Two years ago, I first wrote about the way Patrick Mahomes was specializing in the art of the Multiple Game-Winning Drive (mGWD). This is a game where a quarterback takes the lead multiple times in the fourth quarter or overtime to win the game. For it to count as a mGWD, you have to get the final game-winning drive along with an earlier go-ahead drive in a tied or one-score game.
For example, Mahomes has already done this 10 times, including three playoff games (13 Seconds Game vs. 2021 Bills, Super Bowl 57 vs. Eagles, 2024 AFC Championship Game vs. Bills).
For something that’s only happened roughly 31 times in NFL postseason history, Mahomes already holds the record with three such playoff wins. The only other quarterbacks to do it twice are Ken Stabler, Eli Manning, Tom Brady, and Matthew Stafford.
The all-time record for mGWD in a career (including playoff games) is 12. But with the direction the NFL is going, you might see multiple quarterbacks break that and do it rather soon out of necessity.
The Rise of Multiple Game-Winning Drives in the NFL
I’ve recently updated my 4QC/GWD database this summer, and I can say with great certainty now that 12 is the record for mGWDs. Scroll down to see who holds the record.
But what struck me is just how often this is happening now. I can reliably track the number of mGWDs by calendar year going back to 1940, which I did in the graph below:
Since I didn’t feel like breaking things down by season where games played in January 2026 are technically the 2025 season, I just left it by year. Despite only getting Week 18 of the 2025 regular season and 13 playoff games in the sample for 2026 so far, we’ve already seen 8 mGWDs as the playoffs were loaded with a record number of lead changes in the 4th quarter (just none in the three championship games/Super Bowl, unfortunately).
That means with most of the 2026 regular season to come, we should see the single-year record of 20 mGWDs (done in 2015, 2018, and 2025) broken this year.
Twenty games in a season with 285 games is still not a ton (7.0% of games), so it’s not an overly frequent event by any means. But you were lucky to see it half that often before the 21st century.
What has changed and why are mGWDs on the rise in today’s NFL?
- Overtime Rule Changes: A big one as NFL games used to just end in ties without overtime for decades, denying many quarterbacks the chance to lead a mGWD. Overtime helped add some, but then you could still win the game on a field goal right away. Today, you can score a touchdown in overtime and still lose the game as the 2025 Rams learned the hard way in Seattle. New overtime rules help increase the number of lead changes in close games.
- Better Hurry-Up Offenses: If you haven’t noticed, offenses are getting pretty good at quickly moving down the field in the last two minutes or even the final 60 seconds (more on that later this year). Winning games late or sending them to overtime happens more frequently now.
- Shorter Fields, Better Kickers, More Fourth Downs: Other recent changes to the game like getting to start at the 35 after a touchback on the kickoff, kickers who can hit from 65+ yards, and teams willing to go for more fourth downs from anywhere on the field are all helping teams to score more in crunch time in situations they usually wouldn’t in the past.
- More Games/Teams: Finally, a 17-game schedule with 32 teams (14 playoff teams) means you have 285 games a season now, so that’s just more chances to accumulate games that end with a mGWD.
Add it all up, and you get situations like Super Bowl 58 when Brock Purdy became the first and only quarterback to lead three go-ahead drives in the fourth quarter and overtime and still lose a playoff game.
One go-ahead drive isn’t quite what it used to be in the NFL. So expect more mGWDs going forward.
The Multiple Game-Winning Drive (mGWD) Leaderboard for NFL History
As I said before, I feel comfortable that I can provide a full leaderboard for mGWDs going back to 1940. Again, you have to get the final GWD for it to count as a mGWD, so a game like 2023 Ravens vs. Rams won’ count for Lamar Jackson despite taking the lead twice because the game was ultimately won on a punt return touchdown in overtime.
If there’s no GWD, there’s no mGWD. Also, if there’s a game where a team used multiple quarterbacks to get the go-ahead drives, I didn’t count that in the quarterback’s total. I only counted that as a “Team mGWD” instead. Playoffs are included in the count.
