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2025 AFC Championship Game Preview: Bizarro AFC Leads to Drake Maye vs. Jarrett Stidham

Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar22/01/2026 - 09:09 am
(Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images)

More than anything in the 2025 NFL season, the AFC has been turned upside down, which is the only way you end up with an AFC Championship Game between the Denver Broncos and New England Patriots. Throw in some terrible injury misfortune for Denver, and that’s how you get an unprecedented situation of Jarrett Stidham having to start at quarterback with a spot in Super Bowl LX on the line.

How did we get here, how can the Broncos win this game without Bo Nix, and who even is Jarrett Stidham? It’s a different format from our in-depth NFC Championship Game preview, but that’s because there’s not much sense in acting like this matchup is a normal championship game.

For instance, these teams haven’t met since Christmas Eve 2023, a game where Bailey Zappe and Russell Wilson were the starting quarterbacks. Nothing of value there. The season stats for Denver’s offense are even hard to cite when we just don’t know what we’re getting out of the quarterback position this week.

Sean Payton can either cement his legacy by getting this team to the Super Bowl with Stidham, or it’s going to be Mike Vrabel in his first season with the Patriots getting a chance for his franchise to repeat Super Bowl 36 or 49 (or 53) by beating the Rams or Seahawks in two weeks.

New England Patriots at Denver Broncos (+4.5, O/U 42.5)

The No. 2 New England Patriots (16-3) will take on the No. 1 Denver Broncos (15-3) this Sunday afternoon in Denver. Even Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were 0-3 in Denver in the postseason, but the Patriots are getting the most unexpected of breaks in drawing backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham, hence the big spread movement of a full touchdown from Nix to Stidham.

But crazier upsets have happened in NFL playoff history, and Mile High has always been a good home-field advantage.

How Did We Even Get Here?

Who let these schedule merchants take over the party?

On paper, it’s the top two seeds in the conference, who just happened to have the two easiest schedules in the NFL this year. That’s another reason why this rematch from the 2015 season feels like a one-off and things should get back to normal next year. The winner of this game is going to be at least a 3.5-point underdog in the Super Bowl against the Rams or Seahawks.

But what a strange year in the AFC to get to this point:

  • The Chiefs and Bengals, who met in the AFC Championship Game in 2021 and 2022, both had a losing record and missed the playoffs.
  • The Steelers eliminated the Ravens before the playoffs, yet Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh are both out of a job in the AFC North now.
  • Coming into 2025, the Bills were favored to earn the No. 1 seed for the first time in the Josh Allen era. Instead, they lost more games than last year, they didn’t win the AFC East for the first time since 2019, they were eliminated a round earlier, and they fired coach Sean McDermott after nine seasons.
  • The Chargers still can’t win a playoff game in the Justin Herbert era, and the Texans are still 0-7 in the AFC Divisional Round.

If ever there was a time for the Patriots and Broncos to take advantage of a weakened AFC, this was the year to do it while their second-year quarterbacks are on cheap rookie contracts.

But not only do the Patriots and Broncos have the common bond of facing an easy schedule, they also have won a historic number of games after trailing this season:

  • The 2025 Broncos have the single-season record for most games won after trailing at any point in the regular season (12) and when you include the playoffs (13).
  • The 2025 Broncos and 2025 Patriots both won nine games after trailing against teams with losing records, the most in NFL history.
  • The 2025 Patriots are the only team in NFL history to play 14 teams with a losing record and to have 13 wins against such teams.
  • The 2025 Broncos tied the single-season record (including playoffs) with an 8th game-winning drive last week against Buffalo.
  • The 2025 Broncos are just the second team in NFL history to win 14 games with a scoring differential under +100 (they were +90), and that’s even after getting to play nine games against quarterbacks who were benched (3), backups (4), or green rookies (2). That number does not include the win over Houston where C.J. Stroud was concussed, though to be fair, Davis Mills might have been the tougher quarterback to face this year.
  • The Patriots have also won their last nine games against quarterbacks who were benched/backups/rookies, and that doesn’t include their comeback in Baltimore in a game Lamar Jackson left early with a back injury.

