In Reply to: My opinion is it's just too hard to come into bad teams..... posted by hotspot on October 12, 2026 at 13:30:50
The QBs to start in the past 5 Super Bowls were:
Super Bowl Winning Quarterback Losing Quarterback
Super Bowl LV (2021) Tom Brady (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs)
Super Bowl LVI (2022) Matthew Stafford (Los Angeles Rams) Joe Burrow (Cincinnati Bengals)
Super Bowl LVII (2023) Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs) Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles)
Super Bowl LVIII (2024) Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs) Brock Purdy (San Francisco 49ers)
Super Bowl LIX (2025) Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia Eagles) Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City Chiefs)
I don't suspect any of those teams end up playing in the last game of the season without the owners and GMs having prioritized getting the QBs they had.
All except for Tom Brady (#15 with Tampa Bay) are currently Top 10 in salaries.
Kyle Shanahan is widely considered the best offensive mind in the NFL and nobody seems to value QB play more than he does. While Niners were fortunate to get Purdy with the last pick, it wasn't by chance, Brian Griese who was the Niners QB coach at the time had seen Purdy play several times while working as a television analyst and came away thinking he was one of the better QBs in college football. It has also been widely reported that during his rookie year training camp Shanahan acknowledged internally that Purdy was the best QB on the team. Aside from Trent Williams, who is one of the top 5 OTs to ever play the game and is paid very well, Shanahan is notorious for not investing high draft picks or much money in free agency for Olinemen. And like his Dad, he is similarly stingy with RBs, Christian McCaffery being an exception, but that is on account of positional flexibility rather than being a traditional RB. And his dad won his two Super Bowls with a pretty decent QB named John Elway.
The current Super Bowl formula appears to be a very stingy defense combined with outstanding QB play on the other side of the ball.