Here is everyone with at least one mGWD (254 quarterbacks total):
| 1. Ben Roethlisberger – 12 |
| 2. Drew Brees – 11 |
| Eli Manning – 11 |
| 4. Matthew Stafford – 10 |
| Patrick Mahomes – 10 |
| 6. Dak Prescott – 9 |
| Warren Moon – 9 |
| Tom Brady – 9 |
| 9. Drew Bledsoe – 8 |
| Russell Wilson – 8 |
| Aaron Rodgers – 8 |
| Derek Carr – 8 |
| 13. Brett Favre – 7 |
| Philip Rivers – 7 |
| Ryan Tannehill – 7 |
| 16. Jake Plummer – 6 |
| Marcus Mariota – 6 |
| Joe Flacco – 6 |
| Josh Allen – 6 |
| Peyton Manning – 6 |
| 21. Matt Ryan – 5 |
| Jim Kelly – 5 |
| Roger Staubach – 5 |
| Tony Romo – 5 |
| David Garrard – 5 |
| Dan Marino – 5 |
| Brad Johnson – 5 |
| Steve Grogan – 5 |
| Randall Cunningham – 5 |
| Jeff Garcia – 5 |
| Matt Hasselbeck – 5 |
| Steve McNair – 5 |
| 33. Vinny Testaverde – 4 |
| Joe Ferguson – 4 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick – 4 |
| Jake Delhomme – 4 |
| Bryce Young – 4 |
| Boomer Esiason – 4 |
| Jeff George – 4 |
| Trevor Lawrence – 4 |
| Trent Green – 4 |
| Dan Fouts – 4 |
| Justin Herbert – 4 |
| Roman Gabriel – 4 |
| Marc Bulger – 4 |
| Ken Stabler – 4 |
| Jim Plunkett – 4 |
| Geno Smith – 4 |
| Sonny Jurgensen – 4 |
| Donovan McNabb – 4 |
| Steve Young – 4 |
| Joe Theismann – 4 |
| 53. Josh McCown – 3 |
| Michael Vick – 3 |
| Lamar Jackson – 3 |
| Bob Avellini – 3 |
| Kordell Stewart – 3 |
| Jay Cutler – 3 |
| Neil O’Donnell – 3 |
| Andy Dalton – 3 |
| Joe Burrow – 3 |
| Craig Morton – 3 |
| Bo Nix – 3 |
| Scott Mitchell – 3 |
| Gus Frerotte – 3 |
| Jared Goff – 3 |
| Matt Schaub – 3 |
| Mark Brunell – 3 |
| Byron Leftwich – 3 |
| Mike Livingston – 3 |
| Joe Montana – 3 |
| Alex Smith – 3 |
| John Hadl – 3 |
| Norm Van Brocklin – 3 |
| Rich Gannon – 3 |
| Kirk Cousins – 3 |
| Billy Kilmer – 3 |
| Archie Manning – 3 |
| Y.A. Tittle – 3 |
| Phil Simms – 3 |
| Jalen Hurts – 3 |
| Colin Kaepernick – 3 |
| Jimmy Garoppolo – 3 |
| Brock Purdy – 3 |
| Vince Young – 3 |
| Jayden Daniels – 3 |
| 87. Jim Hart – 2 |
| Steve Beuerlein – 2 |
| Kent Graham – 2 |
| Kurt Warner – 2 |
| Carson Palmer – 2 |
| Blaine Gabbert – 2 |
| Kyler Murray – 2 |
| Steve Bartkowski – 2 |
| Billy Joe Tolliver – 2 |
| Joey Harrington – 2 |
| Desmond Ridder – 2 |
| James Harris – 2 |
| Frank Reich – 2 |
| Doug Flutie – 2 |
| Vince Evans – 2 |
| Jim McMahon – 2 |
| Erik Kramer – 2 |
| Ken Anderson – 2 |
| Mike Phipps – 2 |
| Brian Sipe – 2 |
| Bernie Kosar – 2 |
| Baker Mayfield – 2 |
| Danny White – 2 |
| Troy Aikman – 2 |
| John Elway – 2 |
| Brock Osweiler – 2 |
| Case Keenum – 2 |
| Lynn Dickey – 2 |
| David Carr – 2 |
| Deshaun Watson – 2 |
| Johnny Unitas – 2 |
| Andrew Luck – 2 |
| Daniel Jones – 2 |
| Cotton Davidson – 2 |
| Stan Humphries – 2 |
| Chad Henne – 2 |
| Tommy Kramer – 2 |
| Daunte Culpepper – 2 |
| Teddy Bridgewater – 2 |
| Aaron Brooks – 2 |
| Chad Pennington – 2 |
| Mark Sanchez – 2 |
| Sam Darnold – 2 |
| Ron Jaworski – 2 |
| Carson Wentz – 2 |
| Mac Jones – 2 |
| Jameis Winston – 2 |
| Cody Carlson – 2 |
| Jake Locker – 2 |
| Jason Campbell – 2 |
| Robert Griffin III – 2 |
| 138. Lamar McHan – 1 |
| Charley Johnson – 1 |
| Neil Lomax – 1 |
| Gary Hogeboom – 1 |
| Tom Tupa – 1 |
| Kevin Kolb – 1 |
| Chris Miller – 1 |
| Tony Banks – 1 |
| Kyle Boller – 1 |
| Tyler Huntley – 1 |
| Rob Johnson – 1 |
| Kelly Holcomb – 1 |
| Trent Edwards – 1 |
| EJ Manuel – 1 |
| Matt Moore – 1 |
| Cam Newton – 1 |
| Billy Wade – 1 |
| Jim Harbaugh – 1 |
| Brian Griese – 1 |
| Nick Foles – 1 |
| Turk Schonert – 1 |
| Jeff Blake – 1 |
| Brandon Allen – 1 |
| Jake Browning – 1 |
