Where do starting Super Bowl quarterbacks come from? A look at the history (2024)

When Brock Purdy takes his first snap for the 49ers against the Chiefs on Sunday, he will become the 67th different quarterback to start in the Super Bowl. He’ll also become the lowest draft pick (No. 262) to ever start at the position.

But Purdy’s distinction as the big game’s biggest longshot can only exist if you’re willing to discount the fact that Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme reached the Super Bowl despite never being drafted at all. While his climb from Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl starter is unique, his journey is not unprecedented. Teams that have reached football’s pinnacle have done so behind quarterbacks who have come from virtually everywhere: from can’t-miss, No. 1 picks to under-the-radar free-agent signings to the jewels of blockbuster trades.

They have come from Youngstown State and Alabama, Notre Dame and Northeast Louisiana. Some, like Purdy, reached this grand stage in their second seasons — though none as rookies — and others did so at the tail end of long careers. No matter the path they took, all landed in an exclusive club.

Here is a look at how Super Bowl teams have found their starters:

It starts at the top

The most sure-fire way to find a starting NFL quarterback? Select him with the No. 1 overall pick. Thirteen of the 67 quarterbacks who will have started a Super Bowl by Sunday were the top picks in their respective drafts. That includes 11 No. 1 selections in the standard NFL draft, a No. 1 pick in the 1965 AFL Draft (Joe Namath) and the top choice in the NFL’s supplemental draft in 1984 (Steve Young).

That’s a staggering 19.4 percent of starting Super Bowl quarterbacks who were taken at the top of the draft. The quarterback with the most Super Bowl starts in that group is former Broncos quarterback John Elway (five), who was drafted by the Colts with the No. 1 pick in the famed 1983 draft and was shortly after that traded to Denver. Counting his time as the franchise’s general manager, he led the Broncos to seven Super Bowl appearances, winning three (two as a player).

The biggest Super Bowl winner among the No. 1 picks is Terry Bradshaw, the top choice of the Steelers in 1970 out of Louisiana Tech. From 1974 to 1979, Bradshaw, with perhaps just a bit of help from Pittsburgh’s “Steel Curtain” defense, guided the Steelers to four Super Bowl victories in as many starts. Peyton Manning (1998) matched Bradshaw among top picks with four Super Bowl appearances, though he lost two of the four. Still, Manning in 2015 became the first No. 1 pick — and first quarterback overall — to lead two different teams to Super Bowl wins when the Broncos beat the Panthers in Super Bowl 50.

Three other No. 1 picks made multiple Super Bowl starts and won them all: Troy Aikman (three), Jim Plunkett (two), Eli Manning (two).

There have been two Super Bowls in which both starters were former No. 1 picks: Manning defeated Cam Newton, the 2011 top pick by Carolina, after the 2015 season. Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 pick of the Lions in 2009, was traded to the Rams in 2021 and won a Super Bowl in his first season as their starter by defeating Joe Burrow, the No. 1 pick of the Bengals in 2020.

The rest of the draft

Unsurprisingly, the majority of starting quarterbacks in the Super Bowl have been found in the first round. In addition to the 13 No. 1 picks, 21 other quarterbacks — 34 overall — were drafted in the first round. That includes Purdy’s opponent in Sunday’s game, Patrick Mahomes, the 10th selection by the Chiefs in the 2017 NFL Draft who already is making his fourth start and is seeking to become just the fifth quarterback to win three Super Bowls.

Two second-overall picks have started in the game, both coming up short: Donovan McNabb of the Eagles (2004) and Earl Morrall of the Colts, who was a part of three championship teams but lost the only game he started — the famous Super Bowl III defeat against Namath and the Jets after the 1968 season. The two No. 3 picks who have started in the Super Bowl, Steve McNair of the Titans (1999) and Matt Ryan of the Falcons (2016), also failed to win their starts.

Interestingly, the same number of starting Super Bowl quarterbacks (eight) have been selected in the third round as in the second round. The most decorated of the former group is Joe Montana, the 75th pick by the 49ers in 1979 out of Notre Dame who guided San Francisco to four Super Bowl victories (tied for second all-time) in as many starts. Third-round quarterbacks have produced a combined 14 Super Bowl starts and seven victories (Montana, four; Nick Foles, Russell Wilson, Jeff Hostetler). Second-round quarterbacks have made nine starts with three wins (Drew Brees, Brett Favre, Ken Stabler).

Thanks mostly to Tom Brady (seven victories), but with a little help from Mark Rypien (one), sixth-round quarterbacks have won more Super Bowls than those drafted in any other round outside the first.

Overall, drafting your quarterback — be it at No. 1 overall or No. 262 — is the most common way to find a Super Bowl starter. Of the 67 quarterbacks to make Super Bowl starts, 40 of them made their first of those starts with the team that drafted them. That includes Brady (Patriots), Peyton Manning (Colts) and Craig Morton (Cowboys), who later made Super Bowl starts with other teams after joining them by way of free agency or trade. It does not include John Elway or Eli Manning, who were drafted at No. 1 by other teams before being traded to the Broncos and Giants, respectively. It can be argued both players belong in the draft category since the teams that acquired them had pursued those deals during the draft process, but technically speaking, Elway was a Colt and Manning was a Charger at the moment they entered the league.

