Jarrett Stidham Could Join Tom Brady, Others In Exclusive NFL Club With AFC Championship Game Win

Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham spent his 2019 rookie season backing up Tom Brady during the latter’s final campaign with the New England Patriots.

Following Bo Nix’s season-ending ankle injury, Stidham has a chance to lead the Broncos past the Patriots into the Super Bowl when the teams play in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

The former fourth-round pick can also join Brady and a handful of others in an exclusive club of signal-callers to lead their team to the Super Bowl following injuries to the starter.

Jordy Fee-Platt of The Athletic discussed on Tuesday eight quarterbacks in NFL history who have accomplished the feat.

“Stidham has just four career NFL starts, so it will be a tall task for him to win two playoff games. But he is far from the first quarterback to attempt this feat,” Fee-Platt wrote. “In fact, several backup signal callers have succeeded in taking their teams to the Super Bowl following midseason injuries to starters. Many inherited situations that were far worse than what Stidham is facing.”

Among the men under center to take over the starting job and get their group to the big game are 1971 first overall pick Jim Plunkett (1980 season), Hall of Famer Kurt Warner (1999), Brady (2001), Colin Kaepernick (2012) and one-time Pro Bowler Nick Foles (2017).

“In Week 2 of the 2001 season, Patriots starter Drew Bledsoe suffered internal bleeding from a hit by Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. New England started 0-2, but Brady went 11-3 as the starter, and the Patriots won the AFC East and earned a first-round bye,” Fee-Platt said. “Thanks to some help from the ‘Tuck Rule,’ Brady beat the Oakland Raiders in a blizzard in the divisional round. He injured his knee in the second quarter of the AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, as Bledsoe replaced him and won the game. However, Brady returned for the Super Bowl and helped New England beat the St. Louis Rams 20-17 as 14-point underdogs. And the rest is history.”

Stidham will look to become just the second quarterback since 1950 to make his first start of the season in the playoffs and win. The only other player to accomplish that feat was Frank Reich during the 1992 campaign.