| Milt Plum – 1 |
| Eric Zeier – 1 |
| Derek Anderson – 1 |
| P.J. Walker – 1 |
| Don Meredith – 1 |
| Jon Kitna – 1 |
| Matt Cassel – 1 |
| Drew Lock – 1 |
| Earl Morrall – 1 |
| Gary Danielson – 1 |
| Todd Hons – 1 |
| Charlie Batch – 1 |
| Bobby Thomason – 1 |
| Zeke Bratkowski – 1 |
| Bart Starr – 1 |
| Don Majkowski – 1 |
| Matt Flynn – 1 |
| Tom Savage – 1 |
| C.J. Stroud – 1 |
| Davis Mills – 1 |
| Marty Domres – 1 |
| Paul Justin – 1 |
| Gardner Minshew – 1 |
| Blake Bortles – 1 |
| Len Dawson – 1 |
| Steve Fuller – 1 |
| Bill Kenney – 1 |
| Mark Vlasic – 1 |
| John Friesz – 1 |
| Albie Reisz – 1 |
| Jim Hardy – 1 |
| Vince Ferragamo – 1 |
| Steve Dils – 1 |
| Austin Davis – 1 |
| Tom Flores – 1 |
| Daryle Lamonica – 1 |
| George Blanda – 1 |
| Jay Schroeder – 1 |
| Jeff Hostetler – 1 |
| Donald Hollas – 1 |
| JaMarcus Russell – 1 |
| Bruce Gradkowski – 1 |
| Aidan O’Connell – 1 |
| Bob Griese – 1 |
| David Woodley – 1 |
| Jay Fiedler – 1 |
| Cleo Lemon – 1 |
| Tua Tagovailoa – 1 |
| Wade Wilson – 1 |
| Sean Salisbury – 1 |
| Christian Ponder – 1 |
| Joshua Dobbs – 1 |
| Babe Parilli – 1 |
| Marc Wilson – 1 |
| Jacoby Brissett – 1 |
| Jim Everett – 1 |
| Frank Filchock – 1 |
| Charlie Conerly – 1 |
| Scott Brunner – 1 |
| Jeff Rutledge – 1 |
| Al Dorow – 1 |
| Joe Namath – 1 |
| Richard Todd – 1 |
| Pat Ryan – 1 |
| Zach Wilson – 1 |
| Norm Snead – 1 |
| Matt Cavanaugh – 1 |
| Jeff Kemp – 1 |
| Sam Bradford – 1 |
| Jim Finks – 1 |
| Mark Malone – 1 |
| Bubby Brister – 1 |
| Mike Tomczak – 1 |
| Landry Jones – 1 |
| Jim Zorn – 1 |
| Dave Krieg – 1 |
| Bruce Mathison – 1 |
| Rick Mirer – 1 |
| John Brodie – 1 |
| Steve Spurrier – 1 |
| Shaun Hill – 1 |
| Troy Smith – 1 |
| Nick Mullens – 1 |
| Dan Pastorini – 1 |
| Oliver Luck – 1 |
| Mason Rudolph – 1 |
| Sammy Baugh – 1 |
| Eddie LeBaron – 1 |
| Doug Williams – 1 |
| Mark Rypien – 1 |
| Rex Grossman – 1 |
| Colt McCoy – 1 |
| Taylor Heinicke – 1 |
Here is a table showing the 32 quarterbacks with at least 5 mGWD, including their career record at 4QC/GWD opportunities, their total game-winning drives, and the percentage of those GWDs that were mGWDs.
- Ben Roethlisberger is still your record holder at 12 as the Steelers were no strangers to giving up the late lead and asking him to recapture it.
- Eli Manning and Drew Brees are right behind him at 11 thanks in part to losing some games like this to him in 2004-05. The defenses for Brees also obviously were the worst at blowing his go-ahead drives.
- You have three active quarterbacks in record-breaking territory with Mahomes (10), Stafford (10), and Dak (9).
- I did not expect Marcus Mariota to have the highest percentage of his GWDs coming as mGWDs (37.5%) but here we are.
- As further proof this didn’t happen as often in the old days, Peyton (10.7%) and Marino (9.8%) have two of the lowest percentages of their GWDs that were mGWDs.
I’ll end by pointing out that Eli Manning was the first quarterback to reach 10 mGWD, doing so on 9/18/2016 in a 16-13 win against Brees’ Saints. Eli got his 11th on 11/19/2017 against the Chiefs. Roethlisberger had his 12th to set the record in his final regular season game against the Ravens on 1/9/2022.
But I would expect Stafford and Prescott to give Mahomes a chase for the record before he takes it over in the next season or two. Then we’ll see just how far he can take it in a game that is increasingly looking like the end of Arena Football League games with multiple lead changes in the final minutes.
Captain Comeback: NFL Analysis by Scott Kacsmar 