Whether they like it or not, these teams have earned the schedule merchant moniker, and they’ve only strengthened it in the postseason by facing teams that had major injury density at key positions:

  • The Patriots faced a Chargers team that everyone knows has been struggling without their offensive tackles (splits without Joe Alt are significant), and rookie back Omarion Hampton was only able to gut it out for one touch before not playing again.
  • The Patriots faced a Houston offense that didn’t have leading receiver Nico Collins (concussion), then lost second-leading receiver (tight end Dalton Schultz) after he had a 42-yard catch but was injured after playing just 12 snaps.
  • The Broncos faced a Buffalo offense that was down three wide receivers, taxing their depth on the road in the altitude. In overtime, Josh Allen failed to connect with backup receivers like Mecole Hardman and Brandin Cooks (the interception), who combined to catch 11 passes for Buffalo this season (playoffs included).

This isn’t to say the Patriots and Broncos have been 100% healthy this postseason. But their injuries are a flesh wound compared to what their opponents have had to deal with as injuries piled up at key positions.

With that said, the Broncos are the team at the major disadvantage health-wise this week with Stidham having to replace Nix.

A Brief History of Backup Quarterbacks in the Playoffs

Since the Broncos drafted Bo Nix in 2024, he has been a very durable quarterback and took almost every snap in each of the last two seasons. In fact, he attempted every throw from a Denver quarterback in 2024-25, and now that could come back to haunt the Broncos this week as they prepare to start Jarrett Stidham in his place.

(Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

Nix broke his ankle in overtime against Buffalo on a poorly designed quarterback run that lost 2 yards to boot. He had surgery and is done, so it’s all on Stidham, who has been with Denver since 2023, but he has not thrown a pass since the final games of the 2023 season.

This puts Stidham in rare air.

  • Stidham will become just the seventh quarterback in the Super Bowl era to make his first start of the season in the postseason.
  • He is just the second quarterback in that group of seven to not throw any passes in the regular season, joining Joe Webb (2012 Vikings).
  • Stidham is the only player to not throw any passes in the previous two seasons before making a playoff start.

Here are those first six quarterbacks to make their first start of the season in the playoffs since 1966:

Roger Staubach, 1972 Cowboys: This one is a bit misleading since Staubach won a Super Bowl in 1971 as the team’s starter. But in a backup role again for 1972, he appeared in four games with no starts and threw 20 passes in the regular season. Then in the playoffs, he infamously came off the bench to lead a 15-point comeback in the fourth quarter to beat the 49ers, 30-28, in the NFC Divisional. Staubach’s first start of 1972 came in the NFC Championship Game, but he only threw for 98 yards in a 26-3 loss at Washington.

Gary Danielson, 1983 Lions: Eric Hipple started all 16 regular-season games for Detroit before injuring his knee in the season finale. Backup Gary Danielson was 32 years old and played frequently enough that year to throw 113 passes, but his first start was in the playoffs against the 49ers. He ended up throwing five interceptions, though the Lions were a missed field goal away from winning a game they lost 24-23.

Frank Reich, 1992 Bills: Jim Kelly’s backup for many years, Frank Reich didn’t make his first start in 1992 until the playoffs for an injured Kelly. He led the famous 32-point comeback in the wild card against Houston, then led a 24-3 win in Pittsburgh. But Kelly returned for the AFC Championship Game win in Miami, then the Bills lost their third Super Bowl in a row.

Joe Webb, 2012 Vikings: Quarterback Christian Ponder was injured in the final game of the regular season, so backup Joe Webb, a converted wide receiver, had to start his first game of the year in the NFC wild card at Green Bay. He had no pass attempts in the regular season, so that’s the last time this happened before Stidham. He was 11-of-30 for 180 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT in a 24-10 playoff loss.

Connor Cook, 2016 Raiders: Quarterback Derek Carr broke his leg late in the season, then backup Matt McGloin was also injured in Week 17. This led to fourth-round rookie Connor Cook starting the AFC wild card game at Houston, a 27-14 loss where he was 18-of-45 for 161 yards, 1 touchdown, and 3 interceptions. Oddly enough, Cook threw 21 passes in Week 17 in Denver off the bench, but it wasn’t enough to warm him up for the playoffs.

Taylor Heinicke, 2020 Washington: The team started three quarterbacks in the regular season, but with Alex Smith and company injured, they turned to QB4 Taylor Heinicke for the NFC wild card game in an empty stadium against Tampa Bay. Heinicke actually played well and threw for 306 yards, but Tampa Bay won 31-23. In the regular season, he threw 19 passes in one Week 16 game off the bench and that was it.

