If there’s any narrative that holds true in the NFL, it’s hard to win a Super Bowl. Of course it’s hard to even get to a Super Bowl, yet alone win one.
Tom Brady blocked several quarterbacks from winning Super Bowl titles in the midst of the New England Patriots dynasty, making Peyton Manning and Ben Roethlisberger’s two Super Bowl titles all the more impressive. Patrick Mahomes is doing the same in today’s NFL, winning three Super Bowl titles and preventing MVP quarterbacks from getting to the Super Bowl.
Two quarterbacks have beaten Mahomes in the Super Bowl: Brady and Jalen Hurts. The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback is just one of three players to beat Mahomes in the playoffs, creating his own legacy with his first Super Bowl title. Hurts has been to two Super Bowl at this stage in his career — and he is only 27 years old.
With Hurts leading the Eagles to a championship, quarterbacks on good teams can go toe to toe with Mahomes and win. An entire roster is responsible for producing a championship team, but the quarterback gets the most praise and criticism because they touch the ball on every offensive possession and get paid the most money — hence the never-ending spotlight.
With Hurts winning the Super Bowl, which quarterback is under the most pressure to secure the Lombardi Trophy in 2025? These five will certainly be monitored over the course of the year.
Joe Burrow is one of the three quarterbacks to beat Mahomes in the postseason, leading a comeback in Arrowhead Stadium to win the AFC Championship game and take the Cincinnati Bengals to the Super Bowl. That was three years ago.
The Bengals have missed the playoffs in back-to-back years, but that hasn’t been Burrow’s fault. Burrow has completed 69.2% of his passes and thrown 58 touchdowns to just 15 interceptions over the past two seasons. He’s third in the league in completion rate, fourth in touchdown passes, fifth in touchdown rate (5.7%), and fourth in passer rating (102.2).
The 2024 Bengals allowed the most points per game in losses in NFL history (27.8), and had six losses with 25+ points last season. Burrow was the third quarterback in league history with 40+ passing touchdowns in a season (43) who missed the playoffs while leading the league with 4,918 passing yards.
So why is there pressure on Burrow? The Bengals need Burrow to perform at a high level every week to win games, and lose games when Burrow is just “good.” Burrow has a loaded group of pass catchers, but a poor offensive line and a bad defense. He has to play excellent in order for the Bengals to win football games.
Perhaps if the Bengals get their roster construction figured out, Burrow can make deep playoff runs again. His quarterback success will be skewed until that’s figured out.
Jared Goff is certainly a good quarterback, and found a home as the franchise quarterback in Detroit. Over the last two seasons, the Lions are 27-7 in Goff’s starts as Goff has thrown 67 touchdown passes to 24 interceptions. Of quarterbacks with 500+ pass attempts over the last two seasons, Goff is second in completion percentage (69.7%), first in passing yards (9,204), second in touchdown passes, fourth in touchdown rate (5.9%), and second in passer rating (104.4).
The Lions have reached at least the divisional round of the playoffs over the last two seasons, yet Goff’s completion percentage (66.2%), touchdown rate (3.3%), yards per attempt (7.6), and passer rating (91.8) have all declined. The Lions also were the first team in NFL history to lose consecutive playoff games while scoring 30+ points.
Goff is the third quarterback to win 13+ games in a season for two different teams (Brady, Peyton Manning) yet is just 4-5 in the playoffs while completing 61.2% of his passes with an 85.1 passer rating. Can Goff perform well enough in the playoffs to win a championship?
The Lions are in “win-now” mode, and have an excellent chance to win the Super Bowl in 2025. There’s a lot of pressure for Goff to exercise his playoff demons and get Detroit to the Super Bowl, especially for a franchise that has never been to the Super Bowl.
Outside of an MVP award, Dak Prescott has accomplished nearly everything a quarterback could accomplish in the regular season. He’s won a Rookie of the Year award, been an MVP runner-up, was selected to an All-Pro team, and won multiple division titles. The Cowboys are 76-46 in Prescott’s starts and never had a losing season in which Prescott has started 10+ games.
