Jalen Hurts made history by returning to the Super Bowl after losing his first appearance as a starting quarterback.
Now, he will try to become the fourth quarterback to win the Super Bowl after losing his first start in the big game.
Hurts came close two years ago when Philadelphia lost 38-35 to Kansas City in Glendale, Arizona. With a win next week in New Orleans, Hurts would be the first quarterback since John Elway 27 years ago to win a Super Bowl as a starter after losing in his first appearance.
Out of the 36 quarterbacks who lost their first Super Bowl, only two have come back to win it as starters: Kansas City’s Len Dawson, who lost Super Bowl 1 and then won three years later, and Miami’s Bob Griese, who lost in Super Bowl 6 and won the next year.
It is rare for a quarterback like Hurts to return to the Super Bowl after losing their first time. He broke a streak of 19 straight quarterbacks who didn’t make it back after their first loss in the big game. The last one to return was Buffalo’s Jim Kelly, who lost four Super Bowls from 1990-1993.
Hurts will once again face Patrick Mahomes, who will tie John Elway with the second-most Super Bowl starts by a quarterback when he plays his fifth next week, just behind Tom Brady’s 10. With a win, Mahomes would join Brady (six), Terry Bradshaw (four), and Joe Montana (four) as the only quarterbacks with four Super Bowl rings.
Mahomes will be making his fifth Super Bowl appearance, a rare feat for quarterbacks in the AFC. In the last 22 years, only six quarterbacks from the AFC have started a Super Bowl, with Brady leading the pack with eight, Peyton Manning with four, and Ben Roethlisberger with three. Joe Flacco and Joe Burrow each have one appearance since 2003.
The NFC has seen a much different pattern, with 19 quarterbacks starting 22 Super Bowls, including Brady with Tampa Bay. Hurts joins Russell Wilson and Eli Manning as the only quarterbacks to start two Super Bowls for an NFC team since 2003.
Run to daylight
The Philadelphia Eagles made their way to the Super Bowl by dominating the ground game.
In the NFC title game against Washington, the Eagles tied an NFL playoff record with seven touchdown runs, matching the mark set by Chicago in the 1940 NFL title game.
Hurts scored three of those touchdowns, while Saquon Barkley added three more, including a record-setting seventh touchdown run of at least 60 yards this season. The only other teammates to score three touchdowns each in a regular-season or playoff game since 1940 were Priest Holmes (four) and Derrick Blaylock (three) for Kansas City in a 56-10 win over Atlanta on October 24, 2004.
The Eagles also set a new record for the most rushing yards in a season, with 3,731 yards in the regular season and playoffs. The previous record was 3,535 yards, set by Miami in its perfect 17-0 season in 1972. Baltimore also surpassed that mark with 3,664 rushing yards.
The Eagles now have a chance to break their own record for the most touchdown runs in a season. They have 39 heading into the Super Bowl, just three shy of the record they set in 2022.
Tough-luck Allen
Josh Allen once again lost in a playoff matchup against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Allen is the first quarterback to ever lose four playoff games to another QB, although most of the blame shouldn’t fall on him.
In those four playoff games against the Chiefs, Allen has a 100.2 passer rating with 11 combined touchdown passes and runs, along with just one turnover.
His career playoff passer rating of 101.5 ranks fourth among the 74 quarterbacks with at least six playoff starts in the Super Bowl era. The top three are Super Bowl winners: Mahomes (105.6), Kurt Warner (102.8), and Matthew Stafford (102.3). Allen’s seven career playoff wins are the most by any quarterback who hasn’t made it to the Super Bowl.
The Bills have become the first team to win at least 11 games for five straight seasons without reaching a Super Bowl, surpassing the previous record of four seasons by San Francisco (1995-98) and Philadelphia (2000-03).
Coaching carousel
The coaching changes are nearly complete, with the New Orleans Saints being the only team that fired its head coach but hasn’t yet hired a replacement.
This year’s coaching hires include four coordinators promoted to head coach for the first time and two returning coaches. Former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel is now in New England, while Pete Carroll was hired in Las Vegas after coaching the Jets, Patriots, and Seahawks.
Carroll joins Bill Parcells and Marty Schottenheimer as the only coaches since 1940 to have had non-interim head coaching stints with four different franchises.
With Carroll’s addition, the division now has an impressive lineup of coaches, including Kansas City’s Andy Reid, who has 301 career wins and is aiming for his fourth Super Bowl title.
Denver’s Sean Payton (179 wins) and Carroll (181) have a combined total of 360 wins, with both having won Super Bowls. Jim Harbaugh of the Chargers has a .685 winning percentage over five seasons as a head coach, one Super Bowl appearance, and a college national championship.
Harbaugh will try to join Carroll, Jimmy Johnson, and Barry Switzer as the only coaches to win championships in both college and the NFL.
The AFC West will be the first division to start a season with every head coach having previously appeared in a Super Bowl. The 1999 NFC West came close, with Atlanta’s Dan Reeves, Carolina’s George Seifert, New Orleans’ Mike Ditka, and St. Louis’ Dick Vermeil all having Super Bowl experience, with San Francisco’s Steve Mariucci as the exception.
Two divisions didn’t have any coaching changes: the NFC West and AFC North. This is nothing new for the AFC North, which last saw a coaching change after the 2019 season when Cleveland hired Kevin Stefanski to replace Freddie Kitchens.
Next season will mark the sixth consecutive year with the same four head coaches in the AFC North, setting a record for the longest stretch without a coaching change. This surpasses the previous record of four straight seasons for the NFC Central (1978-81) and the NFC West (2019-22).
