Mahomes, Hurts buoy SB teams amid QB injuries

(AP) - The Chiefs and Eagles are bringing MVP finalists Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts to the Super Bowl to cap a season in which the NFL had a glaring amount of instability at quarterback. A total of 68 QBS started at least one game, a record for a non-strike year. Nearly half of all changes during the regular season were because of injuries at the most important position, despite the league’s efforts to try to keep QBS healthy. A record 13 teams used at least three starters, including the San Francisco 49ers, whose season ended in the NFC title game when they had no healthy quarterbacks available.

It matters that Patrick Mahomes is spectacularly talented, of course. Might matter just as much that he is almost always available for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Same goes for the Philadelphia Eagles and Jalen Hurts. Those are big reasons the Chiefs and Eagles will meet in the Super Bowl — with AP NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year finalists Mahomes and Hurts taking the snaps — on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona. Sure, the San Francisco 49ers nearly managed to make it all the way to the championship game with a last-pick-of-thedraft rookie bumped all the way up to starter from No. 3 on the depth chart because of injuries to others. But then Brock Purdy hurt his elbow in the NFC title game at Philadelphia, leaving the Niners to try to rely on journeyman Josh Johnson, until he got a concussion ... meaning Purdy needed to go back in ... despite being unable to throw.

“That,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said, “was kind of just hard to stomach.”

This season revealed, like never before, a glaring amount of instability at quarterback in the NFL, whether because of injury — the reason for nearly half of all changes during the regular season, according to an AP analysis — or poor performance. A total of 68 QBS started at least one game, an average of more than two per team and a record for a non-strike year.

What’s more: 13 clubs, another high, needed to use at least three starters at the most important position in this, or any, sport. Some even turned to four — with the Arizona Cardinals using that many starting quarterbacks in a span of just four weeks.

Quarterback shuffling can go a long way toward altering a team’s trajectory, as the Jets, Titans and Panthers found out on their way to missing the playoffs. The Dolphins made the postseason despite losing Tua Tagovailoa to a series of concussions, then had backup Teddy Bridgewater dislocate his pinky, leaving them with third-string rookie Skylar Thompson and his 18-for-45, two-interception performance in their wild-card elimination.

“When you, as a defender, see a guy at quarterback who has not played a lot, you are going to lick your chops and you assume he’s not going to be in rhythm and you assume he’s not going to be ready to go,” Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott said. “Our coach, Bill Walsh, basically said, ‘Hey, Ronnie, a team’s only as good as the backup quarterback, because if the backup quarterback can’t come in and do the things he needs to be able to do, a team is going to be in trouble.’”

And keeping the starter upright is almost always needed for success.

The top five regular-season teams in the AFC, including the Chiefs, had their No. 1 QB available for every regular-season game (and when Mahomes did leave a playoff game with a bad ankle, Chad Henne came in and delivered, leading a 98-yard TD drive in what turned out to be a seven-point victory).

In all, nine of the 14 participants in the postseason never had to turn to a backup QB to start.

The Eagles came close: Hurts missed two games with a bad shoulder; Philadelphia went 0-2 with Gardner Minshew in his place.

“When you, as a defender, see a guy at quarterback who has not played a lot, you are going to lick your chops”

Hall of Fame defensive back Ronnie Lott