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Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 2:42 am
by SeahawkFever
How would you all rank the quarterbacks who started and lost a Super Bowl at least once, and never won a Super Bowl as a starting quarterback in their careers.
In chronological order the quarterbacks are:
Daryle Lamonica
Earl Morrall
Joe Kapp
Craig Morton
Billy Kilmer
Fran Tarkenton
Vince Ferragamo
Ron Jaworski
Ken Anderson
David Woodley
Dan Marino
Steve Grogan
Boomer Esiason
Jim Kelly
Stan Humphries
Neil O’Donnell
Drew Bledsoe
Chris Chandler
Steve McNair
Kerry Collins
Rich Gannon
Jake Delhomme
Donovan McNabb
Matt Hasselbeck
Rex Grossman
Colin Kaepernick
Cam Newton
Matt Ryan
Jared Goff
Jimmy Garappolo
Joe Burrow
Brock Purdy
Drake Maye
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 11:40 am
by saturdaysarebetter
I would go Marino one. Marino choked in big games at every level.
In the regular season, he was good enough to beat the '85 Bears. However, in the post-season, he couldn't beat the '85 Patriots - at home - in Miami - and was badly outplayed by the "great" Tony Eason. No defense? He was drafted by a team that was just in the Super Bowl. Do you think David Woodley's passing got them there or was it the Killer B's defense? Woodley took the Dolphins to as many Super Bowls as Marino in far fewer seasons.
Five times in his career Marino had a top 10 defense in points allowed. Three times he had a top five defense. Twice he had a defense that led the league in fewest points allowed. How'd that work out for two-turnover Danny?
No running game? Another myth. Plenty of examples of teams that won a Super Bowl with far less of a running game than Marino had in Miami. The greats are supposed to elevate lesser talent. Brady won 4 rings handing off to Antwain Smith, Sony Michel & Leonard Fournette. Manning won his with Joseph Addai & CJ Anderson as his RBs. Mahomes has had Damian Williams and Isaiah Pacheco. Montana won with Earl Cooper. Rodgers had some guy named Brandon Jackson.
What was the excuse at Pitt? Bobby Bowden said that Pitt's 1980 team was the greatest college football team he ever saw. He had it all at Pitt and still choked in big games throwing three interceptions against Florida State and then four against Penn State costing Pitt two national championships. No Marino fan ever answers what happened at Pitt because it blows all their mythical excuses protecting Teflon Dan to bits.
Check out his performances in all the Dolphins' post-season losses. Zero rings at every level. Stats don't lie. It's hard to defeat a good team when your quarterback throws two interceptions or more. When Marino retired, he led the NFL in career pick sixes thrown with 29.
Marino choked in big games: stats don't lie:
'83 playoff team vs Seattle 2 Ints 77.6 QBR
'84 SB vs SF 2 ints 66.9 QBR
'85 vs NE at home 2 ints 54.9 QBR
'90 vs Buffalo 2 ints 72.1 QBR
'92 vs Buffalo at home 2 ints 56.5 QBR
The only playoff loss he played well
'94 vs SD 0 ints 109.8 QBR
1995 vs Buffalo 3 ints 63.4 QBR
1997 vs NE 2 ints 29.3 QBR!
1998 vs Denv 2 ints 65.5 QBR
1999 vs Jax 2 ints 34.6 QBR!
Marino played for not just one but TWO hall of fame coaches that BOTH WON TWO SUPER BOWLS without Dan Marino. They knew how to win Super Bowls. Marino choked in big games. At every level. Even high school.
Kelly at two. Tarkenton at three.
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 1:29 pm
by CSKreager
saturdaysarebetter wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2026 11:40 am
I would go Marino one. Marino choked in big games at every level.
In the regular season, he was good enough to beat the '85 Bears. However, in the post-season, he couldn't beat the '85 Patriots - at home - in Miami - and was badly outplayed by the "great" Tony Eason. No defense? He was drafted by a team that was just in the Super Bowl. Do you think David Woodley's passing got them there or was it the Killer B's defense? Woodley took the Dolphins to as many Super Bowls as Marino in far fewer seasons.
Five times in his career Marino had a top 10 defense in points allowed. Three times he had a top five defense. Twice he had a defense that led the league in fewest points allowed. How'd that work out for two-turnover Danny?
No running game? Another myth. Plenty of examples of teams that won a Super Bowl with far less of a running game than Marino had in Miami. The greats are supposed to elevate lesser talent. Brady won 4 rings handing off to Antwain Smith, Sony Michel & Leonard Fournette. Manning won his with Joseph Addai & CJ Anderson as his RBs. Mahomes has had Damian Williams and Isaiah Pacheco. Montana won with Earl Cooper. Rodgers had some guy named Brandon Jackson.
What was the excuse at Pitt? Bobby Bowden said that Pitt's 1980 team was the greatest college football team he ever saw. He had it all at Pitt and still choked in big games throwing three interceptions against Florida State and then four against Penn State costing Pitt two national championships. No Marino fan ever answers what happened at Pitt because it blows all their mythical excuses protecting Teflon Dan to bits.
Check out his performances in all the Dolphins' post-season losses. Zero rings at every level. Stats don't lie. It's hard to defeat a good team when your quarterback throws two interceptions or more. When Marino retired, he led the NFL in career pick sixes thrown with 29.
Marino choked in big games: stats don't lie:
'83 playoff team vs Seattle 2 Ints 77.6 QBR
'84 SB vs SF 2 ints 66.9 QBR
'85 vs NE at home 2 ints 54.9 QBR
'90 vs Buffalo 2 ints 72.1 QBR
'92 vs Buffalo at home 2 ints 56.5 QBR
The only playoff loss he played well
'94 vs SD 0 ints 109.8 QBR
1995 vs Buffalo 3 ints 63.4 QBR
1997 vs NE 2 ints 29.3 QBR!
