With his four-foot putt Sunday night, Rory McIlroy’s 11-year quest to join golf’s most exclusive golf officially ended. By defeating worthy playoff challenger Justin Rose in the 2025 Masters tournament, the 35-year-old McIlroy finally joined Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as the only players in history to achieve the grand slam as winners of each of golf’s four major tournaments.
McIlroy’s victory conjured up memories of Steve Young’s dramatic and emotional Super Bowl win exactly 30 years ago. After playing behind Joe Montana for years and then coming up short in the previous two NFC title games, Young finally reached the mountaintop after leading the 49ers to the franchise’s fifth and most recent Super Bowl title. In fact, Young’s six touchdown passes that day continues to stand as the Super Bowl single-game record.
While Young and McIlroy were able to get the proverbial monkey off their backs, there are several current NFL quarterbacks who could use a similar moment to help galvanize their careers. Below is a ranking of which quarterbacks most need a Super Bowl win in 2025 to alter their legacy.
Tagovailoa overcame injuries earlier in his career to lead the NFL in passing in 2023. Last year, despite dealing with more injuries, Tagovailoa completed a league-high 72.9% of his passes. But injuries continue to be a question mark surrounding Tagovailoa entering the 2025 season.
A Super Bowl win would be huge for his legacy long term, but for right now, a playoff win would also do wonders for the former Heisman Trophy winner, who is currently 0-1 in the playoffs. If Tagovailoa can lead Miami to a playoff win in 2025, it would be the franchise’s first since 2000 and only the second postseason victory in the post-Dan Marino era.
Like every former No. 1 overall pick, Mayfield was burdened with unrealistic expectations early on in his career despite playing on teams that had no realistic chance at competing for a championship. It’s honestly mind boggling that the Browns parted ways with Mayfield a year after he led the franchise to its only playoff win since coming back to the NFL in 1999, a win that came against the arch rival Steelers in Pittsburgh, no less.
After his time in Cleveland came to an end, Mayfield toiled around for a a season before getting a fresh start in Tampa in 2023. Mayfield has made the most of his opportunity with the Buccaneers. He’s played some of the best ball of his career and has led the Buccaneers to a pair of division crowns. But he and his teammates came up short at home against Washington in last year’s wild-card round, dropping Mayfield’s playoff record to 2-3.
The loss to Washington begs the following question: Is Mayfield good enough to lead a team to a Super Bowl? That question continues to be unanswered heading into 2025.
No one at this point would call Herbert’s career a disappointment. He set the NFL record for the most passing yards during the first two years of a career, and he followed those seasons up with two more successful campaigns in 2022 and 2024. During his first five seasons, Herbert completed 66.5% of his passes with 137 touchdowns against just 45 picks. Video game like numbers for sure.
Like many quarterbacks, though, playoff success has eluded Herbert so far. He’s made the playoffs on just two occasions, and he and the Chargers suffered quick wild-card exists both times. In those games, Herbert completed just 52% of his passes with just two touchdowns against four interceptions.
Herbert has proven to be a prolific quarterback; the next step for he and the Chargers is proving they can get it done in the postseason. Now that it appears that the Chargers finally have some continuity on the coaching staff, it seems Herbert will have a better chance at having success in the playoffs moving forward.
Mahomes is already in rarified air as far as all-time quarterbacks are concerned. Still just 29 years old, Mahomes is one of just three players all-time to win at least two league and three Super Bowl MVP awards. He’s one of just six quarterbacks to win league and Super Bowl MVP in the same season and is one of just five quarterbacks with at least three Super Bowls wins. His five Super Bowl starts is tied with John Elway for the second-most all-time.
As great as Mahomes’ career has been so far, two blowout losses in the Super Bowl is a tough thing to have on a resume if you’re trying to enter the GOAT conversation. Another Super Bowl win would lessen the magnitude of those losses while making him one of just four quarterbacks all-time with at least four Super Bowl wins.