For those keeping count, these quarterbacks were 2-5 as starters with Reich getting the only wins. He just needed a then-record 32-point comeback on a team that saw its core lose four straight Super Bowls.

There are about 10 examples of teams using a “backup” quarterback to still win a Super Bowl, but they’re all cases where the quarterback had experience before the playoffs started. Think Kurt Warner (1999 Rams), Tom Brady (2001 Patriots), and Nick Foles (2017 Eagles). Also cases where a quarterback got his job back during the season like Roger Staubach (1971 Cowboys) and Terry Bradshaw (1974 Steelers).

Only two teams have ever reached the Super Bowl after starting multiple quarterbacks in the same postseason, and both ended up going back to the original starter (opposite direction of Denver). That was the 1972 Dolphins, who finished their undefeated season with Bob Griese taking the reins back from Earl Morrall, and the aforementioned 1992 Bills getting back to another loss with Jim Kelly after Reich won two games.

Stidham has only started four NFL games, so Sunday is his fifth, and if he gets past the Patriots, the Super Bowl would be his sixth start. The only quarterback in NFL history to win the Super Bowl in fewer than 17 starts was Jeff Hostetler on the 1990 Giants who won Super Bowl 25 against Buffalo in his 7th start. He started two games late in the 1990 season for an injured Phil Simms, then won the 5th, 6th, and 7th starts of his NFL career (six years after he was drafted) to win a Super Bowl.

Well, it’s been six years since Stidham was drafted in 2019, so if he can win his 5th and 6th NFL starts, he’ll be the new Jeff Hostetler. That’s the comparison to make this week, but even Hostetler had 87 throws under his belt going into the postseason.

Denver’s Keys to Victory: Who Is Jarrett Stidham and What Can He Do?

Sean Payton is an offensive coach known best for his work with Drew Brees in New Orleans on teams that were an offensive juggernaut and defensive liability. But you might be shocked to learn that with Bo Nix last week, Payton won a playoff game where his team surrendered 30 points. He was 0-5 with Brees when the Saints allowed more than 28 points in playoff games.

(Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Sure, the five takeaways helped a ton, but the Bills scored on all six of their other drives and never punted. Beyond that, Payton ignored the weakness in the Buffalo run defense and put the ball in Nix’s hands for 58 of the 68 offensive plays (85.3%). That’s what you call a high responsibility game for the quarterback.

It’s not something Payton can get away with this week with Stidham taking on a New England team with an offensive coordinator (Josh McDaniels) who knows him well from New England and Las Vegas, and a defense that has dominated this postseason.

The Broncos are going to have to step up as a team and run the ball better and get more stops on defense that aren’t just turnovers, though turnovers are always nice. More on that in a second.

In New Orleans, Payton was 8-1 in the 2019-20 seasons when Drew Brees was out with an injury. He was 8-1 with Teddy Bridgewater (5-0) and Taysom Hill (3-1) starting games. I wrote about this in December 2020 in that it certainly wasn’t about quarterback play in those games. It was a lot of running the ball better, only allowing 15.0 points per game on defense, and the schedule was filled with losing teams.

Still, 8-1 is pretty damn good without your HOF quarterback. But we’ll have to see what Payton can cook up with Stidham as there’s no recent tape in real games for New England to prepare against.

Stidham has four starts in his career. Two were with McDaniels’ Raiders in 2022. His first start was against an elite San Francisco team, and he threw for 365 yards, 3 touchdowns, but had a back-breaking pick in overtime in a 37-34 loss. Still, that’s pretty good for a first start. Against the 14-3 Chiefs, Stidham lost 31-13 at home with 219 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.

In 2023 after Payton benched Russell Wilson for Stidham, he threw for 224 yards and a touchdown in a 16-9 win over the Chargers, who fired their coach and didn’t have Justin Herbert or Keenan Allen. A week later to end the season, Stidham lost a 27-14 game in Vegas  where he threw for 272 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.

The good news is Stidham is one of just 10 quarterbacks to throw for over 215 yards and a touchdown in each of his first four NFL starts. He actually has the 25th-most passing yards through four starts in NFL history.

