As a quarterback in the NFL, winning the Super Bowl is treated as the pinnacle. A player can rack up all of the yardage and touchdowns he wants, even the season-long accolades, but for some reason, fans and the media alike seem to treat them differently if they aren’t able to secure a Lombardi Trophy during the course of their career.
That, however, isn’t always fair—as there are a number of circumstances that can dictate whether or not a guy ends up getting a shot at even playing in the Super Bowl, let alone winning it. In fact, we have seen more than a handful of quarterbacks, who have had the good fortune to win a Super Bowl that, frankly, can’t hold a candle to a few signal callers who finished their careers ringless.
Let’s take a look back at the five greatest quarterbacks of all time to never win a championship—and the five who did that definitely don’t deserve it.
Worst – Jim McMahon
Jim McMahon was an integral part of the identity of the legendary 1985 Chicago Bears, who dominated all year—including the Super Bowl, which they womped the New England Patriots in.
In fact, they were one of the most dominant teams we have ever seen… Just look at the warpath they tore on the way to that win over New England.
In the first two rounds of the playoffs, they shut out the Giants and Rams by a combined score of 45 to 0, then proceeded to light up New England 46 to 10.
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McMahon played well during that stretch, but most of what he had to do was complementary to that ridiculously good defense… And when you look at the broader view of his career, honestly, he is one of the worst quarterbacks that we’ve ever seen win a Super Bowl.
Granted, injuries played a role in limiting his counting numbers, but the reality is that McMahon was a glorified game manager—just with a whole lot of spunk.
Greatest to Never Win – Philip Rivers
In many ways, Philip Rivers was like this recent generation’s Dan Marino. He was extremely talented and had success very early on in his career with those high-flying Chargers offenses. The issue with Rivers, like Marino, was that once the postseason rolled around it always seemed like something would go awry and he and his squad would come up short.
It was particularly shocking to watch this play out with Rivers because there was just so much talent on those Chargers teams… On the offensive side of the ball in particular.
Throughout his career, he had guys like Landian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Keenan Allen, and others, at his disposal. It always seemed like a foregone conclusion that eventually, the Chargers would find a way to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
But alas…
Rivers was also one of the most likable players in the league, which made his consistent shortcomings all the more painful to watch. He was so competitive and fiery on the field and known as one of the best leaders in the game.
Unfortunately, all of his skills, both the impressive physical traits and the intangibles, were not enough to elevate his team during crunch time when it needed him to.
Worst – Nick Foles
All things considered; Nick Foles has had one of the most puzzling NFL careers that we’ve seen in recent history.
First, he had the one ridiculous season in Philadelphia where he got slotted in as the starter due to injury and played the position nearly flawlessly…
Then, after a couple of failed attempts as a starter, Foles ended up back in Philly, where another injury, this time, to Carson Wentz opened up an opportunity for him to step in as the starter and, well, to say that he took advantage of it would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Behind Nick Foles, the Eagles marched all the way to the Super Bowl, where Foles shocked the world and outdueled Tom Brady—securing the win and MVP honors in the process.
And then… just like that… Foles seemed to turn right back into a pumpkin.
So while he certainly deserves all the credit in the world for the way that he performed during that run, there is no confusing Nick Foles with a true star quarterback, like most of the guys that are able to lead their team to wins in the Super Bowl.
Sad to say because the story is awesome and he seems like a great guy, but based on the totality of his career, Foles is definitely one of the worst starting quarterbacks we’ve ever seen win the Big Game.
Greatest to Never Win – Warren Moon
The story of Warren Moon’s professional football odyssey is one to behold. He started his professional career not in the NFL at all, but in Edmonton, as a member of the Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.
During his time with Edmonton, he led the team to five consecutive Grey Cup—their equivalent of the Super Bowl—wins. Despite the astronomical success he had up north, it took some time for NFL scouts to wise up and accept that Moon was cut out for the NFL playstyle.
And once he finally got to the NFL, well, he never looked back. Over his 17-year NFL career, he threw for a ridiculous 49325 passing yards, placing him among the top passers in NFL history, despite missing a good chunk of his prime while he was up in Canada.
Moon was also named a Pro Bowl in nine—over half—of his NFL seasons. Unfortunately… Despite the elite level of success he achieved as an individual, Moon’s teams continually fell short of Super Bowl glory.
His career was still good enough to land Moon in Canton, where he was inducted in 2006, but there is no doubt that it feels slightly incomplete without the championship.
Worst – Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is another example of a very middle-of-the-road—to put it nicely—quarterback who was able to win a Super Bowl on the strength of an all-time great defense.
There is a reason that when people look back on those Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that won Super Bowl XXXVII they talk about Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks, guys like that, and not the signal caller like you would tend to expect!
Those Bucs teams were built around that defense—and they built it well, as evidenced by the roughshod they ran on the Raiders during the Big Game that year.