Goff has already changed the narrative on his career once. After being traded from Los Angeles to Detroit, the former No. 1 overall pick has submitted three of his best seasons and has helped ignite the Lions‘ renaissance. Last season, Goff completed an insane 72.4% of his passes while leading Detroit to a franchise-record 15 regular season wins.
While Goff has proven to be a Pro Bowl level player in Detroit, playoff shortcomings continue to haunt him. He has a 4-5 playoff record that includes recent playoff losses to the 49ers and Commanders that were nothing short of gut-wrenching. A Super Bowl win would be huge for the 30-year-old Goff and his legacy, similar to how it helped fellow former No. 1 overall pick Jim Plunkett later on in his career.
At this point, Prescott’s career is similar to predecessor, Tony Romo, who led the Cowboys to a pair of playoff wins but was unable to end Dallas’ NFC title game drought, let alone its Super Bowl drought.
Romo’s legacy isn’t bad at all, especially when you add in the fact that he was a former undrafted rookie. But if Prescott wants to be placed in the same category as Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach (the quarterbacks who led the Cowboys to their five Super Bowl wins), he needs to join them as a world champion.
Currently unsigned, Rodgers appears to want to continue playing for the sole purpose of trying to win that elusive second Super Bowl before hanging up his cleats.
Rogers, 41, is already a shoo-in for future Hall of Fame induction. His four MVP awards is second all-time, and he is top-10 in NFL history in just about every major category. Rodgers, however, does not have the same amount of Super Bowl rings that some of the other all-time great quarterbacks possess, a fact that surely isn’t lost on him. A second Super Bowl win, especially at this stage of his career, would slingshot his legacy into an even higher stratosphere.
It’s hard to believe, but Burrow will turn 29 years old during the 2025 season. While he’s still young, Burrow, to steal a phrase from Owen Wilson’s character in the movie “Wedding Crashers,” is not “that young” anymore as he approaches his sixth season with the Bengals.
A former No. 1 overall pick, Burrow has proven to be an elite quarterback during his time in Cincinnati. He led the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 2021 and an AFC title game appearance in 2022. Injuries (a recurring issue for Burrow so far in his career) cut short his 2023 season, but he rebounded last year by leading the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes and finishing fourth in the league MVP voting.
Burrow has been sensational, but, like LeBron James, another Ohio native who was drafted by his hometown team who had not previously won a title, Burrow’s career won’t quite be complete until he leads the Bengals to that elusive Super Bowl title.
Jackson’s career has been pretty incredible so far. A two-time league MVP (who could have easily won it last year), Jackson is also the career rushing leader among quarterbacks after breaking Michael Vick’s record late in the 2024 season.
Jackson’s greatness can’t be disputed at this point, but his postseason performances have left something to be desired. He’s just 3-5 in the playoffs as the Ravens starting quarterback, which has created the narrative that Jackson is a great quarterback but one who isn’t good enough to lead Baltimore to the promised land.
Obviously, that narrative is rubbish; Jackson is a great player who’s obviously capable of leading a team to a title. But until he does, Jackson’s legacy will continue to include that narrative, fair or not. It should be noted that Jackson would help his cause by taking better care of the ball in the playoffs. He has seven interceptions and seven fumbles in eight career playoff games.
No current NFL quarterback could use a Super Bowl win more than Allen, who won his first MVP in 2024 but once again came up short in the playoffs. Once again, Allen and the Bills fell to Mahomes and the Chiefs one game shy of the Super Bowl.
Allen, 28, has already established himself as one of this era’s best quarterbacks whose career is trending towards a future Hall of Fame induction. But like every great QB, Allen’s career won’t truly be complete until he is able to lead his team to a Super Bowl. Adding to the magnitude of a Super Bowl win for Allen would be the fact that it would be the first for a Bills franchise that famously lost four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s.
This news was originally published on this post .
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