When Drake Maye takes the field for Super Bowl 60, he will be the second youngest quarterback to make his first Super Bowl start. Maye will be 23 years and 162 days old, which makes him only 35 days older than Dan Marino was when he started Super Bowl XIX.
Is Youth a Plus or a Minus?
History tells us it might be the latter. The other nine youngest starting quarterbacks generated a 3-6 record in their initial starts. That includes a 1-3 mark for the young quarterbacks who have started a Super Bowl in the past ten seasons.
Youngest QBs To Start Their First Super Bowl
| Rank | Quarterback | Age at First Start | Super Bowl | Result |
| 1 | Dan Marino | 23y, 127d | XIX | Loss |
| 2 | Drake Maye | 23y, 159d | LX (60) | TBD |
| 3 | Ben Roethlisberger | 23y, 340d | XL | Win |
| 4 | Brock Purdy | 24y, 46d | LVIII | Loss |
| 5 | David Woodley | 24y, 97d | XVII | Loss |
| 6 | Jared Goff | 24y, 112d | LIII | Loss |
| 7 | Patrick Mahomes | 24y, 138d | LIV | Win |
| 8 | Tom Brady | 24y, 184d | XXXVI | Win |
| 9 | Jalen Hurts | 24y, 189d | LVII | Loss |
| 10 | Drew Bledsoe | 24y, 347d | XXXI | Loss |
To be fair, a number of these quarterbacks were facing some of best teams of all time. Marino's 1984 
Dolphins lost to what was arguably Bill Walsh's best 49ers squad. Jared Goff was on the losing side while facing one of the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady Patriots dynasty teams. Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy suffered defeats against the Andy Reid/Patrick Mahomes dynasty. Drew Bledsoe's Patriots team lost to the Brett Favre/Reggie White Packers.
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Average Statistics - First SB Appearance (9 QBs, Excluding Maye)
Category | Average |
Completions | 19.4 |
Attempts | 34.3 |
Completion % | 56.6% |
Passing Yards | 223.3 |
Touchdowns | 0.9 |
Interceptions | 1.6 |
Passer Rating | 67.7 |
These young quarterbacks did not fare well statistically speaking. They completed only 56.6 percent of their passes on average and had nearly twice as many interceptions as touchdowns. David Woodley played so badly that he didn't even complete a pass in the second half of Super Bowl XVII.
To put this group's 67.7 passer rating into perspective, consider that the 
Cleveland Browns had the lowest passer rating in the 2025 season with a 70.0 mark. To be worse than the 2025 Browns on average does not speak well to how this group performed.
Part of that may be because in many cases these quarterbacks were one-and-done when it came to Super Bowl appearances. Only four of these nine passers made a return trip to Super Sunday. Five of the six who had only one Super Bowl in their career all lost their only appearance. The other four (Brady, Hurts, Mahomes and Ben Roethlisberger) played in 19 Super Bowls and had a 13-6 record in those contests.
Career Trajectories
| QB | SB Record | Pro Bowls | MVPs | HOF Status |
| Dan Marino | 0-1 | 9 | 1 | ✓ |
| Ben Roethlisberger | 2-1 | 6 | 0 | Pending |
| Brock Purdy | 0-1 | 1 | 0 | Active |
| David Woodley | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | ✘ |
| Jared Goff | 0-1 | 3 | 0 | Active |
| Patrick Mahomes | 3-1 | 6 | 2 | Active |
| Tom Brady | 7-3 | 15 | 3 | Pending |
| Jalen Hurts | 0-1 | 2 | 0 | Active |
| Drew Bledsoe | 0-1 | 4 | 0 | ✘ |
These nine quarterbacks also racked up more than a few individual honors. They tallied a total of seven AP NFL MVP awards and 43 Pro Bowl nominations. Marino is technically the only one of this group to make the Hall of Fame, but part of that is due to several of the aforementioned quarterbacks still not being eligible. Brady, Mahomes and Roethlisberger are locks to be enshrined in Canton, a factor that speaks well to the overall quality of this group.
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