When the New York Giants announced on Wednesday that undrafted quarterback (QB) Tommy DeVito will start in Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he will become the 10th starting rookie QB in the 2023 National Football League (NFL) season, the most since 1950.

The Giants' regular starting QB Daniel Jones suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his right knee against the Las Vegas Raiders on November 5 and has been ruled out for the rest of the season. The team signed DeVito to the practice squad on August 29 and then to the active roster on October 31. He has made two NFL appearances so far. Having played longer against the Raiders, he completed 15 of his 20 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions.

Before DeVito, Clayton Tune of the Arizona Cardinals and Jaren Hall of the Minnesota Vikings became the eighth and the ninth rookie QBs respectively to start in the game. Neither performed well, but their teams had no other choice. Kyler Murray hasn't played for the Cardinals this season because of a torn ACL he suffered last December, but he was activated to the 53-man roster on Tuesday; Cousins suffered the same injury as Murray did in the game against the Green Bay Packers on November 29.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson of the Cleveland Browns and Tyson Bagent of the Chicago Bears were made the starting QBs because their teams' regular choice for the position were injured too. Deshuan Watson missed three games for the Browns and Justin Fields missed three competitions for the Bears.

However, not all teams started the backup QBs due to injuries of their regular staters. For example, the Raiders were not satisfied with the performance of Jimmy Garoppolo who led the league in interceptions. They named Aidan O'Connell the starting QB on November 1. The Tennessee Titans dealt with a similar situation with Ryan Tannehill after going through six games in which he started with four losses. Will Levis took over from him and the team announced on Tuesday that he will continue to start.

Of course, there were rookie QBs starting in their teams from the beginning since they were selected up front on the first day of the NFL Draft to be the core of the teams. Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud and Anthony Richardson were selected in the first, second and fourth place respectively by the Carolina Panthers, the Houston Texans and the Indianapolis Colts.

Young started in seven of the Panthers' eight games with a 1-6 record. Stroud did much better than Young as he helped the Texans win four of their eight games. In their 39-37 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on November 5, Stroud completed 30 of his 42 passes for 470 yards and five touchdowns. Richardson made four appearances for the Colts before he was placed on the injured reserve due to a grade three acromioclavicular joint sprain. The team won two of those four games, but he didn't necessarily perform better than Young.