This N.F.L. postseason is showcasing the new generation of quarterbacks more than any in the recent past. The four signal callers playing Sunday — Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts, Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and San Francisco’s Brock Purdy — have the youngest average age of any group of starters in the conference championships: 25 years, 98 days, according to the N.F.L.
The new guard was already in place in the A.F.C.: Mahomes and Burrows are meeting in the conference championship for the second straight year, and this will be Mahomes’s fifth consecutive appearance in the game.
But in the N.