There have been 11 former number one picks in the NFL Draft that have reached the Super Bowl. Which ones got there the fastest?
There is nothing guaranteed in the NFL, even if you are able to land a “generational” talent at the quarterback position with the top overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Many teams have discovered this the hard way through the years, as well as many highly touted quarterback prospects. Trevor Lawrence just became the 26th quarterback in the modern NFL era to be selected with the first pick in the Draft.
Of those 26 quarterbacks, 11 have made it to the Super Bowl.
Again, nothing is guaranteed. In Super Bowl LVI, fans are being treated to a rare matchup of former first-overall QBs. For the Los Angeles Rams, starting quarterback Matthew Stafford has taken a long and unconventional path to the game. For Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals, unprecedented history can be made.
Let’s take a look at all of the quarterbacks taken first overall in the NFL Draft and their different paths to the Super Bowl.
Fastest #1 NFL Draft pick to reach the Super Bowl: Joe Burrow, Bengals
Joe Burrow is the fastest quarterback taken no. 1 in the Draft in NFL history to reach the Super Bowl.
Making it in just his second season, Burrow has been nothing short of outstanding for the Bengals all year.
This team was 7-6 before going on a run and not only winning the AFC North but also winning the entire AFC, beating the heavily favored Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City on the way.
Burrow could become the first athlete in history to win the Heisman Trophy, the National Championship, and the Super Bowl. He would do it in three years’ time if it happens.
That pace is unbelievable and for Cincinnati Bengals fans, many of which were not even alive when the team last reached the Super Bowl in 1988, Burrow is an absolute gift from the football gods.
Fastest NFL #1 pick to Super Bowl No. 2: Jared Goff, Rams (3rd year)
Ironically, the second-fastest former number one pick in the NFL Draft to reach the Super Bowl is Jared Goff.
It wasn’t long ago we were having the same discussions about Jared Goff that we are now having about Joe Burrow.
Back in 2019, the Rams’ turnaround with head coach Sean McVay was considered just as miraculous as the turnaround we have been seeing from the Bengals in the last two years.
The Rams were stuck in the quicksand of mediocrity and Jeff Fisher was the butt of any 7-9 or 8-8 joke you could conjure up.
In comes Sean McVay and everything changes for the better.
Jared Goff was playing at a much higher level then than we saw in 2020 or 2021, and even though the Rams were beaten in the Super Bowl by the New England Patriots, it was a testament to the phenomenal job McVay did that he was able to reach the Super Bowl with Goff.
Now, Goff is about to enter his second season as a member of the Detroit Lions after being traded for another former number one pick, Matthew Stafford, whose game has elevated the Rams as a whole and made them arguably the clear favorites in Super Bowl LVI.
Fastest former #1 NFL Draft picks to reach Super Bowl (four-way tie)
These quarterbacks each reached the Super Bowl in their 4th NFL season
T-3rd. John Elway, Denver Broncos
John Elway went from demanding a trade away from the Baltimore Colts to starting a dynasty with the Denver Broncos.
Elway made it to the Super Bowl in his fourth season with the Denver Broncos…and many times after that.
In his first handful of Super Bowl appearances, Elway and the Denver Broncos got their butts kicked. Almost every team in the current NFC East (Giants, Washington, Cowboys) handed Elway his lunch in the Super Bowl before the Broncos finally broke through in the 1997 season against Brett Favre and the Packers.
T-3rd. Troy Aikman, Dallas Cowboys
Aikman, known by many football fans these days as the voice of the NFL on FOX, was once a highly coveted prospect out of UCLA who became the signal-caller of a dynasty in Dallas.
Just like many Chicago Bulls fans were made in the early 90s, so were many Dallas Cowboys fans because of Aikman and the Cowboys.
Aikman led the Cowboys to three Super Bowl wins in the 90s and helped establish that franchise as arguably the most successful in league history.
T-3rd. Drew Bledsoe, New England Patriots
Before there was Tom Brady, there was Drew Bledsoe.
Drew Bledsoe was picked first overall by the Patriots back in 1993 out of Washington State. By 1996, the Patriots were in the Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers with Bledsoe being selected to his second Pro Bowl.