Speaking of trades …

Trading to the top

When Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory over the Bengals in 2021, he became the 14th quarterback to start in the game after being traded and the sixth such player to win the game. The first traded quarterback to start in the Super Bowl was Daryle Lamonica of the Raiders. After playing sparingly during his first four professional seasons with the Buffalo Bills, Lamonica was traded to the Raiders ahead of the 1967 season in a deal that sent Tom Flores, who would later become the Raiders’ head coach, to Buffalo. Lamonica thrived during his first season in Oakland, becoming the AFL MVP, but he and the Raiders lost Super Bowl II against Bart Starr and the Packers.

Elway and Eli Manning appeared in a combined seven Super Bowls and won four of them after their draft trades, but if you choose to exclude them from the true trade category, the most successful quarterback in the group becomes Brett Favre. His two Super Bowl starts and one championship with the Packers came after Green Bay acquired him in a trade following Favre’s rookie season in Atlanta in 1991, when he threw only four passes and had two of them intercepted.

Joe Theismann (Washington) and Steve Young (49ers) were other Super Bowl winners who were acquired by way of trade despite having little in the way of NFL experience or success. Theismann was drafted by the Dolphins in 1971, but when he and the team couldn’t negotiate an agreeable contract, the quarterback out of Notre Dame instead opted to play his first three pro seasons in the Canadian Football League. In 1974, Washington traded a future first-round pick to Miami to acquire Theismann’s rights. Eight seasons later, he became the first of three different starters to lead Washington to a Super Bowl victory.

Young started his career by bypassing the NFL Draft for the United States Football League, where he played for two seasons. He was taken by the Buccaneers with the first pick of the supplemental draft of USFL and CFL players in 1984, but he went just 3-16 in his two seasons there as a starter. Still, the 49ers thought highly enough of Young to trade second- and fourth-round picks to the Buccaneers to acquire him as Montana’s backup. By 1994, Young was the NFL’s MVP for a second time and led the 49ers to a blowout win over the Chargers in his only Super Bowl appearance.

Free-agent long shots

Aside from being the only undrafted quarterback to win the Super Bowl, Warner owns another unique distinction among championship starters. He is the only quarterback in NFL history to lead two different teams to the Super Bowl after signing with both of those teams as a free agent. After he signed a futures contract with the Rams in 1998, he spent some of that season in Europe as the allocated starter of the Amsterdam Admirals and the rest as the Rams’ third-string quarterback.

Injuries propelled Warner into the starting role in 1999 and he went on to guide one of the most prolific offenses in NFL history to two Super Bowl appearances and one victory. In 2005, an aging Warner signed a one-year, prove-it deal with the Cardinals. He closed that year strong, signed a new three-year deal and then led Arizona to its first Super Bowl appearance in 2006, ending in a heartbreaking loss to the Steelers.

But Warner wasn’t the only unlikely free agent signing that ended with a Super Bowl appearance. In March of 2000, Trent Dilfer signed with the Ravens to back up Tony Banks. But with Baltimore’s offense unable to find the end zone for weeks midway through the season, Dilfer was promoted to the starting role. He did enough to support a dominant defense as the Ravens defeated the Giants — and another free-agent quarterback in Kerry Collins — in Super Bowl XXXV.

Peyton Manning and Brady won Super Bowls after arguably the two biggest free-agent chases in NFL history, but neither player matches Jim Plunkett, who is the only quarterback to win multiple Super Bowls (two) after signing with that team as a free agent. Plunkett, the No. 1 pick by the Patriots in 1971, was looking for a new team in 1978 after being discarded by the 49ers. He signed with the Raiders as a 32-year-old backup, then went on to win two championships with the franchise — one each in Oakland and Los Angeles.

Fourteen starting quarterbacks reached the Super Bowl after signing with their teams as free agents. The most recent of those is Brady, who won his lone title game appearance with the Buccaneers after the 2020 season.

Another first for Purdy

Adding to all the ways Purdy will make history on Sunday: He is the first quarterback from Iowa State to start in the Super Bowl. The school will become the 51st institution to be represented by a starting quarterback in the game.

The school with the most? That distinction belongs to the University of California, Berkeley with four starters, from Joe Kapp with the Vikings in 1969 to Jared Goff with the Rams in 2018. Alabama claims three starters who reached the Super Bowl after being drafted from the school. Jalen Hurts, who started in last season’s Super Bowl, played the first three college seasons with the Crimson Tide, but he finished his career at Oklahoma. The other schools that have produced three starters: Notre Dame (Montana, Lamonica, Theismann) and Purdue (Brees, Len Dawson, Bob Griese).

No school, though, can claim as many Super Bowl championships among its past quarterbacks as Michigan. Must be nice to be tied to Brady. Perhaps Texas Tech can make a run.

The truth is quarterbacks will continue to arrive at the Super Bowl from all corners of the football world, by all avenues. Many teams will be searching for the right signal-caller this offseason, but history has shown there is no one way to carve a path to the game’s biggest stage.

(Top photo of Brock Purdy and Patrick Mahomes: Perry Knotts / Getty Images)

Nick Kosmider is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Denver Broncos. He previously covered the Denver Nuggets for The Athletic after spending five years at the Denver Post, where he covered the city’s professional sports scene. His other stops include The Arizona Republic and MLB.com. Follow Nick on Twitter @NickKosmider