Why Dan Orlovsky believes Broncos’ Jarrett Stidham will continue trend vs. Patriots

In the modern history of the NFL, there have only been six teams to start one quarterback in the Divisional Round of the Playoffs and a different player in the Championship game: the 1972 Dallas Cowboys, the 1975 Los Angeles Rams, the 1979 Houston Oilers, the 1988 Chicago Bears, the 1992 Buffalo Bills, and the 2025 Denver Broncos.

Of the five teams that have already taken the field, their combined record doesn’t set a particularly promising precedent for the Broncos, sitting at 1-4 with the lone victory belonging to the combination of Jim Kelly and Frank Reich in Buffalo.

Asked if he believes Jarrett Stidham can buck the trend and take his Broncos to the Super Bowl in February on NFL Live, Dan Orlovsky said no, noting that even if Sean Payton is an elite offensive mind, his quarterback has simply been on the shelf too long to compete against a very good New England defense.

“I think that trend continues for the backup quarterbacks. We’ve watched this Patriots defense really minimize two good quarterbacks in the last two weeks of the playoffs and CJ Stroud and Justin Herbert and candidly make them look terrible,” Orlovsky noted. “Sean Payton’s absolutely outstanding. This is a good offense in Denver. It’s the first time this guy’s going to be playing in three years. I think that trend continues.”

Now, as Nick Foles pointed out, the Patriots have a bad record of losing games with championship implications against backup quarterbacks, as he and the Philadelphia Eagles took down Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and company back in 2018, but this isn’t the same New England team by any means. No, unless Stidham has been secretly a franchise quarterback hanging out on the bench for the last three years, it’s hard to imagine the one-time Patriot will be able to take down his former franchise in such a pivotal game.

"This is the first time this guy's going to be playing in three years, I think that trend continues."@danorlovsky7 believes history will repeat itself with the Denver Broncos' backup quarterback pic.twitter.com/Ehg2gzvsTn

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 23, 2026

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