Two high draft picks, two different
paths: Maye and Darnold clash in Super Bowl
[February 04, 2026]
By JOSH DUBOW
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Drake Maye and Sam Darnold came into the NFL in
similar fashion as No. 3 overall picks tasked with being franchise
quarterbacks for struggling teams.
Their paths to the Super Bowl couldn't be much different.
Maye is looking to join Peyton and Eli Manning as the only
quarterbacks drafted in the top nine of the last 36 drafts to win a
Super Bowl with the team he debuted with as a pro. Peyton Manning
won it all in his ninth season with Indianapolis and Eli Manning in
his fourth with the New York Giants after being acquired in a
draft-day trade from San Diego.
Only two of the other 55 QBs taken in the top nine of the draft
since 1990 won a Super Bowl with any team with Trent Dilfer doing it
in Baltimore after being drafted by Tampa Bay and Matthew Stafford
with the Los Angeles Rams after being picked by Detroit.
Maye is trying to join Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady
and Kurt Warner as the only QBs to win a Super Bowl in their first
two seasons with the Roethlisberger the only first-round pick to do
it.
While Maye's success has been immediate, Darnold's has been anything
but.
Picked third by the New York Jets in 2018, Darnold struggled during
his first three seasons before being traded to Carolina. He then
spent two nondescript in and out of the starting lineup with the
Panthers, before going to San Francisco as a backup in 2023.
That helped reset his career and he won 14 games as a starter in
Minnesota last season before signing with Seattle and winning 14
games again in the regular season this year before making the Super
Bowl.
Darnold could become the first starting quarterback to win a Super
Bowl after previously playing for four other franchises. Brad
Johnson, Jim Plunkett, Len Dawson and Nick Foles all played for two
other franchises before winning a Super Bowl with Foles doing it in
his second stint with Philadelphia.
The Maye-Darnold matchup is a rare one between highly drafted
quarterbacks with only two other Super Bowls featuring two starting
QBs picked in the top five of the draft. The other two were matchups
of former No. 1 overall picks with Matthew Stafford besting Joe
Burrow in Super Bowl 56 and Peyton Manning topping Cam Newton in
Super Bowl 50.
Fight on for USC
Southern California has produced more Super Bowl players than any
other school but hasn't had a starting quarterback appear in the
game until this year.
Darnold will be the first QB who finished his college career at USC
to start in the Super Bowl after five other Trojans quarterbacks
lost in either the conference or league title game before the Super
Bowl.
The Trojans have had 70 players appear in the title game before this
season, two more than second-place Miami.
North Carolina also will join the list of colleges to produce a
starting quarterback in the Super Bowl with Maye getting the honors.
That will raise the total of colleges with a Super Bowl starting QB
to 51.
Michigan has the most starts with 10 — all by Tom Brady — while
California has the most individual QBs with Jared Goff, Aaron
Rodgers, Craig Morton and Joe Kapp doing it. Vince Ferragamo, who
began his college career at Cal before transferring to Nebraska,
also started in the Super Bowl.
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New Englad Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, left, and Seattle
Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, right, smile on stage with the
Lombardi Trophy during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday,
Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60
football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle
Seahawks. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
North Carolina, the alma mater of 11th president of
the United States James Polk, also can become the sixth school to
produce a U.S. president and a Super Bowl winning quarterback.
Delaware was the last school to join that list when Joe Biden was
inaugurated in 2021 — eight years after Joe Flacco won the Super
Bowl. The other schools are Miami of Ohio (Benjamin Harrison and
Roethlisberger), Michigan (Gerald Ford and Brady), Stanford (Herbert
Hoover, John Elway and Jim Plunkett) and Navy (Jimmy Carter and
Roger Staubach).
Missing stars
The Super Bowl is typically filled with star players with an average
of more than six first-team AP All-Pros taking the field for the
title game the last three seasons.
This year's matchup features just one with Seattle receiver Jaxon
Smith-Njigba the only player who earned first-team honors. The
Seahawks did have four second-teamers with defensive tackle Leonard
Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and
punter Michael Dickson all making it. New England had two
second-teamers in Maye and punt returner Marcus Jones.
There have been only two other Super Bowls since the 1970 merger
featuring only one first-team AP All-Pro with Washington kicker Mark
Moseley the sole honoree in the 1982 season and Dallas linebacker
Chuck Howley in the 1970 season.
Milton Williams tries to go back-to-back
Milton Williams turned a two-sack performance in last year's
Super Bowl with Philadelphia into a $104 million contract in free
agency with the New England Patriots.
Williams got back to the title game with his new team and now has a
chance to join an elite group of players who won Super Bowls in
back-to-back seasons with different teams.
The last time anyone completed the trick came eight years ago when
Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount followed up titles in Super Bowl 51
with New England by beating the Patriots the following season with
the Eagles.
The other two teams it happened came with members of the Cowboys and
49ers in the 1990s. Linebacker Ken Norton Jr. helped Dallas win
back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1992-93 seasons before leaving to
sign with San Francisco where he won again in 1994.
Deion Sanders was Norton's teammate on the 1994 Niners before
joining Dallas the next season when he helped the Cowboys beat
Pittsburgh.
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