The Heisman Trophy has been awarded to the nation’s top college player since the 1930s. Throughout history, the honor has been bestowed upon QBs on 38 occasions. The first QB Heisman winner was Davey O’Brien from TCU in 1938.
Since 1966, the beginning of the Super Bowl era, quarterbacks have won the award 31 times. Here is a list of the last ten:
- Johnny Manziel 2012
- Jameis Winston 2013
- Marcus Mariota 2014
- Lamar Jackson 2016
- Baker Mayfield 2017
- Kyler Murray 2018
- Joe Burrow 2019
- Bryce Young 2021
- Caleb Williams 2022
- Jayden Daniels 2023
The Heisman Jinx
With more than 30 Heisman-winning QBs since the Super Bowl era began, a quarterback has never won the Heisman and the Lombardi Trophy for the team that originally drafted him.
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Three Heisman winners have led a team to a Super Bowl Championship. Roger Staubach did win the NFL Championship with Dallas, but he won the Heisman in 1963, three years before the Super Bowl era began. The only other QB to have both a Heisman and an NFL Championship is Jim Plunkett. Plunkett won two Super Bowls with the Raiders, but he was originally drafted by the Patriots in 1971.
When the 2024 season begins, six QBs will have a shot to break the 58-year drought. Lamar Jackson (Baltimore), Kyler Murray (Arizona), Joe Burrow (Cincinnati), Bryce Young (Carolina), Caleb Williams, and Jayden Daniels.
Can Caleb Williams lead Chicago to their first title since 1985? No rookie QB draft first overall would have a better chance in recent years. The Bears have improved greatly since Ryan Poles became the GM just two years ago. The defense is loaded with talent. They have key players locked up for 3-4 years.
Offensively, they are a few key pieces away. Free agency and the draft will play critical roles this year to push the Bears into annual playoff contenders.
@scott brs – We had Darnell Wright last year, plus we have two top 10 picks this year, plus add DJ Moore to that haul.
I’m not sure I understand how you were looking at it?
Why do teams have early picks in the draft? Usually, because they lose? Why are teams able to stack early first round picks over consecutive years? Because they have lousy coaching. No one is coaching first round, or any round draft picks.
The most beneficial thing the Bears have done, is fired coaches. Selectively. And then begin a coaching search that was more systematic and more focused than any in the past 30 years.
Probably not.
Dr. Melhus… how can you say we’ve had a string of good luck? We had the worst team in the league two years ago and the ninth worst this past season. We are going to have different offensive and defensive coordinators so at least the offense is going to have to learn a new system. I would not call any of this good luck.
@scott brs: In fairness, teams like the Chiefs, the Patriots during their 2 decade run under Brady, the late 1980’s Bears, teams like that almost never add a top 10 pick. They pick late in every round, draft well, and keep their teams strong. On the other hand, teams like the Jaguars (of late, they are getting better now) don’t draft well, often have high picks including getting #1 overall two years in a row (their own, not from a trade), but draft poorly, and keep themselves drafting early in every round. They also trade away key picks at inopportune… Read more »