And when people look back on the offense, it wasn’t even like Johnson even played a complementary role… The offense ran through the running game and everyone just crossed their fingers that Johnson wouldn’t mess anything up.
Hard to say that with that description, Johnson overly deserved a ring that he got on the strength of that Bucs defense.
Greatest to Never Win – Fran Tarkenton
Fran Tarkenton was not only one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, but he was also a fundamental game-changer for the position and subsequently the game of football.
Tarkenton possessed a mobility that was rare at the time and was able to extend plays in the way that we see many modern quarterbacks do nowadays.
While he was with the Vikings he put up gaudy numbers on a semi-regular basis—so much so—that when he retired he was the NFL’s all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns, which, obviously is no small feat.
He just couldn’t quite manage to get the job done in the biggest moments… In fact, he was kind of a precursor to Jim Kelly in many ways, as Tarkenton led the Vikings to three Super Bowl appearances, but they couldn’t walk away with a single win—making the experience all the more painful for Fran—not to mention the Vikings dedicated fan base!
Worst – Jeff Hostetler
While Jeff Hostetler deserves a lot of credit for the role he played in helping the New York Giants win Super Bowl XXV (15), as he was forced to step in mid-season for an injured Phil Simms, make no mistake about it, Hostetler was not exactly a Super Bowl-caliber quarterback.
Heck… The rest of his career tells the story of a man, who was hardly an NFL-starting caliber quarterback.
Like we said, it is super impressive that he was able to get slotted in when the team needed him and deliver, but all things considered, he simply wasn’t a very good NFL quarterback, particularly in the context of the QBs that were able to lead their team to Super Bowl wins.
Greatest to Never Win– Dan Marino
Whenever the topic of best quarterbacks never to win a Super Bowl comes up, Dan Marino always seems to be one of the first names that gets brought up. Not only was he one of the greatest quarterbacks of his time, but even compared to today’s ballooned passing metrics, his career numbers were able to stand the test of time.
Of course, some of the numerous records that he set during his Hall of Fame career were – and will continue to be – broken… That is an unavoidable reality with the way that the game is trending, but when you look back at what he was able to accomplish during his playing days, it really is ridiculous. He held some of the most important passing records in the game at the time of his retirement, including touchdown passes and yards and, honestly, changed the way that the position was played.
And he did it fast—as he had immediate success once he stepped onto the NFL gridiron.
Marino was a transcendent talent, plain and simple… The only problem? He was never able to get over the home and secure a Lombardi Trophy for the Dolphins.
It was one of the more puzzling ones to fans too because he made it so early in his career that there was always this sort of assumption that it was just a matter of time before he was going to win one… An assumption that ultimately ended up being proven dead wrong.
What made this entire experience all the more painful—and, well, humiliating for Marino—is that his final season and last attempt at winning a ring ended in a MASSIVE embarrassment. His Dolphins were absolutely decimated by the upstart Jaguars and, thus, Marino limped off into retirement without ever accomplishing his goal of winning a Super Bowl.
Worst – Trent Dilfer
The same way that Dan Marino is regularly referenced as a top quarterback to never win a Super Bowl… Trent Dilfer gets his name thrown around with an almost as dubious bunch—the group of worst quarterbacks to back their way into a title.
Dilfer was the starting quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens in Super Bowl XXXV (35) and while his name will obviously forever be cemented in history as a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, so too will the debate of how much he really contributed to it.
Which, spoiler alert, the general consensus seems to be not so much…
It is actually an interesting thought experiment to look back at the NFL landscape at the time—and just how dominant the Ravens’ defense was and wonder just how bad of a quarterback could they have had and still managed to get the job done with?
Dilfer was mediocre at best, but with the way that that defense lit up the Giants it felt like they could’ve grabbed a staffer from the equipment room, but him at a quarterback and still had a chance to win!
Sorry, Trent… No hard feelings, but we know we aren’t telling you something you haven’t heard already!
Greatest to Never Win – Cam Newton
While Cam Newton’s NFL career is not technically over at this point… at a minimum—it is on life support.
But man… When things were going good for Cam—he was darn fun to watch. Newton hit the ground running after entering the NFL as the first overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft, almost immediately establishing himself as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.
Though he struggled with precision passing at times, his arm was among the strongest in the league and when he was at his best, he could make throws that no one else could make. And, of course, the secret ingredient in what really made him Superman was the blistering speed and impressive physicality that he could run the football with.
Honestly, when he was healthy, Cam Newton was truly unstoppable. Across his career, he totaled over 31,000 passing yards, more than 5,000 rushing yards, and over 240 combined passing and rushing touchdowns.
The one thing that was missing was the Super Bowl win. His best chance came in 2015 when he won NFL MVP honors and marched the Panthers to a 15 and 1 record and a Super Bowl appearance… which, well, we all know how that one ended… With a business decision and a painful loss.