Stidham also rushed for 50 and 34 yards in his two starts with the Raiders, so there’s some mobility there. But due to his inexperience at playing the position, his sack rate is 8.8%, which is high. By comparison, Bo Nix has a career sack rate of 3.76%, which is excellent. He didn’t take a single sack last week against Buffalo despite all those dropbacks.

But that’s the other thing here. The Denver offensive line is one of the best in the league and far better than the lines for the Chargers and Texans that the Patriots beat up on this postseason. Stidham should feel more comfortable than Herbert (played so passive) and Stroud (pressed so hard) did.

I think 20 points is a good minimum number that Denver needs to get to if they want to think they will win this game. Might need 23-24 points too. Can they get there with Stidham? I think so as long as they get a lot of help from the running game and defense/special teams with field position. But he’s going to have to protect the ball while still making some throws into tight windows when necessary.

It’s also unclear which weapons he’ll have around him. Wide receivers Pat Bryant (concussion) and Troy Franklin (hamstring) left last week’s game with injuries. Both were limited in practice on Wednesday, which is better than not practicing at all. Running back J.K. Dobbins also got some practice reps in, and his return would be a nice lift as he is still their best runner over R.J Harvey and Jaleel McLaughlin.

That’s the offensive side of things. The truth is if the Broncos are going to pull off this upset, the defense has to have a great showing.

The Broncos easily led the NFL with 68 sacks this year. That’s 21 more sacks than the Texans had, and you saw the damage Will Anderson Jr. and Danielle Hunter caused in New England last week. The Broncos have a lot of talented rushers too with Nik Bonitto (14.0 sacks) leading the way and three other players with at least 7.0 sacks this year.

Throughout this season and definitely into the playoffs, Drake Maye has taken a lot of sacks. He’s been sacked 10 times in the playoffs and has already fumbled six times with three lost. He’s lucky that number isn’t higher too as his ball security has been poor. He’s also thrown two picks but one was a deflection and the other was a Hail Mary. To win this game, Denver needs 5+ sacks and some fumbles.

The thing is Maye is the first quarterback in playoff history to win consecutive games despite taking 5+ sacks in both. That’s because his defense has bailed out his poor performances, so that’s why the onus is on Stidham to not go full C.J. Stroud and screw this thing up with mistakes.

Trust your defense to make the big plays. The Broncos have some good corners who should be able to limit Stefon Diggs from having a monster game, and they’ll have to make sure they don’t interfere with Kayshon Boutte on a deep ball as the Broncos do lead the league in defensive pass interference (Riley Moss, that’s you) and in penalty yards on a whole.

The weird thing about the Broncos, Patriots (and Seahawks even) is they haven’t dominated the turnover margins this year as you’d expect from 14-win teams. The Patriots were only +3 in the regular season and are +1 in the playoffs. The Broncos were -3 in the regular season but +4 in the playoffs last week against Buffalo. Still, that’s a bad sign when you’re +4 in turnovers at home and still need to win a 33-30 game in overtime.

But I think it comes down to pressures/sacks/fumbles against Maye more than interceptions, and that’s how the Broncos can put themselves in position to win this game as a team that’s closed well this year. The 2015 Broncos had that great defense that teed off on Tom Brady in the AFC Championship Game, one where McDaniels was the coordinator, and they held on late after a ton of possessions in a 20-18 upset.

They had Peyton Manning that day, but by then he was running on fumes at the end of his career. That might be the kind of 20-18 grind they need here to get by these Patriots in an unprecedented situation of going with a backup quarterback like Stidham.

Is New England Getting the Easiest Path Ever to a Super Bowl?

If the Patriots win this game, then we’ll have two weeks to talk about this topic in more depth. But I’m hardly the only one noticing that the Patriots have had an incredibly easy run to this game that for years had to go through the Chiefs, or before then, the Brady-Belichick Patriots. That’s to say nothing of the easiest regular-season schedule in the 32-team era, or that they were 1-2 against winning teams.

Now, they get one of the all-time breaks by facing Jarrett Stidham in the AFC Championship Game. No wonder the spread swung 6-7 points to the road team.

The counter to this has been that we should ignore the quarterbacks and their injured offenses because the Patriots are allegedly facing a historic run of defenses in the AFC, then possibly the No. 1 scoring defense (Seattle) in the Super Bowl if they get past this game.

The stat that’s going around is about facing three top five defenses in yards allowed as the Texans (No. 1), Broncos (No. 2), and Chargers (No. 5) finished in the top five.

