How Many Backup QBs Have Won the Super Bowl? Is Jarrett Stidham Next?
10 backup quarterbacks have won the Super Bowl. Denver Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham hopes to become the 11th, but must beat New England first.
Quarterback is the most important position in American sports, and a team losing their starting QB in the playoffs is incredibly detrimental; but 10 backups have won the Super Bowl.
When the Denver Broncos beat the Buffalo Bills 33-30 in overtime on Saturday night, elation filled the Mile High City. About an hour later, fans were devastated to hear Bo Nix suffered a season-ending ankle injury.
But the Broncos can still win Super Bowl LX with Jarrett Stidham as their quarterback.
Rich Kurtzman
Not just because Sean Payton will coach him up, but because many other backups have won Super Bowls. Most of them had great defenses, like Denver's is, too.
How Many Backup Quarterbacks Have Won the Super Bowl?
10 backup quarterbacks have won the Super Bowl.
Considering this year's is Super Bowl LX (60), that means 16.9% of all Super Bowls have been won by a backup quarterback.
Jarrett Stidham could be the 11th. But before that can happen, the Broncos need to win the AFC Championship this Sunday.
The Pats are 5.5-point favorites after opening at 4.5.
It should also be noted that all the previous backup quarterbacks to win a Super Bowl played at some point in the season. Stidham didn't play a snap in the regular season for Denver in 2025, nor in 2024.
Which Backup Quarterbacks Have Won the Super Bowl?
Nick Foles, Tom Brady, and Trent Dilfer are three of the 10 backups to win a Super Bowl. Let's go through them from most-recent first.
Some interesting trends:
- Backup quarterbacks won three straight Super Bowls (1999-2001).
- 7-10 wins were the first Super Bowl victories for their respective franchises.
- 5-10 won Super Bowl MVP.
- The five who didn't win MVP—as well as Brady's first, which was a mediocre performance—all had great defenses. Most had very good run games too.
- 9-10 won their respective conference championship game, too.
Nick Foles, 2017, Philadelphia Eagles
Foles is the most-recent example of this phenomenon, helping the Eagles win their first-ever Vince Lombardi Trophy. He came in and replaced Carson Wentz, who tore his ACL in Week 14 of that season. Foles started the last three games of the season with some up-and-down numbers.
Once the playoffs started, he put up three 100-rated games including passing for 373 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 interception and catching a touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. The Philly Special.
He was Super Bowl LII MVP, the Eagles first Super Bowl win.
Fans are comparing this year to that 2017 Championship round. There's a journeyman (Keenum/Darnold), the old legend and possible MVP (Brady/Stafford), the young guns (Bortles/Maye) and the backups (Foles/Stidham).
Foles also posted an inspirational message to the Broncos:
Keep in mind that Foles was a starter in Philly and then also in St. Louis before he was the backup behind Wentz.
Tom Brady, 2001, New England Patriots
Unless you're an old head like me, you may not realize many people's GOAT started as a backup to Drew Bledsoe.
Back in my day, Bledsoe was a badass quarterback, and I watched him and John Elway go head-to-head in 1997 at Mile High Stadium. Elway and the Broncos won on the way to their first Super Bowl win, XXXII.
Bledsoe bled so bad (internally, in his chest) from a hit in Week 2 that Tom Brady was forced to play as a rookie in Week 2 on. The Patriots went 11-5 that season and Brady was only so-so in his second pro season, but they were still a solid team on both sides of the ball. In Super Bowl XXXVI he won MVP despite a stat line of 145 passing yards, on 59.5% passing, for 1 touchdown. The game has really changed in the last 25 years; those numbers are nothing compared to what today's QBs put up. It was the Patriots first Super Bowl win of a million.
Trent Dilfer, 2000, Baltimore Ravens
Tony Banks was the Ravens starter in 2000; how's that for a throwback name? Unlike others on this list, Banks wasn't injured but benched in favor of Dilfer, who went on to a 7-1 record in the second half of the Ravens season.
Dilfer threw for 590 yards in four playoff games, with 3 touchdowns. But in Super Bowl XXXV, he threw for a mere 153 yards and 1 touchdown while the defense won the Ravens their first franchise Vince Lombardi Trophy. Ray Lewis was named the MVP, though he didn't have any of the defense's four interceptions, nor their defensive touchdown in the game.
Kurt Warner, 1999, St. Louis Rams
Kurt Warner was never supposed to play for the St. Louis Rams "Greatest Show on Turf."
Trent Green was the starting quarterback, and his knee was blown out in a low hit in a preseason game. Rams head coach Dick Vermeil, who was never one to hide his emotions, cried at the podium and said, "We will rally around Kurt and we will play good football."
No one expected them to play that well.
Warner was playing in NFL Europe in 1998 before being signed to the Rams, and when he was thrust into the starting lineup, his success was a huge surprise. He led the NFL in completion percentage, touchdowns (41), and passer rating (109.2) among many other stat categories.
He became a first-team All-Pro and helped lead that explosive Rams team to their first Super Bowl victory. He threw for 414 yards and 2 touchdowns in the Rams narrow 23-17 win over the Tennessee Titans as Super Bowl XXXIV came down to the final play of the game.
