General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Quarterback (2023 TV series)

Quarterback is an American sports documentary series that premiered on Netflix on July 12, 2023, following NFL quarterbacks on and off the field from the beginning of a season to its conclusion. It was Netflix's first partnership with the NFL, announced on February 22, 2023, and is produced by NFL Films, Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions, and Patrick Mahomes' 2PM Productions.¹^•² Each season covers a different group of quarterbacks and a different NFL season, and the series has run for three seasons totaling 22 episodes.³

Key fact	Detail
Premiere	July 12, 2023, on Netflix; eight-episode first season⁴
Season 1 subjects	Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs), Kirk Cousins (Minnesota Vikings), and Marcus Mariota (Atlanta Falcons) through the 2022 season¹
Unprecedented access	For the first time, the NFL allowed quarterbacks to be mic'd up for every single game of a season¹
Producers	NFL Films, Omaha Productions, and 2PM Productions; executive producers include Peyton Manning, Ross Ketover, Pat Kelleher, and Keith Cossrow²
Season 2	Released July 8, 2025; seven episodes following Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Kirk Cousins through the 2024-25 season⁵
Season 3	Released July 14, 2026; seven episodes following four quarterbacks across the 2025 season: Joe Flacco, Baker Mayfield, Cam Ward, and Jayden Daniels⁶
Season 1 viewership	12.7 million views on Netflix in the back half of 2023⁷
Rating and recognition	TV-MA; season 1 scored 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer; Emmy winner, Outstanding Sports Documentary Series: Serialized²^•⁸^•⁹

Spoilers

Season 1 (2023)

The first season followed Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota through the 2022 NFL season, from its beginning to its conclusion.¹ The season followed three separate storylines: Mahomes, despite playing on an injured ankle, broke the NFL's single-season total offense record while capturing both the league's and the Super Bowl's MVP honors; Cousins staged the biggest rally in NFL history, guided Minnesota to the NFC North crown, and then fell in the playoffs; and Mariota, a first-year Falcon, was displaced as the starter by rookie Desmond Ridder.¹^•¹¹

Access and limits. The three quarterbacks wore a microphone during practice once per week and during every game of the season, the first such arrangement the NFL had permitted, and each player was assigned a different director coordinating shoots that extended into their personal lives.¹³ The access had boundaries. Kansas City coach Andy Reid allowed filming on the condition that his private meetings with Mahomes stay off camera, and Manning said he promised every subject that anything they did not want in the series would not appear.¹⁴ Because Mahomes' 2PM Productions co-produced the show, the quarterback also had some say over the final cut.¹⁴

The season shows the position's physical and mental demands alongside home life: Cousins using a recorder app to memorize third-down plays and recovering in cold tubs and chiropractic sessions, Mahomes studying film of his own performances and his opponents' tendencies, and both Mahomes and Mariota preparing for mid-season births of children.¹¹^•¹³^•¹⁴

Format

Each season is an anthology built around one NFL season and a small group of starting quarterbacks. Cameras follow the players inside the huddle with teammates and inside their homes with their families, from the season's opening weeks through the playoffs.¹ Episodes run roughly 43 to 56 minutes, and the show carries a TV-MA rating.¹⁰

The series positions itself around the quarterback's singular role. Showrunner Joe Zucco, an NFL Films supervising producer, described the premise as a position where "no other position impacts a game in a professional sport like the quarterback does," with three subjects at different career stages filmed every game of the season.¹¹ Executive producer Peyton Manning framed the appeal in similar terms: viewers had seen quarterbacks mic'd up for a single game, but never followed through an entire season to see what they do on Sunday nights and on their Monday and Tuesday off days.¹²

Production

The series originated in a partnership between Netflix and the NFL announced in February 2023, with Manning and Omaha Productions helping secure the quarterbacks and the access.¹^•¹¹ The directors had spent years working on NFL Films' television series Hard Knocks, but the Netflix show aims for a more intimate feel, and in-season interviews were conducted at critical junctures rather than weekly.¹¹^•¹⁵

Participation is not automatic. Baker Mayfield, a season 3 subject, revealed that he held veto power over his footage, and said that a conversation with Manning and other quarterbacks who had been through the process persuaded him to take part.¹⁶ He and his wife even filmed a gender reveal with the crew.¹⁷

Later seasons

Between seasons 1 and 2, the same production group made Receiver, a companion series following Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, and Amon-Ra St. Brown through the 2023 season.⁵

Season 2 (2025). Announced in March 2025 and released July 8, 2025, the second season followed Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Kirk Cousins through the 2024-25 season. Cousins returned after signing a four-year, $180 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons that included $100 million guaranteed, and was benched late in the season as rookie Michael Penix started the final three games. Burrow led the league with 4,918 passing yards and 43 touchdowns, and Goff was an AP NFL MVP finalist after leading Detroit to a 15-2 record and the NFC's No. 1 seed.⁵^•¹⁸

Season 3 (2026). The third season, released July 14, 2026, expanded to four quarterbacks across the 2025 NFL season: Joe Flacco, traded midseason from Cleveland to Cincinnati; Baker Mayfield of Tampa Bay; Tennessee Titans rookie Cam Ward, the No. 1 overall pick; and Jayden Daniels of Washington.⁶^•¹⁹

Reception

Season 1 scored 89% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from nine reviews, with critics singling out Mahomes as the season's central draw.⁸ Netflix reported 12.7 million views for the season in the back half of 2023, against 7.5 million for Receiver in the comparable window a year later, and the series ranked among Netflix's top-streamed series of 2023.⁷^•¹⁸ The series later won the Emmy for Outstanding Sports Documentary Series, Serialized.⁹ Not all reviews were positive; one early assessment called the debut episode glossy but bland and compared the show unfavorably to Hard Knocks.²⁰

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026