I’m not sure if this is more misleading or misguided, but let’s pick it apart piece by piece as people are jumping to the wrong conclusion that this makes New England’s Super Bowl path one of the hardest.

1. Who is still using yards allowed to judge a defense in 2026? That doesn’t account for pace or field position. You could save your defense from allowing hundreds of more yards in a season by consistently putting them in bad field position by playing poorly on offense and special teams.

2. Again, the weak schedule for these teams and all the backup quarterbacks plays a factor here. For example, Denver allowed 687 yards in two games against the Chargers and Chiefs with Justin Herbert and Patrick Mahomes at quarterback. But in the last two games of the season against those teams with backups Chris Oladokun and Trey Lance at quarterback, the Broncos allowed 356 yards, a decline of 331 yards.

That’s to say nothing of allowing 159 yards to the Bengals with Jake Browning, or facing Cam Ward in his NFL debut with Tennessee in Week 1 where the Titans had a season-low 133 yards.

3. This should have been the first point, pun intended, but who cares about total defense more than scoring defense anyway? Points are what decide games in the NFL, not yards. In 2006, Peyton Manning led the Colts to three straight playoff wins against the top three scoring defenses (Ravens, Patriots, and Bears in the Super Bowl).

So, a quarterback has already defeated the top three defenses in the same postseason, and that was back when defenses could get away with more.

Why should anyone care that the 2006 Patriots ranked 6th in yards but 2nd in points that year? Besides, the main reason they weren’t top five in yards is because the Brady-led offense was held to 402 yards in two games against the Miami Dolphins, their two worst games of the season and two of the three best for Miami. The teams were separated by 85 yards on defense, and that’s because Brady lost a 21-0 game in Miami to Joey Harrington. Outgained by 126 yards that day.

In an effort to make Drake Maye look more impressive, they just managed to make Peyton Manning look better and Brady worse. Go figure.

4. The strength of the defenses the Patriots have faced this postseason is cancelled out by the weakness of the offenses they’ve faced. That’s proven by the way they’ve won these games by 12-13 points despite playing some of their worst offense of the season.

It’s not that hard to score 16-21 points on offense to beat these defenses if they’re scoring a net 12 points against your defense because of how flawed they are as offenses. Remember, teams who score inefficiently don’t usually make the playoffs, but none of the Chargers, Texans, or Broncos were strong offenses this year, and that was before their injuries in the playoffs that make them worse when they played New England.

Here is where New England’s AFC playoff opponents have ranked in points scored and allowed in 2025:

  • Chargers: No. 20 scoring offense, No. 9 scoring defense
  • Texans: No. 13 scoring offense, No. 2 scoring defense
  • Broncos: No. 14 scoring offense, No. 3 scoring defense

Those are team scoring numbers, so they don’t adjust for drives (pace) or return scores. But for New England, their playoff opponent’s average scoring offense is ranked 15.7 and the average scoring defense is ranked 4.7.

Out of the 150 teams who have played at least three games in a single postseason in NFL history, that 15.7 average rank on scoring offense would be the second lowest, sandwiched between the 2008 Ravens (18.3) and 2011 Patriots (15.3). That means only the 2008 Ravens, who lost the AFC Championship Game at Pittsburgh, played a weaker group of offenses than the 2025 Patriots.

That 4.7 average rank on scoring defense would rank in a 6-way tie for 22nd among the 150 teams to play at least three playoff games. That means 27 other teams have faced a set of scoring defenses as good or better than the 2025 Patriots. Tougher than most, but not historically tough.

For one more quick reference , I looked at drive stats back to 1998 from Pro Football Reference. Including Denver, New England’s average playoff opponents ranks 18.7 in offensive points per drive (all ranked 17th or worse). That would rank dead last among the 77 teams since 1998 to play at least three playoff games, indicating the weakest set of offenses in this era. Only the 2011 Patriots came close, facing an average offense that ranked 17.0 in Pts/Dr.

Then given the historic numbers, you can probably conclude it’s the weakest set of offenses in history. Guess they could always spruce those numbers up by facing the Rams or Seahawks in the Super Bowl, but for just getting through this AFC, it is a run as easy as we’ve ever seen when you consider the 1-2 vs. winning teams, the inability to score efficiently by their playoff opponents, and the historic Nix injury.

