Ahead of making his first start this season in the AFC championship game on Sunday, Jarrett Stidham is receiving advice from Jeff Hostetler, a quarterback who’s been in a familiar position.
Ater starting quarterback Bo Nix fractured a bone in his ankle in the divisional round that will cause him to miss the remainder of the postseason, Stidham is set to start for the first time in two years and try to lead the Broncos back to the Super Bowl.
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Over three decades ago, Hostetler became the Giants’ starter late in the regular season after Phil Simms went down with a season-ending injury. Despite having limited starting experience, Hostetler helped the Giants advance through the playoffs and defeat the Bills in the Super Bowl.
“My advice to [Stidham] is to block out the noise,’’ Hostetler said to The Denver Gazette. “That’s really hard to do because you’ve got reporters asking questions. They were asking me things like, ‘This coach doesn’t think you can get it done. ‘[John] Madden doesn’t think you can get it done.’
“My big thing is don’t make the game bigger than just another football game,’’ Hostetler added. “Obviously, it’s the playoffs and it’s one and done and this is your chance to go to the Super Bowl. But you‘ve got to put that stuff aside and just do your job and go have some fun out there.”
The key difference between Hostetler and Stidham’s situations is that Hostetler made a couple starts before the playoffs. With Stidham starting in the AFC title game, he will have limited time to adjust to starting again. Fortunately for Stidham, though, he appears to have more belief surrounding him than Hostetler had before he took over for Simms.
“Heck, there wasn’t anybody outside our locker room who thought I could do the job,” Hostetler continued. “I can probably count outside the locker room on one hand the people who thought I could do it, and they were all family members.”
Broncos fans also received encouragement before the AFC championship game from Nick Foles, who famously led the Eagles to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots in 2018 after Carson Wentz went down with a torn ACL.
“A positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games,” Foles wrote.
Stidham will look to channel Foles and Hostetler when the Broncos host the Patriots on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Former Super Bowl-Winning Backup QB Has Simple Advice for Jarrett Stidham.
