Where Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold fits among Super Bowl QBs

by · The Seattle Times

While everyone spent much of the year talking about what Sam Darold isn’t, we now know definitively what he is — a quarterback good enough to lead a team to a Super Bowl.

That was the question hovering over Darnold until Jan. 25, when he played a near-flawless game in leading the Seahawks to a 31-27 win over the Los Angeles Rams to capture the NFC championship.

Getting to a Super Bowl allows him to step into rarefied NFL air.

When Darnold and New England’s Drake Maye each take their first snaps Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, they will become the 68th and 69th quarterbacks to start a Super Bowl in the game’s 60-year history.

The goal for both is to become the 36th quarterback to win one and enter NFL immortality.

Of the quarterbacks to get to at least one Super Bowl without winning, more than a few are among the greats of the game, including Hall of Famers Dan Marino (Miami, 1985), Jim Kelly (Buffalo 1991-94) and Fran Tarkenton (Minnesota, 1974-75, 1977).

Those three at least got there.

Hall of Famers Warren Moon and Dan Fouts played their entire careers during the Super Bowl era and never got there.

Others who got to at least one Super Bowl without winning include players who would at least be considered in the Hall of Very Good, such as Ken Anderson (Cincinnati, 1982), Boomer Esiason (Cincinnati, 1989), former WSU star Drew Bledsoe (New England, 1997), Cam Newton (Carolina, 2016), Matt Ryan (Atlanta, 2017) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati, 2022).

But the list of QBs to get to and never win a Super Bowl include players that fans who aren’t at least semi-serious about football might already have forgotten such as Vince Ferragamo (Rams, 1980), David Woodley (Miami, 1983), Tony Eason (New England, 1986), Stan Humphries (San Diego, 1995), Neil O’Donnell (Pittsburgh, 1996), Kerry Collins (Giants, 2001), Rich Gannon (Raiders, 2003), Jake Delhomme (Carolina, 2005) and Rex Grossman (Bears, 2007).

Darnold is just 28 and the Seahawks are a young team that appears positioned to be good for a long time.

So maybe this won’t be his only shot.

But Super Bowl history is littered with losing quarterbacks who figured they’d get another chance and never did, maybe most notably Marino, who set a handful of passing records when he led Miami to the big game in his second season and never got back before retiring following the 1999 season.

But enough with the history of losing Super Bowl QBs.

Looking at the list of those who have won the big game got us thinking: Is there one who serves as a good comparison for Darnold, who finally got to the Super Bowl while playing for his fifth team in eight seasons after entering the league as the third overall pick?

Let’s first review the list of Super Bowl winners in order of the number of titles they’ve won:

7 — Tom Brady (New England, 6; Tampa Bay 1).

4 — Joe Montana (San Francisco), Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh).

3 — Troy Aikman (Dallas), Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City).

2 — Peyton Manning (Indianapolis, Denver), Eli Manning (New York Giants), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh), John Elway (Denver), Jim Plunkett (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders), Bob Griese (Miami), Roger Staubach (Dallas), Bart Starr (Green Bay).

1 — Joe Namath (New York Jets), Len Dawson (Kansas City), Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts), Ken Stabler (Oakland), Joe Theismann (Washington), Jim McMahon (Chicago), Phil Simms (New York Giants), Doug Williams (Washington), Jeff Hostetler (New York Giants), Mark Rypien (Washington), Steve Young (San Francisco), Brett Favre (Green Bay), Kurt Warner (St. Louis Rams), Trent Dilfer (Baltimore), Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay), Drew Brees (New Orleans), Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay), Joe Flacco (Baltimore), Russell Wilson (Seattle), Nick Foles (Philadelphia), Matthew Stafford (Los Angeles Rams) and Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia).

Of the 13 QBs who won multiple Super Bowl titles, one sort of fits the Darnold mold — Plunkett.

Plunkett won the Heisman Trophy at Stanford in 1970 and was the first overall pick of 1971 draft, with the New England Patriots.

After a few decent years there — he was second in the 1971 Rookie of the Year balloting — his career bottomed out with a trade to the 49ers and after two rough injury-riddled seasons there he was released at the age of 30. He was signed by the Raiders, where he spent his first two seasons backing up Ken Stabler, throwing only a combined 15 passes.

A trade of Stabler and an injury to Dan Pastorini opened the door for Plunkett at age 33 to finally reveal the potential everyone thought he had, leading the Raiders to a Super Bowl title in 1980, and at age 36 doing so again in 1983 before age and injuries finally took their toll.

Plunkett might not be a perfect template since he did have a modicum of success early with the Patriots before his travels began, unlike Darnold, whose three years with the Jets never got off the launchpad.

The other 12 multiple winners, all won their first Super Bowl with the team they first entered the league (some moved on later in their careers).

Of the 22 one-time winners, 14 won it with their initial NFL team, including Hall of Famers (or sure-to-be HOFers) such as Namath, Dawson, Unitas, Stabler, Rodgers, Brees — and dare we say Russell Wilson?

Of the eight who won Super Bowls after playing for at least one other team, a couple are HOFs such as Favre, Young and Warner, who each hit it big with their second teams.

Dilfer, Williams and Foles each won SBs in years they began as the backup QB before taking over for either a struggling starter or an injured one (Hostetler did the same, taking over for an injured Simms, but he had always been a Giant to that point).

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So, they don’t fit the Darnold template.

Neither does Stafford, who obviously has had a long, productive career with Detroit before being dealt to the Rams and winning one.

Johnson sort of fits in terms of winning a Super Bowl with his third team and in his ninth year.

But he doesn’t in another key way — he entered the league with Minnesota as the 227th overall pick of the 1992 draft, not figured to be much more than a backup QB, not starting a game until his fifth year in the league.

There is one player who started a Super Bowl and won a Super Bowl ring as a quarterback who might best fit the Darnold template, though that player did not win the same Super Bowl he started — Earl Morrall.

Like Darnold, Morrall was a high pick — No. 2 overall in 1956 by the 49ers out of Michigan State.

Like Darnold, Morrall bounced around and finally got to a Super Bowl as a starter with his fifth team — the Baltimore Colts in 1968, after he’d played for the 49ers, Pittsburgh, Detroit and the Giants.

Morrall and the heavily favored Colts lost one of the most famous Super Bowls ever — Super Bowl III — to Namath and the Jets following the 1968 season.

Two years later, Morrall got a ring when he took over for an injured Unitas in the first half and led the Colts to a 16-13 win over Dallas in Super Bowl V.

Morrall would get two more Super Bowl rings with the Dolphins, starting nine regular-season games and two in the playoffs for Miami’s famous 17-0 team in 1972.

Griese came back from injury to start and play all of the Super Bowl win over Washington to clinch the perfect season.

Maybe it’s fitting that there’s no perfect comp for Darnold as a Super Bowl winning QB.

As Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said after the NFC title game win over the Rams, Darnold has been writing his own story all season in defying the reputation that he couldn’t get a team to a Super Bowl.

“You don’t want me writing the stories, because I would not write the narratives out there,” Macdonald said in a defense that figures to be well remembered in team history if the Seahawks win it all. “This guy is the man, and his teammates love him and he’s competitive as crap and he’s tough. He’s really talented and he’s a winner. That would be the story. So don’t let me write the story.”