The competitors are set in the race for Super Bowl 58. Fourteen teams remain, each with a quarterback looking to add a ring to his career accolades – if he doesn’t have one (or two) already.
Quality quarterback play is most crucial in this time of the season. Clutch plays and game-winning drives led by the best signal-callers can be enough to push a team closer to hoisting the Lombardi Trophy, while interceptions and poor play in one game can dash those hopes quickly.
The fourteen starting quarterbacks facing off this postseason run the gamut of playoff experience. Some are grizzled veterans in the postseason with a ring or two to show for it. Others are first-time contenders and rookies.
Here’s how all 14 playoff quarterbacks stack up, ranked solely by their postseason résumés.
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Ranking playoff quarterbacks by postseason résumés
1. Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs (14 games)
Mahomes has been the Chiefs’ starting quarterback for six years. In that time, he’s been to three Super Bowls, won two of them and was the Super Bowl MVP both times. He has never lost a playoff game before the AFC Championship.
The 28 year old holds an 11-3 record in the postseason and is the owner of an NFL record 107.4 passer rating in the playoffs. Mahomes is the best playoff quarterback in this postseason field.
2. Joe Flacco, Cleveland Browns (15 games)
Flacco is one of three quarterbacks in this year’s playoffs with a Super Bowl ring and one of two with a Super Bowl MVP award. He’s also 10-5 as a starter in the playoffs, with all of his previous experience coming as the Ravens’ starting signal-caller.
This year will be Flacco’s first time starting in the playoffs since 2014.
3. Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams (7 games)
The 35-year-old Georgia product’s Super Bowl run after the 2021 season makes up for his lack of playoff success with the Lions. Stafford is 4-3 as a playoff starter, but he has a 99.0 passer rating and 15 total touchdowns in those seven games.
4. Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles (4 games)
Hurts is one of two other quarterbacks in the 2023-24 playoff field to have played in a Super Bowl, though neither has a ring. He beats out Jared Goff by virtue of his 84.7 passer rating in four playoff games, higher completion rate and strong contributions as a runner as well as a passer. Hurts has nine total touchdowns in the postseason with just two interceptions and a 2-2 playoff record.
5. Jared Goff, Detroit Lions (6 games)
While Goff has experience playing in the Super Bowl, his performances across six playoff games is a bit lackluster. He has a 79.9 passer rating, a 57.4% completion rate and has averaged fewer than 220 passing yards per game in the post season. Goff has a 3-3 record in the playoffs.
6. Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills (8 games)
Allen has some of the most playoff experience of any quarterback in this year’s playoffs, but he and the Bills have always fallen short of a Lombardi Trophy. The Wyoming product has 19 total touchdowns to four interceptions with a 63.8% completion rate and 99.6 passer rating. Still, he’s 4-4 in the playoffs and has yet to appear in a Super Bowl.
7. Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers (3 games)
Purdy doesn’t have much playoff experience as a second-year quarterback, but he was statistically impressive in last year’s run to the NFC Championship. The former last overall pick in the draft is 2-1 as a playoff starter with 569 yards, four total touchdowns, no interceptions, a 65.1% completion rate and a 109.8 passer rating across three games.
8. Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2 games)
There are three quarterbacks who have never played further than the divisional round in the playoffs. Of the three, Mayfield has the best numbers – though it’s worth noting he also has the smallest sample size. The former Cleveland Brown is 1-1 in the playoffs, boasting a 62% completion rate and 94.0 passer rating with 467 passing yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.
9. Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys (6 games)
Prescott has been to the playoffs four times and has never won a Divisional Round game. He’s 2-4 as a playoff starter with a 63.3% completion rate, 92.3 passer rating, 1,559 passing yards, 15 total touchdowns and five interceptions.
10. Lamar Jackson, Baltimore Ravens (4 games)
Jackson has led the Ravens in the playoffs three times (not including last year, when he was injured) and has one win to show for it. The sixth-year NFL veteran has a 55.9% completion rate, a 68.3 passer rating, 900 passing yards, three passing touchdowns and five interceptions. He also has 367 rushing yards on 54 attempts (6.8 average) and one rushing touchdown.
T-11. Jordan Love, Green Bay Packers; Mason Rudolph, Pittsburgh Steelers; C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans; Tua Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphins (0 games)
Four quarterbacks are set to make their playoff debuts in the first round of this postseason. These four starters have 97 regular season starts between them, with Tagovailoa responsible for 51 of them.