When was the last time a backup QB played in the Super Bowl
Executive summary
The most recent instance widely reported of a true backup quarterback—one who did not begin the season as the team’s starter—playing and winning the Super Bowl was Nick Foles, who took over for the injured Carson Wentz and started Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, 2018, guiding the Philadelphia Eagles to a victory over the New England Patriots [1] [2]. Historical examples are more numerous, from Earl Morrall in Super Bowl V to Tom Brady’s 2001 season elevation, but contemporary coverage and databases list Foles’ 2018 start as the last clear example of a backup quarterback playing and winning the title [3] [1].
1. Historical pattern: backups have long been the X-factor in the Super Bowl era
Backup quarterbacks have punctuated Super Bowl history at several key moments — Earl Morrall replaced an injured Johnny Unitas in Super Bowl V, Roger Staubach seized the Cowboys’ job and started Super Bowl VI after earlier bench time, and others such as Jim Plunkett, Jeff Hostetler and Kurt Warner all stepped into starting roles after beginning seasons in supporting spots and eventually won Super Bowls — a pattern documented across Sports Illustrated, NFL retrospectives and league lists [3] [4] [5].
2. Nick Foles: the last widely recognized backup to play and win the Super Bowl
Nick Foles’ appearance in Super Bowl LII is consistently cited by major outlets as the most recent case of a backup quarterback not originally the season’s starter taking the field and winning the Super Bowl; Foles replaced Carson Wentz late in the 2017 regular season, led the Eagles through the playoffs, and beat Tom Brady and the Patriots in the title game in February 2018 [1] [2]. Multiple retrospective pieces and databases count Foles among a short list of backups who have converted midseason or late-season opportunities into championships [1] [4].
3. Distinguishing types of “backup” — replacement starters vs. seasonal backups
Reporting distinguishes quarterbacks who begin the year as backups but are elevated due to injury or performance (e.g., Foles, Brady in 2001) from those who are true game-day substitutes during the Super Bowl itself; Tom Brady’s rise after Drew Bledsoe’s injury in 2001 began with a midseason promotion that carried through to a Super Bowl win, while other backups entered specific Super Bowls due to injury in-game or during the season — the nuance matters when defining “played” [3] [1].
4. Recent seasons and the data cutoff: why 2018 still stands in reporting
Major sports outlets and historical lists compiled through 2023–2024 continue to list Foles as the most recent backup to start and win the Super Bowl; coverage around more recent championship games noted backup quarterbacks on rosters (for example, backups were named on Super Bowl LVIII rosters), but contemporary reporting does not show another backup starting or entering the game in a way that replicated Foles’ 2018 role, and several outlets explicitly noted 2018 as the last such occurrence in their Super Bowl retrospectives [6] [7].
5. Caveats, data limits and what “played” could mean going forward
The sources available emphasize starts and championship outcomes rather than every instance a non-starter took snaps during a Super Bowl, and while databases like the NFL’s starting-quarterback lists and media retrospectives catalog starters and winners, they may not exhaustively annotate brief in-game substitutions; therefore the clearest, best-supported answer from the cited reporting is that Nick Foles in Super Bowl LII is the last widely recognized case of a backup quarterback playing and winning the Super Bowl, while noting that rostered backups in later Super Bowls did not, in the cited accounts, log comparable starts or championship-defining appearances [5] [1] [2] [7].