1998 vs Denv 2 ints 65.5 QBR
1999 vs Jax 2 ints 34.6 QBR!
Marino played for not just one but TWO hall of fame coaches that BOTH WON TWO SUPER BOWLS without Dan Marino. They knew how to win Super Bowls. Marino choked in big games. At every level. Even high school.
Kelly at two. Tarkenton at three.
And then you have a guy like Mark Rypien who lucked into a SB
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 1:45 pm
by Brian wolf
Interesting argument but I also dont believe Marino choked as much as you thought.
--During Marino's entire career, he had ONE RB who gained over 1000 yards rushing in a season, when that happened he was well past his prime. His best team running game was his rookie season, led by the underrated Tony Nathan where the Dolphins ran for over 2000 yards collectively. They never did that again and also lost their esteemed DC in Bill Arnsparger after the season, who had helped build a great pass defense for that Woodley-led Dolphins SB team in 1982/83. Unfortunately, due to a terrible second half of football from Woodley, the defense wore down and gave up the huge TD to Riggins.
--Marino did have the two interceptions in the SB loss to SF but both came after the Niners had built a 38-16 lead on the Dolphins. Miami's defense was non-existent in this game, with SF going up 28-10 in the second quarter.
--Marino did have a tough loss to NE in the 1985 AFC Championship game but once again, the Dolphins defense was terrible, giving up 255 yards rushing and 3 TDs from Eason off of only 10 completions. It didnt help that the Dolphins lost four fumbles in the game.
--Marino had the two interceptions against Buffalo in the snow of the 1990 divisional loss to Buffalo but was playing catch-up the entire game as he rallied the Dolphins from a 27-10 deficit. He got them to within 30-27, before the Bills finally pulled away.
--Marino finally had better defenses with Jimmy Johnson as HC, but even with OT Richmond Webb, who should be in the HOF, the Dolphins running game was still pedestrian and Marino was well past his prime. Even in the two losses to Denver and Jax in the playoffs, the defenses and Marino played bad.
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 2:13 pm
by saturdaysarebetter
So what's your excuse for him at Pitt?
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 2:37 pm
by Brian wolf
Youre right Saturdays, Marino had those bad bowl games and didnt have a very good senior season with younger receivers. Had it not been for his bomb to beat GA, he would have lost all his postseason games which helped hurt his draft status.
Gunslinging thrower or not, his career would have been different had he been drafted by the Steelers, who would have given him a better running game and defense. Marino did win alot of games and choked some playoff games like you said, but Shula didnt give those teams enough surrounding talent, especially on defense. Other than holdovers from the early 80s, Offerdahl, Oliver , Coleman, and Vincent were the only talented defenders that Miami drafted after 1984. They got Bryan Cox but he played better after leaving the Dolphins. Johnson also drafted Taylor, Thomas, Madison and Surtain.
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 3:06 pm
by saturdaysarebetter
At Pitt, it wasn’t Marino didn’t have a defense or a great team around him, he had everything, and in the 1980 game against Florida State, Marino would throw three interceptions as Pitt lost 36-22.
Also in 1980, Marino threw FIVE interceptions in a game against Boston College and he would also throw FOUR interceptions against Army.
In 1981, with Pitt undefeated and ranked #1 in the country, the Panthers hosted #11 Penn State. Win at home and Pitt would be playing in a bowl game for the national championship. In what would be and still is the largest modern margin of defeat for a number-one ranked team ever, Pitt would lose 48-14 as Marino threw four interceptions.
That was not the first time Marino threw four interceptions in a game in 1981, but the third time that season! The other two being against Syracuse and Temple, hardly football powers as they paled in talent compared to Pitt. Marino would throw 21 interceptions in 1981.
In his senior year of 1982, in 11 games he would throw 22 interceptions to only 17 touchdown passes. That is an average of two interceptions a game. Marino threw three interceptions against Temple, Syracuse and Army, and four against North Carolina and Illinois.
Marino threw 64 interceptions in college. That's a typo. Despite missing some playing time with injuries. His 64 interceptions is sixth all-time in interceptions thrown in college more than 40 years later in a passing era. He always was a turnover machine.
Anyone ever recall Marino audibling out of a pass play and calling a draw play? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 3:35 pm
by Brian wolf
Youre right, he could throw interceptions. He had super confidence in his arm which is why Shula never ran the ball enough. Similar to Stafford in Detroit. Coaches were going to put the ball in their QBs hands. Even Kuechenberg complained about Marino's unwillingness to run the ball. It really was incredible looking at the Dolphin's draft picks throughout the 80s and early 90s. Whiffed on alot of players.
Jim Kelly and Fran Tarkenton also made the HOF out of that group. Lamonica had been a great QB in the AFL.
The worst QBs out of those conference champions were Woodley and Grossman. Eason should have substituted for Grogan. He didnt do much either.
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 6:20 pm
by saturdaysarebetter
Do we put Ken Anderson at #4? Near HOFer.
Re: Ranking the Losing Super Bowl Starting Quarterbacks
Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2026 6:41 pm
by Brian wolf
Anderson could be #4 but others might take Ryan, Lamonica, McNabb and McNair as well? Yes, these QBs lost SBs but so did Dawson, Griese, Staubach, Theismann, Elway, Favre, Warner, Brady, P Manning, Roethlisberger, Wilson, Mahomes and Hurts as well, which shows that even the HOF QBs could lose when it counted. Who would have thought that Dilfer and Johnson would win rings? Fouts, Moon, Gabriel and Cunningham couldnt get there.