Super Bowl backup QBs have shined from Hostetler to Foles

Brock Purdy’s bid to join the select group of quarterbacks to go from a backup for most of the season to a Super Bowl starter got derailed when he suffered his own injury in the NFC championship game.

Purdy’s elbow injury helped contribute to San Francisco’s 31-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles that set the stage for a Super Bowl matchup of first and second team All-Pro quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts instead of another improbable story.

There have been several examples of backups leading a team to the big game with the most recent coming in the 2017 season when Nick Foles took over in Philadelphia for the final three games of the regular season after Carson Wentz got hurt.

Foles struggled at first before a storybook finish, becoming the only QB ever to throw for at least 350 yards and three TDs in the conference title game and Super Bowl in the same season to outduel Tom Brady for the championship with a 4133 win.

“I wasn’t worrying about the scoreboard, I wasn’t worrying about the time, I was just playing ball,” Foles said after that game. “I think sometimes you start worrying about that too much, it starts creeping in your brain. I was just playing.”

Foles was the 14th quarterback to start the Super Bowl after not holding that role for the season opener, including Brady (2016) and Ben Roethlisberger (2010), who were suspended to start those seasons. The others fall into a few categories.

There were those who seized the job early in the season such as Jake Delhomme did for Carolina when he replaced Rodney Peete at halftime of the 2003 season opener; Brady when he stepped in for an injured Drew Bledsoe in Week 3 in 2001; and Joe Kapp, who replaced Gary Cuozzo for Minnesota in the second game in 1969.