Young Active Quarterbacks that led the league

Dan Marino in his second season led the league in twelve passing categories. That is roughly half of all passing categories recorded. He led in each of the golden colored categories shown.

Player GS Season Age Team G GS Cmp Att Inc Cmp% Yds TD Int Pick6 TD% Int% Rate Sk Yds Sk% Y/A AY/A ANY/A Y/C Y/G Succ% W L T 4QC GWD
Dan Marino 16 1984 23 MIA 16 16 362 564 202 64.2 5084 48 17 1 8.5 3 108.9 13 120 2.25 9 9.4 8.9 14 317.8 54.9 14 2 0 2 3

There are some young quarterbacks in the league that have truly excelled in some aspect of their young careers. Today I look at starting quarterbacks that have in their first two seasons led the league in the season at some key metric in the Super Bowl era. I list the active ones.

Caleb Williams, CHI, Age 24

Tie for most fourth quarter comebacks in a season with Peyton Manning at six. Caleb accomplished this in 2025 which was his second season.

Caleb had six game winning drives in 2025.

Caleb had a 1.1 interception % in 2024 and a 1.2 % in 2025. Those were good for 5th and 8th best in the Super Bowl era among first two year quarterbacks.

Bo Nix, DEN, Age 26

Tie for most game winning drives in a season with seven in 2025. This is a four way tie with Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning and Jake Plummer.

Had five fourth quarter comebacks in 2025 which was his second season.

C. J. Stroud, HOU, Age 24

In 2022 C.J. Stroud led the league in interception percentage with a 1%

Michael Penix, ATL, Age 26

Michael led the league in 2025 with a 1.1 interception %. He had only 3 interceptions on 276 pass attempts.

Drake Maye, NWE, Age 23

Number one in completion percentage among 1-2 year players in the Super Bowl era with a 72% in 2025. This is no dink and dunk stat either. In 2025 Maye led the league in Yards/Att, Adjusted Yards/Att and Adjusted Net Yards/Att. That 72% completion is the fourth best season leader all time. It is by the youngest quarterback since Hall of Famer Tom Flores in 1960. To lead the league in completion percentage and the multiple yards per attempt was last done by Joe Burrow in 2021.

Drake Maye also led the league in 2025 in Passer Rating with a 113.5. That was good for third best among 1-2 year players in the Super Bowl era.

That’s all for today. I have not posted recently because I have been busy writing a book. I hope to have it finished this summer. Just in time to resume posting for the 2026 NFL season. It is hard to believe that there are only 10 days to the Hall of Fame Game.

Feature Image: <a href=”https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2005_Dan_Marino.jpg“>Jg772010</a>, <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0“>CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons


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