Two high draft picks, two different paths: Maye and Darnold clash in Super Bowl

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Drake Maye and Sam Darnold came into the NFL in similar fashion as No. 3 overall picks tasked with being franchise quarterbacks for struggling teams.

Their paths to the Super Bowl couldn't be much different.

Maye is looking to join Peyton and Eli Manning as the only quarterbacks drafted in the top nine of the last 36 drafts to win a Super Bowl with the team he debuted with as a pro. Peyton Manning won it all in his ninth season with Indianapolis and Eli Manning in his fourth with the New York Giants after being acquired in a draft-day trade from San Diego.

Only two of the other 55 QBs taken in the top nine of the draft since 1990 won a Super Bowl with any team with Trent Dilfer doing it in Baltimore after being drafted by Tampa Bay and Matthew Stafford with the Los Angeles Rams after being picked by Detroit.

Maye is trying to join Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady and Kurt Warner as the only QBs to win a Super Bowl in their first two seasons with the Roethlisberger the only first-round pick to do it.

While Maye's success has been immediate, Darnold's has been anything but.

Picked third by the New York Jets in 2018, Darnold struggled during his first three seasons before being traded to Carolina. He then spent two nondescript in and out of the starting lineup with the Panthers, before going to San Francisco as a backup in 2023.

That helped reset his career and he won 14 games as a starter in Minnesota last season before signing with Seattle and winning 14 games again in the regular season this year before making the Super Bowl.

Darnold could become the first starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl after previously playing for four other franchises. Brad Johnson, Jim Plunkett, Len Dawson and Nick Foles all played for two other franchises before winning a Super Bowl with Foles doing it in his second stint with Philadelphia.

The Maye-Darnold matchup is a rare one between highly drafted quarterbacks with only two other Super Bowls featuring two starting QBs picked in the top five of the draft. The other two were matchups of former No. 1 overall picks with Matthew Stafford besting Joe Burrow in Super Bowl 56 and Peyton Manning topping Cam Newton in Super Bowl 50.

Southern California has produced more Super Bowl players than any other school but hasn't had a starting quarterback appear in the game until this year.

Darnold will be the first QB who finished his college career at USC to start in the Super Bowl after five other Trojans quarterbacks lost in either the conference or league title game before the Super Bowl.

The Trojans have had 70 players appear in the title game before this season, two more than second-place Miami.

North Carolina also will join the list of colleges to produce a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl with Maye getting the honors. That will raise the total of colleges with a Super Bowl starting QB to 51.

Michigan has the most starts with 10 — all by Tom Brady — while California has the most individual QBs with Jared Goff, Aaron Rodgers, Craig Morton and Joe Kapp doing it. Vince Ferragamo, who began his college career at Cal before transferring to Nebraska, also started in the Super Bowl.

North Carolina, the alma mater of 11th president of the United States James Polk, also can become the sixth school to produce a U.S. president and a Super Bowl winning quarterback.

Delaware was the last school to join that list when Joe Biden was inaugurated in 2021 — eight years after Joe Flacco won the Super Bowl. The other schools are Miami of Ohio (Benjamin Harrison and Roethlisberger), Michigan (Gerald Ford and Brady), Stanford (Herbert Hoover, John Elway and Jim Plunkett) and Navy (Jimmy Carter and Roger Staubach).

The Super Bowl is typically filled with star players with an average of more than six first-team AP All-Pros taking the field for the title game the last three seasons.

This year's matchup features just one with Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba the only player who earned first-team honors. The Seahawks did have four second-teamers with defensive tackle Leonard Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, cornerback Devon Witherspoon and punter Michael Dickson all making it. New England had two second-teamers in Maye and punt returner Marcus Jones.

There have been only two other Super Bowls since the 1970 merger featuring only one first-team AP All-Pro with Washington kicker Mark Moseley the sole honoree in the 1982 season and Dallas linebacker Chuck Howley in the 1970 season.

Milton Williams turned a two-sack performance in last year's Super Bowl with Philadelphia into a $104 million contract in free agency with the New England Patriots.

