Two of the league’s top young quarterbacks — and MVP candidates — will be squaring off, as KC’s Patrick Mahomes and Philly’s Jalen Hurts will also be the first two African-American starters under center in the history of the big game.
The Chiefs were pegged as favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy heading into the postseason, but the Eagles are listed as 1.5-point favorites as of Thursday evening (over-under 51), according to Caesars Sportsbook.
Hurts is a big reason why. The 24-year-old has enjoyed a breakout campaign in leading the Eagles to a franchise-record 14 regular-season victories and an NFC East title, in addition to a trip back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2018.
“You’ve got to keep an eye on him, for sure,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said of Hurts’ dual-threat capabilities. “He’s a great runner, but he also can throw the ball well, so you’d better keep an eye on him somewhere there.”
In his 15 regular-season games, Hurts threw for 3,701 yards and 22 touchdowns (only 6 interceptions), while rushing for 760 yards and 13 scores on 165 carries (4.6 yards per tote). Now, he’s excited for his opportunity to shine on the biggest stage, and is hoping to bring home some hardware when all is said and done.
“I think everything we’ve been able to do this week, you definitely want to soak it all in,” said Hurts on Wednesday. “It’s something that we’ve worked really hard to get to this point, obviously we’re coming for a reason and having a goal in mind, but just soaking it in with our teammates.”
While Hurts — who has completed 31 of his 49 postseason passes (63 percent) for 275 yards and 2 touchdowns — hasn’t necessarily put up huge numbers through the air in the playoffs, he hasn’t really had to.
The Eagles possess a strong run game, with Miles Sanders, Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott working as a committee along with Hurts behind a solid O-line.
In its two playoff wins, Philadelphia has rushed for 416 yards and 7 touchdowns, controlling the time of possession with an average of 36:34, compared to 23:25 for opponents.
Sanders, who registered a team-high 1,269 yards and 11 scores on the ground in the regular season, set the tone with a pair of touchdown runs in the first half of Philly’s 31-7 win over San Francisco in the NFC Championship, while Gainwell leads the team in the postseason with 160 rushing yards.
Of course, there’s also Hurts, who had 7 carries of 20 yards or more in the regular season.
If the Chiefs defense — which ranked eighth in the league against the run — focuses too heavily on stopping the ground attack, Hurts certainly has the weapons in the Philly receiving corps to make ‘em pay via the passing game. The KC defense ranked 18th this season defending the pass, giving up 220.9 yards per contest through the air.
Second-year wideout Devonta Smith and fourth-year veteran A.J. Brown both went over 1,000 yards on the season (Brown 1,496 yards and 11 TDs; Smith 1,196 yards and 7 TDs) have big-play potential, as does talented tight end Dallas Goedert (702 yards on 55 catches; 3 TDs).
“They’re both phenomenal receivers in their own way,” said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni of the Smith-Brown duo, “and they both have these different abilities and different skill sets … A.J. plays with strength and quickness, and really goes and plucks the ball in traffic, and Devonta is this route-runner who has a great feel and a great understanding how to attack.”
The Eagles also have one of the top defensive units in the league, both up front and in the secondary. Philly ranked first in the league in sacks (70.0), second in yards allowed per game (301.5) and third in turnover margin (plus-8).
The front seven includes linebackers Haason Reddick, who finished second in the league in sacks with 16.0, and T.J. Edwards, the team’s leading tackler (159 stops; 99 solo); tackles Javon Hargrave (11.0 sacks) and Fletcher Cox (7.0); and ends Brandon Graham (11.0) and Josh Sweat (11.0) also applying heavy pressure from the edges. Reddick has already racked up 3.5 sacks in his two postseason games.
The secondary, meanwhile, consists of starting cornerbacks Darius Slay (3 interceptions) and James Bradberry (3 INTs), while safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson tied for the league lead in interceptions with 6 (in just 12 games).
“They’re great everywhere so it’s hard to pick one,” Mahomes said when asked about the greatest challenge that comes with facing such a tough defense. “Obviously I’d probably say the defensive line, just because they’re on a historic sack rate, and the way they’re able to get to the quarterback. Everybody knows that everything starts up front, and so it’ll be a great challenge for our offensive line to try to do what they can in the run game and the pass game of protecting and run-blocking, but they’ve got great DBs, they’ve got great linebackers.”
Switching sidelines for a closer look at the Chiefs, the 27-year-old Mahomes, now in his sixth season, suffered a high-ankle sprain during the first half of the Divisional-Round win over Jacksonville, but returned to finish the contest and then led Kansas City to another win two weeks ago over Cincinnati in the conference championship.
It was obvious that Mahomes — who led the league in passing yards (5,250) and passing touchdowns (41) — was not at 100 percent in either game, but he battled through the discomfort and has been working hard with the training staff to be as mobile as possible come Sunday night.
“He’s been doing really well with his ankle,” Reid said Wednesday of Mahomes’ recovery. “We had a fast practice a couple of days ago and he moved well. He could really do just about everything, at least everything in the gameplan that we’ve asked him to do.”
The Chiefs got in their first full practice session of the week later in the day Wednesday, and Mahomes admitted he’s feeling a lot more mobile.
He claims that he is “definitely in a better spot” than he was two weeks ago, and he knows that avoiding turnovers will be key against the Eagles’ defense. In his two playoff appearances thus far, Mahomes has completed 51 of his 73 attempts (70 percent) for 521 yards and 4 touchdowns (no interceptions), while rushing just 6 times for 16 yards (2.7 yards per carry). By comparison, Mahomes rushed for 358 yards on 61 carries (5.9 per attempt).
As for who to get the ball to, tight end Travis Kelce is one of the most reliable targets in the NFL. He ranked third in the league in the regular season in receptions (110), sixth in targets (152), eighth in receiving yards (1,338), second in receiving touchdowns (12) and third in yards after catch with 648.
Kelce advanced the chains for 78 first downs on the season through the air, second only to Justin Jefferson’s 80. Kelce had 19 “big” plays — receptions that went for 20-plus yards — on the year, good for seventh among all receivers.
“You’re just aware of where he is at all times,” Sirianni said of trying to contain Kelce, “and that’s any good playmaker. And obviously with him, he’s made so many plays throughout his career, through this year, through the playoffs — we’ve got to know where he is at all times.”
Kelce’s brother, Jason, is the Eagles’ starting center, as Sunday will also mark the first-ever meeting between brothers in Super Bowl history.
Former Packer Marquez Valdes-Scantling has been a key figure in the KC passing game as well. He’s hauled in 7 of his 10 postseason targets for 122 yards (an average of 17.4 yards per grab) and a pair of touchdowns.
Juju Smith-Schuster came over from Pittsburgh in the offseason and was second on the team in receiving behind Kelce during the regular season with 933 yards and 3 touchdowns. He’s caught all three of his targets in the playoffs for just 36 yards, but he has proven across his six-year career that he can be a playmaker on any given snap.
Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore are two more talented young receivers to keep an eye on, while Jerick McKinnon can also do damage catching the ball out of the backfield, as referenced by his 9 TD catches this season.
Rookie running back Isiah Pacheco can hurt a defense on the ground and via the catch, as he will likely get the bulk of the carries, despite Kansas City recently getting Clyde Edwards-Helaire — the Week 1 starter — back off of injured reserve.
Defensively, tackle Chris Jones (team-high 15.5 sacks) and defensive end Frank Clark (2.5 postseason sacks) lead the charge up front, with linebackers Nick Bolton (team-high 180 tackles; 108 solo) and Willie Gay (88 tackles; 51 solo) also contributing significantly.
In the secondary, cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed (3 interceptions; 108 stops) and Jaylen Watson (2 INTs in the playoffs) are joined by safeties Justin Reid and former Virginia standout Juan Thornhill, who matched the team high with his 3 interceptions on the season.
Coach Reid has been here before — on multiple occasions — while this will be Sirianni’s first Super Bowl appearance in just his second season. Ironically, his first NFL job was with the Chiefs under Reid, when he was the “offensive quality control coach” in 2009. He spent the next three seasons in KC, where he was also assistant quarterbacks coach and wide receivers coach before joining the Chargers organization as an assistant for five seasons. From 2018-20, Sirianni served as offensive coordinator in Indianapolis before being hired by the Eagles prior to last season. He says despite this being his first time guiding his team through Super Bowl prep, his players are ready to roll.
“Our guys are locked in,” he said. “We understand that there’s a lot of distractions, there are things that aren’t a part of our typical week, so we have to do our best to make sure our routine stays the same in the midst of the madness. Our guys understand that. That’s been our message all week.”
Meanwhile, Reid’s first head-coaching gig was with Philadelphia from 1999-2012, where he came up short in three-straight NFC Championship games before leading the Eagles to Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005 (lost to New England).
He finally won it all with the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV in 2020, and returned to the big game the following season, falling to Tampa Bay. Reid has seen his fair share of quality opponents across his storied career, and he believes Philly is right up there with the best of them.
“They’ve got a good football team,” Reid said of the Eagles, as he’ll lead his squad through final preparations over the next few days. “We want to make sure that as coaches, we give the players everything they need to be successful, physically and mentally alike, so that’s the process we’re in now. We’ve got a couple more days to get that done and then we cut everybody loose and we go play. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Hurts believes Sunday’s title bout will be “a great” one.
“It’ll be a battle,” he said. “You’ve got the best of the best playing against one another, two really good teams, two well-coached teams stacked with players, so it’ll be a competitive game.”
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