That’s just how the data goes.

New England’s Keys to Victory: Protect the Ball and Pass Coverage

If you’re Drake Maye this week, you should know you’re probably going to get sacked a handful of times in this game. He has to protect the ball better and not give up so many of these strip-sacks as the linemen aren’t always going to be there to fall on the ball.

It’s not going to take superhero quarterback play to win this game. We’ve seen the Broncos in 10-7 and 13-11 fistfights with the Raiders and Jets. They needed a late touchdown to beat the Chiefs’ third-string quarterback. They scored 12 points on offense against a Chargers team that couldn’t care less in Week 18. They are not a scoring juggernaut and they have Stidham at quarterback.

Maye just has to play smarter and safer and pick his spots. Josh Allen actually moved the ball well in Denver, a defense that is not as strong as Houston’s despite the 68 sacks. But the Broncos forced 5 turnovers, the first time all year they forced more than two in a game, so that will hopefully not happen again if you’re the Patriots.

Buffalo also rushed for 183 yards, the most anyone’s had on Denver all year. They can run Maye and make use of his legs the way the Bills do (within reason). They might be able to pop some good runs with Rhamondre Stevenson (don’t fumble) and TreVeyon Henderson. They don’t have to throw a ton in this game most likely.

Just trust your defense and that a very green, very cold quarterback will screw this up on the other side. As for that matchup, it’s tough since there’s no tape on Stidham with this offense. Does he like the tight ends? Is he going to use the backs in the passing game? Does he have a special connection with Pat Bryant the way Nix liked Troy Franklin because they played at college together, or is he just going to force the ball to Courtland Sutton, who I can put Chrisitan Gonzalez on? We don’t know these things.

That’s why if I’m New England, I show Stidham a different defense on every drive to see how he reacts to different things. Sometimes I blitz since I don’t trust my edge rushers to get home against that line, and most of the time I think I’d play seven or eight in coverage to make the inexperienced quarterback force some throws in an offense he just doesn’t have the timing and chemistry down for.

Given the Denver offensive line being so stout, that’s why I think pass coverage with Gonzalez and company is the key in this game. Don’t give up anything deep or cheap, and make Stidham attempt some tight-window throws that you can hopefully close on and get tipped or deflected picks from.

The Patriots are almost as good as Seattle at scoring return touchdowns, so don’t discount them taking one to the house here for a quick score as Marcus Jones is dangerous on defense and special teams.

Defense is carrying the Patriots in the playoffs. As long as Maye understands that and doesn’t try to be a hero, they should be fine in this matchup against a backup quarterback. Unless he goes full Hostetler and can’t miss on third downs while the Broncos hog the ball for 40 minutes.

Best Bets and Prediction

Every AFC playoff game this season has been a new matchup we haven’t seen in 2025, and this is no different. In fact, I’m quite sure we’ll never see Jarrett Stidham start another AFC Championship Game.

But there is a good chance for this game to be an ugly, low-scoring grind that’s close enough for the Broncos to win at home. However, I think McDaniels has probably fed Mike Vrabel all the pertinent info on what he knows about Stidham this week, and they’ll be better prepared to exploit his weaknesses than any other team would be in this situation because of their past history with him.

The Patriots are playing too well on defense right now to think a backup quarterback who might not have his best running back or full set of wide receivers is going to light it up here. While Maye’s poor ball security is worrisome against that pass rush, he’s rarely had his mistakes lead to a loss because the team’s had his back. He is 4-1 this year when he takes 5+ sacks and throws a pick, which is already the most such wins in a season in NFL history in a list oddly dominated by the Patriots.

That’s why I think the Patriots win this game. But it’s hardly a lock given the way they’ve played this postseason on offense. Denver’s offensive line could be a difference maker, and Payton could call the game of his career for Stidham while Denver’s superior pass rush collapses the Patriots’ line on a young Maye. That’s the formula.

It’s just a lot to ask for. With that said…

Being able to say Jarrett Stidham started a Super Bowl before Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, or Drake Maye did would be insane. Then again, the Seahawks might be the other Super Bowl team, and they were trailing in the final minute to Philip Rivers days after he ended his 5-year retirement on his 44th birthday.

Maybe this season was never meant to make any sense.

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Photo of Scott Kacsmar Scott Kacsmar22/01/2026 - 09:09 am