Two high NFL draft picks, two different paths: Maye and Darnold will face off in Super Bowl

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This article was published 04/02/2026 (199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Drake Maye and Sam Darnold came into the NFL in similar fashion as No. 3 overall picks tasked with being franchise quarterbacks for struggling teams.

Their paths to the Super Bowl couldn’t be much different.

Maye is looking to join Peyton and Eli Manning as the only quarterbacks selected in the top nine of the last 36 drafts to win a Super Bowl with the team he debuted with as a pro. Peyton Manning won it all in his ninth season with Indianapolis and Eli Manning in his fourth with the New York Giants after being acquired in a draft-day trade from San Diego.

Only two of the other 55 QBs taken in the top nine of the draft since 1990 won a Super Bowl with any team, with Trent Dilfer doing it in Baltimore after being drafted by Tampa Bay and Matthew Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams after being picked by Detroit.

Maye is trying to join Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Kurt Warner as the only QBs to win a Super Bowl in their first two seasons, with the Roethlisberger the only first-round pick to do it.

While Maye’s success has been immediate, Darnold’s has been anything but.

Picked third by the New York Jets in 2018, Darnold struggled during his first three seasons before being traded to Carolina. He then spent two nondescript seasons in and out of the starting lineup with the Panthers before going to San Francisco as a backup in 2023.

That helped reset his career. He won 14 games as a starter in Minnesota last season before signing with Seattle and winning 14 games again in the regular season this year before making the Super Bowl.

Darnold could become the first starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl after previously playing for four other franchises. Brad Johnson, Jim Plunkett, Len Dawson and Nick Foles all played for two other franchises before winning a Super Bowl, with Foles doing it in his second stint with Philadelphia.

The Maye-Darnold matchup is a rare one between highly drafted quarterbacks, with only two other Super Bowls featuring two starting QBs picked in the top five of the draft. The other two were matchups of former No. 1 overall picks, with Matthew Stafford besting Joe Burrow in Super Bowl 56 and Peyton Manning topping Cam Newton in Super Bowl 50.

Fight on for USC

Southern California has produced more Super Bowl players than any other school but hasn’t had a starting quarterback appear in the game until this year.

Darnold will be the first QB who finished his college career at USC to start in the Super Bowl after five other Trojans quarterbacks lost in either the conference or league title game before the Super Bowl.

The Trojans have had 70 players appear in the title game before this season, two more than second-place Miami.

North Carolina also will join the list of colleges to produce a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, with Maye getting the honors. That will raise the total of colleges with a Super Bowl starting QB to 51.

Michigan has the most starts with 10 — all by Brady — while California has the most individual QBs, with Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, Craig Morton and Joe Kapp doing it. Vince Ferragamo, who began his college career at Cal before transferring to Nebraska, also started in the Super Bowl.

North Carolina, the alma mater of 11th president of the United States, James Polk, also can become the sixth school to produce a U.S. president and a Super Bowl-winning quarterback.

Delaware was the last school to join that list when Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021 — eight years after Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl. The other schools are Miami of Ohio (Benjamin Harrison and Roethlisberger), Michigan (Gerald Ford and Brady), Stanford (Herbert Hoover, John Elway and Jim Plunkett) and Navy (Jimmy Carter and Roger Staubach).

Missing stars

The Super Bowl is typically filled with star players, with an average of more than six first-team AP All-Pros taking the field for the title game the last three seasons.

This year’s matchup features just one, with Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba the only player who earned first-team honors. The Seahawks did have four second-teamers, with defensive tackle Leonard Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and punter Michael Dickson all making it. New England had two second-teamers in Maye and punt returner Marcus Jones.

There have been only two other Super Bowls since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger featuring only one first-team AP All-Pro, with Washington kicker Mark Moseley the sole honoree in the 1982 season and Dallas linebacker Chuck Howley in the 1970 season.

Milton Williams tries to go back-to-back

Milton Williams turned a two-sack performance in last year’s Super Bowl with Philadelphia into a $104 million contract in free agency with the New England Patriots.

Williams got back to the title game with his new team and now has a chance to join an elite group of players who won Super Bowls in back-to-back seasons with different teams.

The last time anyone completed the trick came eight years ago when Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount followed up titles in Super Bowl 51 with New England by beating the Patriots the following season with the Eagles.

The other two teams it happened came with members of the Cowboys and 49ers in the 1990s. Linebacker Ken Norton Jr. helped Dallas win back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1992-93 seasons before leaving to sign with San Francisco, where he won again in 1994.

Deion Sanders was Norton’s teammate on the 1994 Niners before joining Dallas the next season, when he helped the Cowboys beat Pittsburgh.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL