Lone stars: How Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts stack up among NFL quarterbacks from Texas

The rapid rise of the Texas high school quarterback will be on full display in Sunday's Super Bowl as two of the state's QBs — Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes, from Whitehouse, and Philadelphia's Jalen Hurts, from Channelview — will play for the title for the first time.

Mahomes, 27, has two league MVP awards, three Super Bowl berths and one championship ring. Hurts, 24, just finished second behind Mahomes in the league MVP voting. But where do they rank on the all-time NFL list of Texas quarterbacks? Using a measuring cup filled with production, presence and wins, Mahomes is quickly moving up this list of the Lone Star State's best quarterbacks:

No. 10: A gunslinger in a running back era

Charley Johnson, Big Spring: Johnson, who played at New Mexico State, had at least 200 pass attempts 10 times in a 15-year NFL career that ended in 1975 with 24,410 yards and 170 touchdowns. He had his most success for St. Louis, including a 3,280-yard season in 1963 with 28 scores. He's in Denver's Ring of Fame.

No. 9: A winner playing on a lot of losing teams

Matt Stafford, Highland Park: For 12 long years, the Dallas native toiled heroically for some miserable Detroit Lions teams. The No. 1 overall pick of the 2009 draft became the fastest to pass key milestones, including 20,000 yards (71 games), and then 30,000 (109) and 40,000 (147). But the Lions had eight losing seasons during his time there; he became a Los Angeles Ram in 2021 and led the team to a Super Bowl last year. He's No. 11 all-time in NFL passing history and No. 12 in passing touchdowns.

No. 8: Dandy Don was no passing fancy

Don Meredith, Mount Vernon: This Texan never played for a non-Texas team — from Mount Vernon, he went to SMU and then the Dallas Cowboys, throwing for 17,199 yards and 135 touchdowns in the NFL from 1960 to 1968. The three-time Pro Bowler was the 1966 NFL player of the year, and he quarterbacked Dallas in the famed Ice Bowl loss to the Green Bay Packers in the 1967 NFL championship game.

After his playing career, the entire nation got to know this colorful character during his legendary 11-year stint as an analyst on "Monday Night Football."

No. 7: Jim Brown's quarterback in Cleveland

Frank Ryan, Fort Worth Paschal: A consummate professional between the lines and in the lecture halls, Ryan won with regularity during a 126-game career from 1958 to 1970. The three-time Pro Bowler guided the great Cleveland teams during the Jim Brown era, throwing for 2,404 yards and an NFL-best 25 touchdowns while helping the Browns win the NFL championship in 1964. In 1966, he helped the team survive the sudden retirement of Brown by throwing for 2,976 yards and 29 touchdowns.

Ryan ended his career with 16,042 yards passing and 149 touchdowns while drawing the attention of a media fascinated by his doctorate in mathematics, which he earned during his playing days. An in-depth Sports Illustrated article from the 1960s declared that Ryan “goes through life wearing the Charlie Chan smile of somebody who knows something.” But Ryan dismissed the enthrallment of journalists regarding the dichotomy of athletics and academics. “I relish a little bit of individuality, but sportswriters make such a big unnecessary to-do about the combination of mathematics and football, the so-called associated intellect,” he told SI. Indeed, Dr. Ryan.

No. 6: A quarterback for all seasons (and leagues)

Tobin Rote, San Antonio Harlandale: Rote has the unusual distinction of guiding teams to the championship game in three different leagues during a 13-year, 149-game professional career. The Rice product threw for 18,850 yards and 148 touchdowns and had another 3,128 yards and 37 touchdowns on the ground. More important, he won: Rote led Detroit to the 1957 NFL title and San Diego to the 1963 AFL championship. In between, he guided the Toronto Argonauts to the Grey Cup finals during a three-year stint in the Canadian Football League.

His most remarkable season might have been with Green Bay in 1956, when he led the NFL in passing, passing touchdowns and rushing yards by a quarterback. Rote accounted for 29 of Green Bay’s 34 touchdowns that season, the highest such mark in the NFL’s era of the 12-game schedule. He capped his career in 1963 when, at age 35, he earned AFL Most Valuable Player honors while directing the league’s best offense.

No. 5: The face of today's NFL

Patrick Mahomes, Whitehouse: Mahomes' panache matches his prodigious production, including no-look passes, back-foot passes and fourth-quarter comebacks. How are the stats? Well, the former Texas Tech star has played in 80 NFL games over six seasons and already has 24,241 yards and 192 touchdowns, a pace that would challenge some all-time marks. Best of all, Mahomes wins — especially when it matters most. In 13 playoff starts, the two-time league MVP is 10-3 with a Super Bowl win.

His postseason career features 3,902 yards, 32 touchdowns and a 66.7% completion rate, which compares favorably with a full season for most quarterbacks. What else can Mahomes do in what already looks like a Hall of Fame career? We may find out Sunday.

No. 4: A photo that told a thousand words

Y.A. Tittle, Marshall: The NFL Hall of Famer played in 201 games during a 17-year career from 1948 to 1964. Tittle bridged the gap between leather helmets and national television deals, throwing for 33,070 yards and 242 touchdowns as his era's preeminent passer. He earned seven Pro Bowl bids and three All-Pro selections and, in a way, helped revolutionize sports media as the subject of a famed 1964 photo showing him battered and bleeding after a loss to Pittsburgh. The photo, taken by Morris Berman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, embodied the anguish of losing. For all his accomplishments, Tittle never won a title. (Ironically, the Post-Gazette chose not to run the photo because of its lack of action, but Berman submitted it for several contests. The iconic image now hangs in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.)

No. 3: Just one Tom Brady away from NFL immortality

Drew Brees, Austin Westlake: If it weren’t for the age-defying antics of Tom Brady, Brees would hold virtually every passing record in NFL history. Over the span of 20 years and 287 games in the 2000s and 2010s, the Austin native and Westlake graduate threw for 80,358 yards, 571 touchdowns and 7,143 completions — all measurements that rank behind only Brady on the all-time list. He led the league in passing yards seven times, earned 13 Pro Bowl berths as well as two NFL offensive player of the year honors, and led a star-crossed New Orleans Saints franchise to its only Super Bowl win in 2010.

But those mind-boggling stats don’t tell the full story of the 6-foot, slightly built Brees, an unapologetic underdog. Even though he never lost a game at Westlake, big state schools such as Texas and Texas A&M bypassed him because of concerns about his size and a high school knee injury. He went on to a stellar career at Purdue. In 2005, the San Diego Chargers refused to re-sign Brees, citing concerns about a shoulder injury. That shoulder then carried a big chip as he became one of the greatest quarterbacks of his era with the Saints.

No. 2: A Longhorn who enthralled the nation

Bobby Layne, Highland Park: Layne did more than set a new standard for NFL quarterbacks in the late 1940s and 1950s. The Hall of Famer played the game and lived his life in a way that enthralled the nation. After quarterbacking the Texas Longhorns, he captained the Detroit Lions during their championship era of the early 1950s, winning back-to-back titles in 1952 and 1953. By the time Layne left the game, he held almost every NFL passing record, including passes attempted (3,700), passes completed (1,814), yards (26,768) and touchdowns (196).

But Layne’s intangibles couldn’t be so easily measured. The comeback king keyed many a rally, especially during his time with the Lions. In the 1953 title game, Layne cemented his reputation as a clutch player by leading the Lions on an 80-yard touchdown march in the final minutes of a 17-16 Detroit victory. Fellow Hall of Famer and longtime teammate Doak Walker once said about Layne: “Bobby never lost a game. Some days, time just ran out on him.”

No. 1: Slingin' it like no other

Sammy Baugh, Sweetwater: Comparing different eras of professional football can be like equating apples and oranges. When Baugh began his 15-year career — all with Washington — in 1937, football had yet to appear on television and the forward pass ranked just ahead of lightning strikes as a common occurrence at an NFL game. But Baugh’s play helped usher in the modern era of football powered by the forward pass. In an era of low-percentage deep passes, Baugh completed at least 58% of his passes in six seasons. Overall, he set 13 NFL records as a quarterback, defensive back and punter.

Also, while the former TCU Horned Frog was revolutionizing the quarterback position, Baugh won. His team captured the 1942 NFL championship and reached the title game in three other seasons. Baugh was part of the NFL’s inaugural Hall of Fame class in 1963.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts — and our list of all-time NFL Texan QBs