Unlikely Super Bowl QB duel has some Bears fans wondering 'what if?': Telander

CHICAGO - The quarterbacks are set for Super Bowl LX (60, for those of us who prefer numerals). It’s the Seattle Seahawks’ Sam Darnold against Drake Maye of the New England Patriots, and there’s a lot about those two men that’s interesting.

First off, who would have guessed these would be the two quarterbacks playing in the final, penultimate game of the 2025 season? Yahoo Sports did indeed lay out a half-serious, half-joking conspiracy theory Monday that the NFL knew in September, since the league put out a pre-season graphic showing Darnold and Maye next to the Lombardi Trophy (with other QBs nearby).

It’s all rigged!

But if it isn’t, consider the unusualness of these two quarterbacks making it this far, since one of them will go down in football history with the greats of the game. Darnold, in his eighth year, is already with his fifth team. He was drafted No. 3 overall by the New York Jets in 2018 and struggled mightily in his three years there under lousy coaches. His record with the Jets was 13-25, and the team dumped him off to the Carolina Panthers, who dumped him to the San Francisco 49ers, who dumped him to the Minnesota Vikings, who decided to go with young quarterback J.J. McCarthy and let Darnold go to the Seahawks last offseason.

Drake Maye of the New England Patriots warms up prior to the AFC Championship NFL football game against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field At Mile High on January 25, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Kara Durrette/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Darnold simply led the Seahawks to a 14-3 record, a division title, the NFC Championship, and now is set to show journeymen failures everywhere that, with work and luck and optimism, maybe someday your life will turn too.

It’s not like Darnold stumbled into this season’s success as a total bumpkin. He threw for 4,319 yards and 35 TDs last season for the Vikings, and this year he passed for 4,048 yards, with a 67.7 completion rate, the highest of his career. In the NFC title game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams he threw for 346 yards, three TDs, no interceptions and a stellar 127.8 rating. All with an injured oblique.

Still, there’s the thought that Darnold is not worthy of being up there with Super Bowl winners like Bart Starr, Roger Staubach, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Patrick Mahomes. It brings to mind the fact that even though most Super Bowls are won by rare, singular quarterbacks, some are won by fortunate guys who were smiled upon by circumstance, brief ascendance, being in the right place at the right time.

That group features Earl Morrall, Mark Rypien, Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson and Nick Foles. Those aren’t Hall of Famers, not ever. But they were serviceable, flourished briefly, had the right coaches, the right teammates around them and seized their one moment on the biggest football stage.

Sam Darnold of the Seattle Seahawks warms up prior to a game against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship game at Lumen Field on January 25, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Darnold, 28, has the Seattle "Dark Side" defense to support him, just like Terry Bradshaw had the "Steel Curtain" to help him to his four Super Bowl crowns. But it’s also possible for a quarterback to improve year after year, develop into greatness, with all his mistakes and losses and corrections shaping the way to stardom.

"He just shut a lot of people up," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said of his quarterback after the Rams game.

And then there’s the Patriots’ Maye. At just 23 ½ he will be the second-youngest quarterback ever to start a Super Bowl, behind Dan Marino who was 35 days younger when he started Super Bowl 19. You’d think Maye would be full of mistakes, inaccuracies, foolishness on the field. But he’s a cold-veined tactician with deadly accuracy and field leadership.

The dude threw for 4,394 yards this season with 31 TDs and only eight interceptions. He completed an amazing 72.0 percent of his passes and had a 113.5 passer rating. He also rushed for 450 yards. In the AFC snow-globe game against the Denver Broncos in impossible conditions, he threw for just 86 yards, but he rushed for 65 yards and the Patriots only TD.

Maye’s a winner. Last year, his rookie season, he learned things, going 3-9 and struggling. This year his cobra-like accuracy came out as a venom that was fatal to opponents. To see him throw is to see someone with near-perfect form, tall and erect at 6-4, 225, a master of sending bullets over linebackers, lofting deep throws over safeties and checking down quickly and smoothly when nothing else is there.

Caleb Williams of the Chicago Bears passes the ball during the second half of the NFL football game against the New Orleans Saints at Soldier Field on October 19, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images / Getty Images)

One thing that stands out here is how Darnold was basically available to anyone all these years, and, Maye—for those of us here in Chicago—was taken in the 2024 draft after the Bears picked Caleb Williams at No. 1. As much as Bears fans have fallen in love with Williams’ derring-do and late-game heroics, they still have to wonder: Would Maye have been a better pick?

The franchise is haunted by taking Mitch Trubisky over Mahomes in 2017. Picking quarterbacks is all-encompassing. It’s your team’s future, maybe for decades. Williams has shown flashes that he can be a great quarterback, but his accuracy is a major concern. He’ll hit the bombs, the amazing, last-second miracles. He’ll scramble and spin and roll out of quagmires.

But the drop-offs, the check-downs, the simple dinks and doinks? Not so good. Only 58.1 percent completion this season.

Consider that Maye with his accuracy has already passed for more yards in a season than any Bears quarterback ever. None even close. Not Williams, for sure. No Bear has ever passed for 4,000 yards, the way every team in the NFL has.

So we can watch the Super Bowl on Feb. 8 and enjoy a lot of things. And, as always, we can wonder about the quarterbacks.

Dig deeper:

Want more? Read some of Rick Telander’s recent columns for Fox 32:

The Source: This article was written by Rick Telander, a contributing sports columnist for FOX 32 Chicago.

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