The Patriots would fall short in that Super Bowl against the Packers, and in the 2001 season, Bledsoe would be replaced after being injured two games into the season by some guy named Tom Brady.
T-3rd. Eli Manning, New York Giants
Did you forget that Eli Manning was a former no. 1 overall pick?
Did you forget that he won two Super Bowls, too?
Manning beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in the Super Bowl not once but twice, and the first time he did it, he did it in dramatic fashion.
Although the majority of the game was a defensive battle, Eli won his first Super Bowl appearance as an NFL quarterback after a pass to David Tyree that will go down in league history as maybe the most impressive single play ever.
Fastest former #1 NFL Draft picks to reach Super Bowl (two-way tie)
These quarterbacks each reached their first Super Bowl in their fifth NFL season
T-4th. Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh Steelers
Terry Bradshaw is now the quirky TV guy that talks to players after they win their conference championship game, but he was once the original TB12 collecting ring after ring.
The former number one overall pick out of Louisiana Tech helped the Pittsburgh Steelers win four Super Bowls and with him under center, the Steelers went 14-4 in the playoffs throughout the 1970s.
The Steelers dominated that decade thanks to Bradshaw.
In Bradshaw’s first two Super Bowl appearances, he attempted a combined 107 passes. That might be two games for some quarterbacks in the playoffs today.
T-4th. Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers
After being selected first overall in the 2011 NFL Draft — a lockout season for the NFL — it took just two years of learning on the job before Cam Newton and the Panthers were a pretty well-oiled machine offensively.
He made the playoffs by his third NFL season and won the NFL MVP award in his fifth season, reaching the Super Bowl after an incredible regular and postseason.
Pundits were extremely high on Newton and the Panthers going into Super Bowl 50 against the Denver Broncos, but the Broncos’ legendary defense broke Newton and the Panthers’ offense down, spoiling his lone appearance in the big game.
Fastest former #1 NFL Draft picks to reach Super Bowl (two-way tie)
These quarterbacks reached their first Super Bowl in their 9th NFL season
T-5th. Jim Plunkett, Raiders
Jim Plunkett was the first overall pick of the New England Patriots in the 1971 NFL Draft.
He played five seasons with the New England Patriots before playing another two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers and at age 33, he became the starting quarterback of the Raiders.
Plunkett threw seven touchdown passes in the Raiders’ four playoff wins that season, leading the franchise to a Super Bowl title to kick off the 80s, winning MVP of the game in the process.
T-5th. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts
In hindsight, the fact that Peyton Manning didn’t reach the Super Bowl until his 9th NFL season is one of the more remarkable facts about his legendary career.
Manning will go down as one of the two or three best quarterbacks of all time, but winning or even getting to the Super Bowl was elusive for him.
Manning beat the Chicago Bears in his first Super Bowl appearance back in the 2006 season. He then fell to the Saints and Seahawks in his next two Super Bowl appearances before sailing into the orange and blue sunset, winning a title with the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl 50 and then retiring shortly thereafter.
The slowest former #1 NFL pick to reach Super Bowl: Matthew Stafford, Rams
Bringing up the caboose of this list of former number one NFL Draft picks to reach the Super Bowl is Matthew Stafford.
How long have many NFL fans been saying, if only Matthew Stafford could get out of Detroit, he could help some team contend for a Super Bowl…
Well, it’s literally been a longer wait for Stafford than any other former number one overall pick to reach the Super Bowl.
What further validation of all those opinions about Stafford in years past do we need?
Drafted first overall out of Georgia in 2009, Stafford will undoubtedly go down as the best QB to ever play for the Lions, and he could soon etch himself into NFL and Rams history as well.
It’s taken 13 years for Stafford to get to the Super Bowl, and no other former number one overall pick has had to wait this long to get there.
Stafford was able to reach the playoffs with the Detroit Lions, but never the Super Bowl.
Even as long as it has taken, you can’t help but feel like this is just the beginning for Stafford and the Rams. He’s an absolutely perfect fit for Sean McVay and the Los Angeles offense and as long as he’s in Los Angeles, he should be in a position to contend.