In some ways, there is precedent for what Jarrett Stidham is attempting to accomplish.
Doug Williams, Jeff Hostetler, Tom Brady and Nick Foles are among the backup quarterbacks who led their teams to Super Bowl championships after being pressed into starting duty.
But, unlike Stidham, each of those QBs started at least a couple of regular season games before their improbable playoff runs.
That’s why Stidham is attempting to achieve the unprecedented when he starts this Sunday for the Denver Broncos, who are hosting the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.
“At the end of the day, I’m not focused on anything but Sunday,” Stidham said. “How can I help my teammates succeed on Sunday? What is my job on each and every play?”
Stidham, 29, has been thrust into the spotlight after first-string quarterback Bo Nix suffered a season-ending broken ankle during overtime of the Broncos’ 33-30 win against the Buffalo Bills in last weekend’s Divisional Round.
Nix managed to finish that game but has since undergone surgery.
With a Super Bowl berth on the line, top-seeded Denver now turns to Stidham, a seven-year NFL veteran who has made only four starts in his career — and none since 2023.
“He’s going to rip it, and that’ll be our approach,” head coach Sean Payton said. “He’s got this calm demeanor that I think suits him well. He’s played in big games in college. I said this at the start of the season: I felt like our [No.] 2 was inside the best 32 [quarterbacks in the NFL]. And I think everyone feels that way.”
The odds are against Stidham.
He is set to become the seventh quarterback to start a playoff game after not starting at all in the regular season. Frank Reich, who filled in for the Bills’ Jim Kelly in 1992, was the only one to win.
Even more dramatically, Stidham is set to become the second quarterback to start in the playoffs after not attempting a single pass all year.
“My advice to [Stidham] is to block out the noise,’’ Hostetler, who led the Giants to a Super Bowl title after the 1990 season as an injury replacement for Phil Simms, told the Denzer Gazette.
“That’s really hard to do because you’ve got reporters asking questions. They were asking me things like, ‘This coach doesn’t think you can get it done. [John] Madden doesn’t think you can get it done.’”
But Payton has faith in Stidham, an Auburn alum who was originally drafted by the Patriots in the fourth round in 2019.
Stidham spent his first three seasons in New England, then went to Las Vegas via trade after Josh McDaniels — who was his offensive coordinator with the Patriots — became the Raiders’ head coach in 2022. McDaniels has since returned to New England as its OC.
Payton made the steady Stidham one of his first free-agent signings after taking the Broncos’ head-coaching job in 2023.
“That signing was important,” Payton said. “You don’t know when [Stidham will be needed while] it’s happening, but I’m glad … that acquisition took place.”
Stidham is 1-3 in his career as a starter. He’s thrown eight touchdown passes and eight interceptions in 20 career appearances.
Despite being the home team, the Broncos (14-3) are 5.5-point underdogs to Drake Maye, Mike Vrabel and the second-seeded Patriots (14-3).
But if the Broncos somehow go on to win the Super Bowl, Stidham will join the ranks of Hostetler, Foles and others in NFL lore.
“Going back to when I was backing up Russ [Wilson in 2023], I’ve prepared the same, every single week, like I am the starter,” Stidham said. “It just hasn’t, obviously, been that way, minus two weeks. So my preparation hasn’t changed one bit.”
