Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer both won a Super Bowl in the last five years. Stan Humphries, Neil O’Donnell, Chris Chandler and Kerry Collins all started one in the last dozen.

Coach Joe Gibbs won the NFL’s showcase three times with three different quarterbacks. None found his way into the Hall of Fame, either.

Not every Super Bowl quarterback is super.

We’ve been spoiled by Tom Brady and his late-game heroics in three of the previous four. But in 2001, the year before Brady arrived on the league’s biggest stage, the matchup was Dilfer vs. Collins. And the hiccup in the Patriots’ dynasty produced the equally forgettable Johnson vs. Rich Gannon showdown in 2003.

Look at the leaders of the NFL’s final four teams this season: Denver’s Jake Plummer, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, Carolina’s Jake Delhomme and Seattle’s Matt Hasselbeck. With personnel turning over faster than ever and exotic defensive schemes all the rage, we may be ushering in an era of the quarterback-as-caretaker.

They’re praised as quarterbacks who’ve learned to minimize their mistakes and “manage” the game, to do just enough and turn over the heavy lifting to the running backs and linebackers. Less certain is how these QBs would fare if the coach’s last instructions were to forget about caution and win one with moxie and their arms.

In 39 previous Super Bowls, quarterbacks won the MVP award more than half the time (20), and nearly three times more often than the next-closest position player (running backs, seven). Joe Namath became a legend by guaranteeing a win beforehand; Brady by engineering two in the final minutes. Joe Montana, the most accomplished quarterback in Super Bowl history, burnished his legacy with an impossibly cool comeback.

Beginning at his own eight-yard line with barely three minutes left in the 1989 game against Cincinnati, he glanced out from the huddle and over toward the sidelines. “Hey look,” Montana said, cracking up his 49er teammates during a timeout, “there’s John Candy!” Then, he went back to work, connecting on eight of nine passes, the final one a 10-yard TD strike to John Taylor that gave San Francisco a 20-16 victory.

“Sometimes a guy’s just a normal guy, but he’s got a Microsoft brain,” teammate Ronnie Lott once said about Montana, by way of explanation.

Among this year’s contenders, who would you drop into the same spot?

Delhomme is an adequate regular-season performer with a nose for the playoffs. He’s 5-1 in six postseason starts, the sole loss coming against Brady in the Super Bowl, and his quarterback rating is a revealing 24 points better in the playoffs. He may need every one of them, though, after losing tailback DeShaun Foster because of a broken ankle suffered in Sunday’s road victory over the Chicago Bears.

Roethlisberger is the only other QB in the final four with a winning postseason record. He’s 3-1 after dispatching the Colts and Peyton Manning, the league’s other marquee quarterback. And as the youngest member of the surviving quartet, he may have the biggest upside.

Playing against type, Roethlisberger and the Steelers came out firing early against Indianapolis. He completed six of seven passes in the opening drive, then hooked up with receiver Hines Ward for 45 yards after a masterful play fake on a gutsy third-and-10 call on the second drive en route to a 14-0 lead.

“In a lot of respects, we are going to be able to go as far as he is going to take us,” coach Bill Cowher said. “I’m not trying to put any pressure on him. That’s the fact and he likes that, he knows that.”

But for all the kind words, Cowher still put Roethlisberger on the familiar diet right after halftime. He threw just five times after intermission as the Steelers loaded up on the run.

Hasselbeck already had his Namath-like moment in the 2004 playoffs. He played a brilliant second-half against Green Bay – completing 15 of 22 passes for 195 yards, including a TD throw to Shaun Alexander to force overtime – and kept the roll going by correctly calling heads on the overtime coin flip.

Then, a microphone picked up Hasselbeck telling referee Bernie Kukar, “We want the ball, and we’re going to score.”

Instead, on Seattle’s second possession in the extra period, Hasselbeck called an audible and his pass for Alex Bannister was grabbed by the Packers’ Al Harris and returned 52 yards for the winning score. If the Super Bowl comes down to a final drive, he might want to skip the predictions and do some stargazing instead.

Throwing interceptions at inopportune moments practically was a Plummer trademark until Denver coach Mike Shanahan convinced his quarterback he was trying to do too much. Shanahan could make the case that John Elway didn’t win the big one until he was surrounded with a supporting cast that was good enough to earn his trust.

“It was a group of people playing together and playing extremely hard,” Shanahan said after the Broncos sent New England packing. “Hopefully, we can continue to do that and do something special as a team.”

He got no argument from Plummer. Bailed out several times by Denver’s defense, the quarterback didn’t sound as though he was in a hurry to be tested.

“I kind of don’t like grades. We got a ‘W,”‘ Plummer said smartly, “and that’s all that matters.”