There have been 14 Super Bowl rings handed out to quarterbacks selected 1st overall in the NFL Draft. With this year’s Andrew Luck, the total number of QBs selected numero uno is now at 20 (in the Modern Era which started off in 1970 with Terry Bradshaw).
Based on those numbers, it looks like 70% of these lucky slingers are at some point in their careers leading their teams to the promised land. Well, as much as I don’t want to ruin the parade the Colts are already throwing for Andrew Luck , that statistic is very misleading.
Although there have been 14 Super Bowls won by QBs who went first in the draft, those wins are shared by only 6 of the 20 QBs.
"Hey bro, wanna borrow a Super Bowl ring? I have a spare one." - E.M.
That’s right, only 30% of quarterbacks selected first overall have ever won a SB! Take a guess who the last two were…
If you said the Mannings, you are correct, sir!
Payton and his younger brother Eli are the last two, 1st overall picks to hoist up the Lombardi Trophy.
The other 4 quarterbacks that went no.1 and won a Super Bowl are:
Winning like a boss...four times
Terry Bradshaw (1970) with 4 SB rings
Jim Plunkett (1971) with 2 SB rings
John Elway (1983) with 2 SB rings
Troy Aikman (1989) with 3 SB rings
With Payton (1998) 1 SB and Eli (2004) (now with 2 SB rings), that’s 14 folks.
The other QBs selected 1st overall that have not gone on to win the Big Game:
Steve Bartkowski, Jeff George, Vinny Testaverde, Drew Bledsoe, Tim Couch, Michael Vick, David Carr, Carson Palmer, Alex Smith, JaMarcus Russell, Matthew Stafford, Sam Bradford and last year’s no.1 pick Cam Newton.
Ok, now obviously we can’t expect Newton to already have a SB win in his first season and Bradford plays for the Rams so that’s excuse enough. Stafford is probably on his way to making an appearance in the big dance, but if Megatron falls victim to the Madden Curse, say bye bye to that chance for the Lions.
JaMarcus Russell doesn’t deserve to be mentioned as having actually played in the NFL, and David Carr had to deal with an expansion team, so we’ll give him a mulligan, too.
"I totally play football, suuure."
However, Palmer, Smith, and Vick have all had the teams around them to lead into a Super Bowl, but all have fallen short.
Bledsoe got screwed by an injury and a little unknown player you may have heard of, a one Tom “I have 3 SB rings, a super model wife and we are the richest celebrity couple in the world” Brady? Ya, that guy.
But even if you remove Russell, Newton, Bradford, and Stafford, that still makes 6 out of 16. Even if we are really generous and take out Bledsoe as well, 6 out of 15. Ok, we’ll even take out Testaverde and Couch just to be nice and our total number of champion QBs is still only 6 out of 13, still less than half.
Of course, that’s just math, the real indicator of who will eventually go on to win a Super Bowl is time. Only time will tell if Luck and the other 3 quarterbacks who all went no.1 over the last 4 drafts will ever be champs.
But there is one other statistic that should gave the Colts faithful some real hope:
The last two players selected 1st overall from Stanford were… John Elway and Jim Plunkett, both 2 time Super Bowl Champions.
Andrew Luck to the Super Bowl? At least once.
On a side note, Rogert Griffin III is the 5 QB taken 2nd overall in since 1970. If he wins a Super Bowl, he’ll be the first one from this group to do so. Good luck with that, Redskins.
No one is to say the "P" word around me, ever! This is Luck's world now.
