{"id":698523,"date":"2026-01-23T09:12:33","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698523\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:12:33","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T09:12:33","slug":"jeff-hostetler-offers-broncos-jarrett-stidham-key-advice-as-he-faces-herculean-patriots-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698523\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Hostetler offers Broncos\u2019 Jarrett Stidham key advice as he faces Herculean Patriots task"},"content":{"rendered":"

Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham will be thrown into the fire for Sunday\u2019s AFC Championship game against the Patriots \u2014 but he isn\u2019t the first backup quarterback to be in this position.<\/p>\n

Former Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler \u2014 who famously took over for an injured Phil Simms at the end of the 1990 regular season and helped Big Blue capture the Super Bowl championship that season \u2014 gave some words of wisdom to Stidham ahead of the biggest game of his NFL career.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy advice to [Stidham] is to block out the noise,\u2019\u2019 Hostetler told\u00a0The Denver Gazette<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s really hard to do because you\u2019ve got reporters asking questions. They were asking me things like, \u2018This coach doesn\u2019t think you can get it done. \u2018[John] Madden doesn\u2019t think you can get it done.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Denver<\/p>\n

Denver Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham looks to pass against the Los Angeles Rams before an NFL preseason football game Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023, in Denver. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cMy big thing is don\u2019t make the game bigger than just another football game,\u2019\u2019 Hostetler added. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s the playoffs and it\u2019s one and done and this is your chance to go to the Super Bowl. But you\u2018ve got to put that stuff aside and just do your job and go have some fun out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stidham, who has started just four NFL games since being drafted in 2019 by the Patriots, has been slotted in as the Broncos\u2019 QB1 following starter Bo Nix\u2019s devastating season-ending ankle injury<\/a> that he suffered during Denver\u2019s 33-30 overtime win over the Bills last round.<\/p>\n

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Hostetler, who had two regular season games to adjust as opposed to the urgency of Stidham\u2019s situation, said that no one believed in him when he took over for Simms.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeck, there wasn\u2019t anybody outside our locker room who thought I could do the job,\u201d Hostetler continued. \u201cI can probably count outside the locker room on one hand the people who thought I could do it, and they were all family members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n

In this Jan. 27, 1991, file photo, New York Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler celebrates a second-quarter touchdown against the Buffalo Bills during NFL football\u2019s Super Bowl XXV in Tampa, Fla. AP<\/p>\n

Hostetler spent seven years as a backup quarterback with the Giants before joining the Raiders as a starter for the 1993 season. He earned a Pro Bowl appearance the following year.<\/p>\n

In addition to Hostetler, Nick Foles took down Tom Brady as a backup quarterback for the Eagles, leading them to a Super Bowl win over the Patriots in 2018.<\/p>\n

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Foles also sent out some words of encouragement to Denver \u2014 which is playing New England in the AFC title game \u2014 noting his Super Bowl victory over the Patriots.<\/p>\n

\u201cA positive note going into the game versus the Patriots is that they struggle against backup QBs in championship-type games,\u201d Foles posted to X earlier this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Broncos face off against New England on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham will be thrown into the fire for Sunday\u2019s AFC Championship game against the Patriots…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[215,232,231,258,71975,8679,2426,7,519,3872,63677,58,1167,6,5341,208,9251,525,505,1369],"class_list":["post-698523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denver-broncos","tag-bills","tag-broncos","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-denver-broncos-quarterback","tag-denver-gazette","tag-denverbroncos","tag-football","tag-giants","tag-jarrett-stidham","tag-jeff-hostetler","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-new-england","tag-nfl","tag-nick-foles","tag-patriots","tag-phil-simms","tag-raiders","tag-super-bowl","tag-tom-brady"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115943646655432330","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}