Jalen Hurts hopes to go Saturday night where no former Alabama quarterback has gone in 40 years – into a winning locker room after starting an NFL playoff game.

Hurts will be under center when the Philadelphia Eagles take on the New York Giants at 7:15 p.m. CST Saturday in the NFC Divisional Playoffs.

Hurts will be trying to become the first former Alabama QB to start for a winning team in a playoff game since Jan. 15, 1983, when Richard Todd led the New York Jets to a 17-14 victory over the Los Angeles Raiders in an AFC second-round game.

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Todd completed 15-of-24 passes for 277 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Todd’s 45-yard completion to wide receiver Wesley Walls put the Jets on the Los Angeles 1-yard line and set up Scott Dierking’s game-deciding 1-yard touchdown plunge with 3:45 left to play.

Eight days later, the Miami Dolphins smothered New York 14-0 in the AFC Championship Game, sacking Todd four times and intercepting five passes to advance to Super Bowl XVII.

In the era of the modern quarterback (with the position as the primary passer rather than the blocking back), former Alabama quarterbacks have a 20-13 record as postseason starters, with four Super Bowl victories and seven NFL championships.

But since Todd’s victory, only three others have started in playoff games. However, two of those starts came last year, and there would have been two Crimson Tide QBs in this year’s postseason field if not for a concussion that sidelined Tua Tagovailoa for the Miami Dolphins’ contest against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

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In Philadelphia’s 31-15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Jan. 16, 2022, Hurts completed 23-of-43 passes for 258 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions and ran eight times for 39 yards.

One day before that, Mac Jones completed 24-of-38 passes for 232 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and ran twice for 18 yards in the New England Patriots’ 47-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

In the decades between Todd and the same-weekend starts of Jones and Hurts, only one former Alabama quarterback started an NFL postseason game.

On Jan. 9, 2016, AJ McCarron rallied Cincinnati from a 15-0 deficit to a 16-15 lead over the Pittsburgh Steelers with three straight scoring drives in the fourth quarter. McCarron’s 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver A.J. Green gave the Bengals their one-point lead with 1:50 left to play

After an interception, Cincinnati had the opportunity to run out the clock on its first postseason victory in 25 years. But running back Jeremy Hill lost a fumble at the Pittsburgh 9-yard line. The Steelers moved 74 yards — 30 from unnecessary-roughness and unsportsmanlike-conduct penalties against the Bengals — in 65 seconds for a field goal that gave them an 18-16 victory.

From the 1960 through the 1967 seasons, Bart Starr made 10 postseason starts for the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay won nine of those games, including five NFL championship contests and the first two Super Bowls, with Starr earning the MVP Award in both NFL-AFL showdowns.

The MVP of the third Super Bowl was a former Alabama quarterback, too, with Joe Namath leading the Jets to a 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts on Jan. 12, 1969, in his famous guarantee game.

In 1972, Scott Hunter made a postseason start for the Packers in a 16-3 loss to the Washington Redskins on Christmas Eve. A day earlier, Ken Stabler had made his postseason debut when he relieved Oakland Raiders starter Daryle Lamonica. Stabler ran 30 yards for a touchdown to put Oakland in front, but the Pittsburgh Steelers won 13-7 thanks to Franco Harris’ Immaculate Reception.

Over the next five postseasons, Stabler started 11 games for the Raiders, with Oakland winning seven, including Super Bowl XI, and reaching at least the AFC Championship Game annually.

Stabler made his final playoff start on Dec. 28, 1980, for the Houston Oilers – a 27-7 loss to the Raiders.

The next year, Todd had the Jets in the playoffs for the first time since Namath and New York lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 13-6 on Dec. 20, 1969.

The Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills 31-27 in Todd’s postseason debut on Dec. 27, 1981, even though the former Davidson High School star passed for 377 yards. At the time, that was the second-most for a player in a postseason game and remains the high mark for a player from an Alabama high school or college.

The next year, Todd made three postseason starts, and that was it for former Alabama quarterbacks until McCarron’s start for Cincinnati 33 years later.

The former Alabama quarterback who has played in the most postseason games is Jeff Rutledge. From the 1984 season through the 1991 season, Rutledge appeared in 15 playoff games, including two Super Bowl victories, although he didn’t start any. Most of Rutledge’s work came as a holder on kicks.

Rutledge threw one postseason pass, which went for a 23-yard gain when the 49ers were expecting a field-goal attempt in the Giants’ 49-3 first-round victory over San Francisco on Jan. 4, 1987.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.