retired after the 1998 season with 148 wins. During the 2007 regular season, Brett Favre

Brett Favre

Brett Lorenzo Favre is a former American football quarterback who spent the majority of his career with the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League . He was a 20-year veteran of the NFL, having played quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons , Green Bay Packers , New York Jets and Minnesota...

 surpassed Elway to become the starting quarterback

Quarterback

Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...

 with the most wins in NFL history, and his record stands at 186 wins through the 2010 season. This is a list of quarterbacks with the most regular season wins by a starting quarterback in NFL history; playoff games are not included.

All quarterbacks in NFL history (career begin post-1949)

Updated through the 2011 season in progress (regular season only; top 50):

Bold denotes an active player

All quarterbacks in NFL history (career begin pre-1950)

(regular season only; stats prior to 1950 are estimated; minimum estimated wins required as indicated in official top 50 list above):

Other active quarterbacks