Who was the worst quarterback to start a Super Bowl win?
Some might submit the name of Trent Dilfer, who replaced Tony Banks midseason and guided the defense-driven Baltimore Ravens to a win over the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. There have been a lot more weak signal callers that got to the Super Bowl than won it. David Woodley comes to mind, he was the Miami Dolphins quarterback in 1982 when Don Shula’s team lost to the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl XVII. A couple months after that loss the Dolphins drafted Dan Marino, and their quarterback liability was solved.
From my perspective, I would say the worst quarterback to win a Super Bowl was Jeff Hostetler. He took over Bill Parcell’s New York Giants in December of the 1990 season when Phil Simms was injured and lost for the remainder of the season. Like Baltimore in 2000, the Giants success was keyed by a rock solid defense.
In the NFC Championship Game a fumble by usually reliable Roger Craig in a game at Candlestick Park allowed the Giants an opportunity to make a last second field goal and escape San Francisco with a 15-13 victory. In the Super Bowl that year, a field goal was the decider again, when Scott Norwood missed wide right on a final play of the game that could have won the contest for the Buffalo Bills in their first Super Bowl experience.
As we know, the Bills advanced to three more consecutive games in search of a Vince Lombardi Trophy and never got as close as that loss to New York to complete the 1990 season.
While Baltimore was dominant on defense and Dilfer had his best pro season, the Giants win with Hostetler was solely achieved by their defense. Even as the field general, Hostetler was not much more than along for the ride.