Williams got back to the title game with his new team and now has a chance to join an elite group of players who won Super Bowls in back-to-back seasons with different teams.

The last time anyone completed the trick came eight years ago when Chris Long and LeGarrette Blount followed up titles in Super Bowl 51 with New England by beating the Patriots the following season with the Eagles.

The other two teams it happened came with members of the Cowboys and 49ers in the 1990s. Linebacker Ken Norton Jr. helped Dallas win back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1992-93 seasons before leaving to sign with San Francisco where he won again in 1994.

Deion Sanders was Norton's teammate on the 1994 Niners before joining Dallas the next season when he helped the Cowboys beat Pittsburgh.

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New England Patriots defensive end Milton Williams speaks during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif. ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba speaks during a NFL Super Bowl news conference on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of Super Bowl 60 between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold lifts the winner's trophy next to Michael Strahan, left, after a win over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye celebrates with the trophy after the AFC Championship NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/John Locher)

New Englad Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, left, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, right, smile on stage with the Lombardi Trophy during the NFL Super Bowl Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in San Jose, Calif., ahead of the Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Envoys from Russia and Ukraine met in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for another round of U.S.-brokered talks on ending the almost four-year war, a Ukrainian negotiator said.

The delegations from Moscow and Kyiv were joined in the United Arab Emirates by U.S. officials, Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council chief, who was present at the meeting, said on social media.

Umerov said the planned two-day talks started with all three delegations present, after which negotiators were to break into groups according to topics and then meet as a full group again at the end.

The American team was due to include special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who also attended last month’s meeting, according to the White House.

Last month's talks in the Emirati capital, part of a U.S. push to end the fighting, yielded some progress but no breakthrough on key issues, officials said.

The latest talks were held amid Ukrainian outrage over major Russian attacks on its energy system, which have occurred each winter since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24 2022.

A huge Russian bombardment overnight from Monday to Tuesday included hundreds of drones and a record 32 ballistic missiles, wounding at least 10 people. This came despite Ukraine’s understanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin had told Trump he would temporarily halt strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.

Ukrainian civilians are struggling with one of the coldest winters in years, which saw temperatures around minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn’t offer any details on the Abu Dhabi talks and said that Moscow wasn’t planning any comment on their results.

He said that “the doors for a peaceful settlement are open,” but noted that Moscow will press its military action until Kyiv meets its demands.

Russia is hitting Ukraine’s energy facilities because its armed forces believe the targets are associated with Kyiv’s military effort, Peskov said.

There has been a lack of clarity about how long Putin promised to observe a moratorium on power grid attacks, and Moscow hasn't stopped its aerial attacks on other targets in Ukraine despite a Kremlin official saying last week that Russia had agreed to halt strikes on Kyiv for a week until Feb. 1.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Tuesday barely four days had passed and a fresh wave of attacks targeted Ukraine's power grid, accusing Putin of duplicity.

Trump claimed Tuesday that Putin “kept his word” on the temporary pause. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “unfortunately unsurprised” by Moscow’s resumption of attacks.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said the developments were part of Moscow’s negotiating strategy.

“The Kremlin will likely attempt to portray its adherence to this short-term energy strikes moratorium as a significant concession to gain leverage in the upcoming peace talks, even though the Kremlin used these few days to stockpile missiles for a larger strike package,” it said late Tuesday.

The Abu Dhabi talks also coincide with the expiry of the last remaining nuclear arms pact between Russia and the United States on Thursday. Trump and Putin could extend the terms of the treaty or renegotiate its conditions in an effort to prevent a new nuclear arms race.

Russia launched 105 drones against Ukraine overnight, and air defenses shot down 88 of them, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. Strikes by 17 drones were recorded at 14 locations, as well as falling debris at five sites, it said.

In the central Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian strike on a residential area killed a 68-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hancha said.

The southern city of Odesa also came under a large-scale attack, regional military administration head Oleh Kiper said. About 20 residential buildings were damaged, with four people rescued from under the rubble, he said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this image made from video provided by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, Russian Multiple rocket launcher TOS-1A fires towards Ukrainian positions on an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)