The conference title games on Sunday will involve a lot of shared hardware amongst the quarterbacks taking the field. New England Patriots QB Tom Brady has four Super Bowl titles and two other appearances; Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has two Super Bowl titles and another appearance; Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers has one Super Bowl title, which happened to come at Roethlisberger’s expense.
The seven combined Super Bowl titles represent the most by any starting four quarterbacks in a conference championship week. Apologies to Atlanta Falcons QB Matt Ryan.
The seven combined Super Bowl victories by Brady, Roethlisberger and Rodgers are the most by the four starting quarterbacks playing in a season’s Conference Championship Games.
The previous high was 5 combined titles, a record matched in each of the past two years; 2014 was Brady (3 at the time), alongside Rodgers (1) and Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson (1); 2015 was Brady (4) and Denver Broncos QB Peyton Manning (1 at the time).
If we want to include Ryan, the likely NFL MVP led the league with a 117.1 passer rating, the 5th highest mark in NFL history. Brady (112.2) and Rodgers (104.2) also ranked in the top five of 2016 quarterbacks.
The four conference title quarterbacks combine for a 107.0 passer rating, the highest combined rating of any final four quarterbacks in NFL history. The previous high was 100.7 in 1998. Of course in 1998, Broncos QB John Elway held the worst passer rating of the quartet and won the Super Bowl.
The final four teams in 2016 show how important quarterback play can be for a team’s success- and the quarterbacks with the better days will likely advance to the Super Bowl.