(NewsNation Now) — The conference championship round of the 2022 NFL playoffs has arrived, and no one knows pressure like the four competing quarterbacks.
The quarterbacks face the most pressure perhaps out of any of the players on these NFL teams. They’re the signal callers and the ones that all eyes are on almost every play of the offensive drives.
The four quarterbacks are arguably the most recognizable people on the planet right now and each has had a long history, taking a different path to the Super Bowl.
Joe Burrow, the quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, broke records and won championship games throughout high school and college.
“His style of play is still the same but obviously he’s bigger, faster, stronger, throws it farther and so I feel like it’s just like watching him in high school,” a former teammate said.
After earning the No. 1 overall draft pick out of LSU after winning the Heisman Trophy in 2020, he was expected to do the same in the pros, but he suffered season-ending ACL and MCL tears that cut his first season short.
Patrick Mahomes has been the Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback since being a first-round pick in 2018. He excelled at baseball and basketball growing up.
“I knew he was special with basketball and baseball just because, like, he wouldn’t put it down for anything,” his mom said.
But as for football, he almost quit. Mahomes would only receive three scholarship offers. A bottom-feeder in his recruiting class, he would go on to play in the Big 12 at Texas Tech. Chiefs fans are sure glad he stuck it out.
At 86-95-1, Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford has an overall losing NFL record. In fact, before this year, he had never even won a playoff game.
Drafted by the lowly Detroit Lions and playing there for more than a decade, Stafford played through painful injuries and only reached the postseason three times. He was hampered by the Lions’ inability to put together a good offensive line and some truly horrible draft picks that hampered the quality of personnel around him.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, nicknamed Jimmy G, was considered a two-star recruit out of high school, accepting an offer to play football at Eastern Illinois.
Once only known as Tom Brady’s backup, he played four years with the New England Patriots only to be traded to the 49ers in exchange for their 2018 second-round pick. There were rumors at the time that he was traded because he played so well while Brady was suspended for his role in “Deflate-gate.” The rest, as they say, is history.
As only two teams will advance to the big game, we’re gonna see how these four NFL quarterbacks respond to the pressure.
Mahomes and Garoppolo have the experience of being in Super Bowls before. Stafford and Burrow don’t, as the championship round is the farthest they’ve made it in their careers.