It is hard to make it to a Super Bowl. It is even harder to return, despite how easy Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes makes it look. But returning after you lost in your Super Bowl debut? Borderline impossible these days, if recent history has anything to say about it.
In eight of the last nine Super Bowls, the big game has featured at least one quarterback who was playing in his first one. The only exception being Super Bowl LV between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs with the aforementioned Brady and Mahomes. In two of them, Super Bowl LIV and Super Bowl LVI featured two teams with quarterbacks making their debut.
Super Bowl LVIII once again had a quarterback playing for the first time in Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers. Purdy suffered the fate of the previous two first time quarterbacks with a devastating loss. Now he is facing down the barrel of an unfortuantely long line he does not want to be in:
The last 18 quarterbacks who lost their Super Bowl debut as a starter did not, or have not, returned. Their names are, in decscending order…
- Jalen Hurts
- Joe Burrow
- Jimmy Garoppolo (49ers, again)
- Jared Goff
- Matt Ryan
- Cam Newton
- Colin Kaepernick (49ers, again)
- Rex Grossman
- Matt Hasselbeck
- Donovan McNabb
- Jake Delhomme
- Rich Gannon
- Kerry Collins
- Steve McNair
- Chris Chandler
- Drew Bledsoe
- Neil O’Donnell
- Stan Humphries
The one slight exception to this list might be Drew Bledsoe. After losing Super Bowl XXXI, Bledsoe remained the starting quarterback of the Patriots until his infamous injury in 2001, paving way for Tom Brady. Bledsoe remained a backup, but did guide New England to a win in the AFC Championship after filling in for an injured Brady in the second quarter. Still, this is a pretty big caveat to the norm.
Now, there is still plenty of time for Burrow, Hurts, Goff and even Purdy to find their way back. But as the first three names mentioned have found out, recapturing the success of the previous season is a Herculean effort. The 2022 Bengals made it back to the AFC Championship, but started 0-2 and narrowly lost the rematch to the Chiefs. The Eagles last year were 10-1 and suffered a monumental collapse to finish 11-6 and were blown out 32-9 in the Wild Card round. The Rams with Goff limped to 9-7 and missed the playoffs entirely following their 13-3 Super Bowl run in 2018.
The 49ers, after their previous two Super Bowl losses faced similar challenges. Kaepernick led San Francisco back to the NFC Championship the following year, and we all know how that one ended. The 2020 49ers, fresh off their first loss to Kansas City, absolutely cratered to 6-10 thanks to a slew of injuries on defense and to quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
Needless to say, there is unique pressure for Purdy in 2024. Not only will he be looking to fend off the best shot the NFC has to offer each week, he’ll be fighting against history as well.
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