For all the regular-season success Prescott has, that doesn’t seem to translate to the playoffs. Prescott is 2-5 in his postseason career, tied for the worst postseason record for any quarterback who has made a minimum of five playoff starts. He still hasn’t made a conference championship game in his 10 seasons in the league, despite quarterbacking a team that has won 12+ games in four of the five times he has made the postseason.
Prescott’s two playoff wins were against teams with a combined 18-15 record (.545 win percentage). His playoff losses are against teams with a combined 57-27 record (.679), three of which were at home. The Cowboys are 5-13 in the playoffs since winning their last Super Bowl in the 1995 season and have the NFL record for most consecutive playoff appearances without reaching a conference championship game (12).
Prescott is turning 32 this year. The clock is ticking on him delivering a championship to Dallas, no matter how good or bad the roster is around him.
There’s no denying how good Lamar Jackson is in the regular season, as his two MVP awards are a clear indication of his success. Jackson has one of the best win percentages in the regular season since the 1970 merger (third at .745) and is the youngest quarterback to win two MVP awards.
Jackson was the first player with 40+ passing touchdowns and fewer than five interceptions in a season last year. He’s the first quarterback in NFL history with 4,000+ yards passing and 800+ yards rushing in a season and is the first player to lead qualified quarterbacks in the NFL in passer rating (119.4) and rushing yards (915) in a season.
The NFL’s all-time rushing yards leader for quarterbacks (6,173), Jackson is the only player with multiple MVP awards who doesn’t have a championship. His struggles in the postseason are well known, as Jackson is 3-5 with 13 total touchdowns and 11 turnovers in his playoff career.
Jackson’s .745 win percentage is the best ever by a quarterback without a Super Bowl title, as he has multiple turnovers in four of eight playoff games. He’s the only multiple-time MVP quarterback with a losing record in the playoffs, as the Ravens average 18.6 points per game in Jackson’s starts in the playoffs compared to 28.7 in the regular season.
The Ravens have only been to one conference championship game in the Jackson era, as Jackson has never had a season with multiple playoff wins. For as good as Jackson and the Ravens have been in the regular season, the opposite has happened in the playoffs.
Baltimore has 78 wins over the last seven seasons, the most for any team without a Super Bowl appearance in NFL history. The pressure will always be on Jackson until he can lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl.
How close does Josh Allen have to get to win a Super Bowl? For as good as Allen has been in the playoffs, he still hasn’t been able to defeat Mahomes and the Chiefs. Allen actually has a winning record in the playoffs (7-6) with 33 total touchdowns to just six turnovers. Over his last five playoff games, Allen has 13 total touchdowns to zero turnovers.
The postseason success doesn’t stop there. Allen is the all-time playoff leader in interception rate (0.9%), touchdown-to-interception ratio (25-4), total yards per game (311.0), and total touchdowns per game (2.5). He’s the only player to average 250 passing yards and 50 rushing yards per game in playoff history.
Allen has the most total touchdowns in a player’s first seven seasons (262) in NFL history and has three postseasons with having 6+ total touchdowns and zero interceptions without making the Super Bowl. The Bills have scored the most points per game (29.1) and allowed the fewest points per game (19.6) over the last five years — and haven’t made the Super Bowl.
So why is there so much pressure on Allen? The Bills can’t get past the Chiefs in the playoffs, no matter how well Allen plays. There are other factors outside of Allen, who has the most playoff wins without reaching a Super Bowl (seven). The Bills just can’t get out of their own way, and that includes Allen failing to convert a quarterback sneak on a “Tush Push” on fourth down in a conference championship game.
Allen is a great quarterback and has all the intangibles to win a Super Bowl. Since the Bills can’t beat the Chiefs in the playoffs (Allen is 0-4 against Mahomes), the pressure is constantly on Allen and Buffalo to win that elusive first Super Bowl title.
Allen has put the Bills in position to win a championship. Once Buffalo gets past Kansas City, the Bills may be on their way toward finally hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy. There’s so much pressure on Allen when he plays the Chiefs, which is why he’s under more pressure than any quarterback to win in 2025.
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Author: Jeff Kerr
March 26, 2025 | 10:05 am
