Top 5 QBs to Never Win a Super Bowl

Patrick Mahomes versus Brock Purdy. Mahomes will have the opportunity to win a second straight Super Bowl and his third total. Purdy will play for his first Lombardi Trophy. 

We have had 57 Super Bowls. This year makes 58. Including Purdy (Mahomes is already on the list), there have been 65 different quarterbacks that have started a Super Bowl. Only a select few can say they won a Super Bowl. Here’s a look at the five best at the position that never won  a Super Bowl title.

Warren Moon

Moon won five Grey Cups in the CFL before playing 17 seasons in the NFL. His first NFL season came when he was 28 years old. He would go on to lead the league in passing yards twice and when he retired in 2000, Moon was third in career passing yards (49,325) and fourth in career passing TDs (291). 

Unfortunately, Moon would never play in a Super Bowl. He went 3-6 in playoff games and never even made a conference championship game. He did have a total of 70,553 passing yards (including his CFL totals) and was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Dan Fouts

Like Moon, Fouts never played in a Super Bowl. He did, however, play in one AFC championship game. It was in Cincinnati and the -9-degree weather didn’t sit well with a California guy like Fouts. He did win three of the four playoff games he started for the Chargers. 

Fouts was the NFL Offensive Player of the Year in 1982 and a four-time All-Pro. He led the NFL in passing yards six times, including one stretch of four consecutive seasons. To this day, that remains an NFL record. When Fouts retired in 1987, he was second in career passing yards 

Fran Tarkenton

Tarkenton played 18 NFL seasons and had two different stints with the Minnesota Vikings. He played in three Super Bowls with the Vikings, but never was victorious. Tarkenton was known for his scrambling ability and is still ranked sixth in rushing yards by a quarterback. His abilities as a passer were pretty solid as well.

In 1975, he led the Vikings to an NFL-best 12-2 record. He led the NFL in attempts, completions, and passing TDs and earned the league’s MVP. The Vikings would lose to Dallas in the playoffs, failing to make a third straight Super Bowl. They would return the following season, but lost to the Raiders 32-14. 

Tarkenton was a nine-time Pro Bowler, earned All-Pro honors twice, and owned almost every career passing statistical record held by a quarterback when he retired after the 1978 season. Oh, he led the NFL in attempts, completions, passing yards, and TDs that year.

Jim Kelly

Only one quarterback in the history of the NFL has ever taken his team to four consecutive Super Bowls. That was Kelly who, unfortunately, never won one with the Buffalo Bills. Kelly still holds numerous records, one of which is most playoff wins (9, tied with Donovan McNabb). He is still the only NFL quarterback to lose his Super Bowl and make it back.

Kelly played two seasons in the USFL before playing 11 in Buffalo. He was a five-time Pro Bowler and in 2002, his first year of eligibility, Kelly was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kelly is one of three members of the 1983 QB draft class (there were six QBs selected in the first round) that are in the Hall of Fame. John Elway is one. The other is…

Dan Marino

Hands down the greatest NFL quarterback to never win the Super Bowl, Marino played for 17 seasons and had just one shot at the Lombardi Trophy. That came in 1984, his second pro season when he became the first NFL quarterback to throw for over 5,000 yards. He threw for 5,084 yards and 48 TDs (both tops in the league) in ‘84 and was the NFL MVP. 

The Dolphins would advance to the Super Bowl where Marino and company lost to Hall of Famer Joe Montana and the San Francisco 49ers. Ironically, Montana called Marino the best QB in NFL history. Marino would never make it back to the Super Bowl. When he retired in 1999, he had earned nine Pro Bowl berths, nine All-Pro awards, and he held over 40 NFL records. Among those were career passing yards (61,361) and career passing TDs (420).