Ranked: The worst quarterbacks to ever win a Super Bowl

Any quarterback who won a Super Bowl deserves the utmost respect, but not all of them are going to be Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. Sometimes, they just need to be in the right place at the right time, even if the rest of the career never quite panned out the way they would’ve hoped.

Joe Namath is a Hall of Famer and a Super Bowl MVP winner, so his credentials are about as good as it gets. However, per Bleacher Report, he’s the only quarterback to have won a Super Bowl MVP award despite not throwing for a single touchdown in the game.

Outside his Super Bowl performance, Joe Namath’s career stats are nothing overly special either, completing just 50% of his passes and throwing for more interceptions (220) than touchdowns (173), per StatMuse. His career is legendary, and his impact on the sport is undeniable, but he doesn’t hold a candle to other greats.

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Flacco spent his career fluctuating between slightly above average, to slightly below average, except for when it mattered most in the 2012 playoffs. Flacco threw for 1,140 yards, 11 touchdowns and zero picks with a passer rating of 117.2 during the Ravens’ run to Super Bowl XLVII.

For a long time in the NFL, there was a joke that Andy Dalton was the benchmark for mediocrity in the NFL, with the ‘Andy Dalton-line’ becoming synonymous with league average quarterback play. We suggest that Joe Flacco may be an even better candidate for that moniker. A mediocre player who could make great plays, but not a great player.

Jim Plunkett won not one, but two Super Bowls, making his inclusion on this list seem even more harsh. However, as a player, his career was nothing spectacular, finishing his career with a .500 record (72/72) and throwing 34 more interceptions than TDs.

Plunkett won two Super Bowls with the Raiders in the 80s during their period of NFL dominance. In both instances, he wasn’t expected to be the starter. In 1980, he was the backup to Dan Pastorini, who got injured, and in 1983, he had been benched before another injury saw him return as the starter, per GiveMeSport. A Raiders legend, but not an NFL one.

Jeff Hostetler was unlucky to be behind Phil Simms for most of his career, with seven of his 13 NFL seasons spent manning the bench. Hostetler’s big moment came in Super Bowl XXV after Simms was injured late in the regular season. The Giants snuck past the Bills in a game most famous for the “wide right” call following Scott Norwood’s late field goal miss.

Hostetler was a little unlucky in his career, as when he was a starter, he was pretty good, finishing his career with a 51-32 record. Unlike some on this list, he also finished his career with far more touchdowns than interceptions, which is probably a better metric than quarterback wins!

Perhaps the player quarterback of all time, given his penchant for becoming the best quarterback in the world, but for only very brief moments. Fortunately for Philadelphia, one of those moments came during the 2017 season, when Foles led the Eagles to victory in Super Bowl LII.

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Foles’ career is truly bizarre to look back on. He won a Super Bowl as the MVP, he equalled the record for most touchdowns in a game (7), has the fifth-highest quarterback rating in a season ever (119.2), and yet, apart from a couple of years in Philly, was never consistently a starter. He may never have to buy a drink in Philadelphia again, but we may need one or two to understand his career.

Doug Williams deserves the upmost respect for becoming the first black quarterback to play in, and win, a Super Bowl. No one can ever take that away from him, and nor should they try to diminish that achievement. Still, his career statistics are pretty ugly, with the former Washington QB going 1,240/2,507 (49.5%), for 100 touchdowns and 93 picks.

Williams spent nine years in the NFL, and mostly failed to impress. His career record of 38-42-1 and zero Pro Bowls, per GiveMeSport, aren’t suggestive of a good player, let alone a great one. Still, he dominated in Super Bowl XXII, throwing four touchdowns in the second quarter against an outmatched San Diego Chargers team.

Trent Dilfer spent 13 years in the NFL, but just one with the Baltimore Ravens. That was enough to see him lift the Lombardi Trophy. How much of the Ravens’ success was due to Dilfer is up for debate, considering that the Ravens had possibly the greatest defense of all time that season. Dilfer had to not turn the ball over, and they were going to win, which is what he did.

Dilfer’s 13 seasons in the NFL were the definition of nothing special. He never reached the 3,000 yard mark, or threw for more than 21 touchdowns in a season, per ESPN. He also threw significantly more interceptions than touchdowns in his career (113 TDs/129 INTs). Dilfer had his moment in the sun, but he really wasn’t very good!

It’s difficult to claim anyone who won a Super Bowl is ‘bad,’ but we have given it a go anyway! Do you think we got this list right? If not, let us know in the comments!

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