Jeff Hoestetler, 1990, New York Giants
Hoestetler is the most similar to Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham in that he only had four career starts before Super Bowl XXV. Stidham also has four starts, although Sunday's AFC Championship Game will be his fifth.
Also in an eerily familiar similarity to the 2025 Broncos, Phill Simms, the team's starting quarterback, suffered a fracture in his foot. That's when Hoestetler stepped up. He threw for 222 yards and 1 touchdown, outplaying Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills in the Giants' second Super Bowl won. This was also the "wide right" Super Bowl the Bills had a chance to win but Scott Norwood missed the 47-yard kick.
Doug Williams, 1987, Washington Redskins
This one hurts for older Broncos fans (older than me) because Doug Williams came in and beat the Broncos in Super Bowl XXII 42-10. Reggie White hurt starting quarterback Jay Schroeder's shoulder early in the season, and Williams eventually replaced him.
Denver actually led that Super Bowl 10-0 before Williams and the Redskins scored 35 unanswered points in the second quarter.
John Elway talked quickly about those three Super Bowl defeats in the 1980s in his Netflix documentary. He said they were increasingly painful.
Rich Kurtzman
Jim Plunkett, 1983, Los Angeles Raiders
Marc Wilson was the starter for the Raiders that year, but suffered a broken left shoulder in a November game against the Chiefs. Enter Jim Plunkett, who ended up starting 13 total games that year including Super Bowl XVIII. Marcus Allen ran two touchdowns during the Raiders 38-9 win over the Redskins, and he won the MVP.
Terry Bradshaw, 1974, Pittsburgh Steelers
Terry Bradshaw actually lost his starting job to Joe Gilliam in his fifth season, which, if that happened today he'd likely never start again.
But, according to some, Gilliam started using cocaine and heroin during the 1974 season, his play fell off and Bradshaw was inserted as the starter. So, in that way, the Bradshaw example is much like Foles; each were starters previous to their Super Bowl runs.
The Steelers were a defense-first, run game second type team in those days. Franco Harris ran for 158 yards and a touchdown and took home the Super Bowl IX MVP. It was Pittsburgh's first Super Bowl win, and first of four in six seasons.
Roger Staubach, 1971, Dallas Cowboys
This is the most interesting case of a backup quarterback winning the Super Bowl in terms of quarterbacking controversy. Craig Morton—the Broncos quarterback after this who was on the Super Bowl XII team—started the season and head coach Tom Landry started both quarterbacks intermittently all year. He even took them in and out on a play-by-play basis as the season went on.
Ultimately, it came to a head in the Week 7 loss to the Chicago Bears and Staubach was named the starter. The Cowboys went on a 10-game win streak, including the Super Bowl VI win, 24-3 over the Dolphins. Staubach had two passing touchdowns, including one to Mike Ditka, and the QB took home the MVP.
Earl Morrall, 1970, Baltimore Colts
Morrall is the only backup quarterback on this list who didn’t win his team's championship game. In fact, Morrall came in during the Super Bowl for all-time legend Johnny Unitas when Unitas had injured ribs.
In Super Bowl V, Unitas led the Colts to the game's first touchdown, and ironically the aforementioned Morton tossed a touchdown for the Cowboys as Dallas took the 13-6 lead at halftime. Morton threw a fourth quarter interception deep in Dallas' own territory that gave the Colts a 2-yard touchdown run, and then tossed a second pick that allowed Baltimore to kick the game-winning field goal.
Is Jarrett Stidham the next backup quarterback to win a Super Bowl?
We don't know yet, and considering he hasn't played a single snap in two years, we're in uncharted waters here. First up, Denver needs to beat the Patriots in the Mile High City, in the AFC Championship Game.
It's a long shot, but it could happen.
A backup quarterback winning the Super Bowl is rare, sure. But it's happened 10 times before.
It should also be noted that both offenses and defenses have evolved a lot since most of these Super Bowls happened. I'm not just talking about the 1970s ones, but even the early 2000s games.
So, really, the only recent example is Nick Foles and the Eagles. And even he was a starter for multiple seasons before he was eventually relied upon to go on that historic playoff run.
But, as FTN Fantasy explained today, Foles was fully entrenched as the backup to Wentz and was awful in his regular season games before the playoffs. For whatever reason, he caught fire in both the NFC Championship and Super Bowl.
Does "Stiddy" have that kind of magic in him?
I guess we're all about to find out.
His tape from his four starts and preseason sure are hopeful, though. As is the fact that he's been in Sean Payton's system for three years and knows it well.
Ultimately, if the Broncos are to win the AFC Championship Game this weekend, and then Super Bowl LX, they will be led by the defense, just as they were all season long even with Bo Nix at QB.
Keep in mind that 9-10 of the backups who won the Super Bowl also won their championship game, and the ones who played poorly in the Super Bowl were all carried by great defenses.
Broncos vs. Patriots kicks off at 1 p.m. MT on Sunday, Jan. 25 on CBS and Paramount+.
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