Building an All-Super Bowl LIX Team from Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles rosters
Let's check out which team has the advantage in talent ahead of Super Bowl LIX
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and I got the urge to bring back an article format I ran back in 2019 and 2020. Today, I’m going to assemble a starting lineup by combining the best members of the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. This is a fun way to compare and contrast the strengths of both teams as we prepare for the finale of the NFL season.
Kansas City and Philadelphia emerged from this exercise evenly matched, and I didn’t set it up to end that way on purpose. The two teams are just that close when we examine the tops of their rosters. I think the Eagles have more depth when you consider players who didn’t make this combined team, including Landon Dickerson, Dallas Goedert, Darius Slay, Josh Sweat, and Milton Williams.
The Chiefs placed six players onto the All-Super Bowl LIX Offense compared to five for the Eagles. I kicked Joe Thuney into left guard for this exercise, even though Kansas City plans to play him at left tackle tonight.
Philadelphia evened the score with six defensive selections compared to five for Kansas City. Leaving Milton Williams off the defensive side of the ball felt wrong, but there’s no way I was putting him ahead of Jalen Carter or Chris Jones. However, Williams might benefit from Carter drawing a lot of attention tonight and finish the game with the most pressures among Eagles defenders.
*Pressure and coverage data is from Pro Football Focus
All-Super Bowl LIX Offense
Quarterback: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Mahomes is 215 yards away from tying Joe Montana for the sixth-most in playoff history. Tonight’s game will mark Mahomes’ 21st playoff game compared to 23 for Montana. Mahomes needs 415 yards to tie Ben Roethlisberger for the third-most in playoff history.
Running Back: Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Barkley enters the Super Bowl with 2,447 rushing yards between the regular season and playoffs combined. He needs 30 rushing yards to break Terrell Davis’ single-season record for combined regular season and playoff rushing yards.
Wide Receiver: A.J. Brown, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Brown has averaged less than 50 receiving yards per game in his six playoff appearances with the Eagles. He had more receiving yards in his 2021 Divisional Round game with the Tennessee Titans (142) than he has this postseason (120).
Wide Receiver: DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Smith had an average depth of target (ADOT) over ten yards in six games during the regular season but hasn’t hit that mark in the playoffs. Per PFF, he had an 8.5 ADOT in the Wild Card Round, followed by 2.3 in the Divisional Round, and 3.5 in the Conference Championship Game.
Wide Receiver: Xavier Worthy, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Worthy hasn’t finished a game with an ADOT of ten or higher since Week 12. He had an ADOT of ten or higher in eight of his first 11 appearances before the Chiefs altered his usage.
Tight End: Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Kelce is 206 yards away from tying Jerry Rice’s career playoff receiving yards record and is 597 yards ahead of third place Julian Edelman. Kelce is two receiving touchdowns behind Rice but already owns the career playoff receptions record with 174. Rice (151) and Edelman (118) are the only other players with more than 100 career playoff receptions.
Left Tackle: Jordan Mailata, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Mailata went from allowing pressure on 6.4% of his combined regular season and postseason pass sets in 2023 to just 3.62% of his pass sets in 2024. Despite playing 211 fewer total offensive snaps this season, Mailata has already appeared in more run plays than he did last year.
Right Tackle: Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: PFF hasn’t charted Johnson with allowing a playoff sack since his rookie season in 2013 despite the All-Pro making 13 postseason starts since then.
Left Guard: Joe Thuney, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Thuney allowed a sack in his postseason debut as a left tackle against Houston. That was the first playoff sack Thuney allowed since the 2016 conference championship game against Pittsburgh. That was his second career playoff game and occurred during his rookie season. He has started 20 total playoff games.
Right Guard: Trey Smith, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Smith allowed five pressures against the Eagles the last time these teams met in the Super Bowl. He has only allowed more than five pressures in a game three times in his career, including 2021 vs. Washington, 2021 vs. Buffalo (playoffs), and 2022 vs. Tennessee.
Center: Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Humphrey has only allowed pressure on 0.95% of his career playoff pass blocking snaps. He hasn’t allowed a pressure this postseason and has never allowed more than two in a playoff run.
All-Super Bowl LIX Defense
Defensive End/Edge: George Karlaftis, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Karlaftis is applying pressure on 16.67% of his 2024 playoff pass rush attempts compared to 11.15% of his rush attempts during the 2024 regular season.
Defensive End/Edge: Nolan Smith, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Smith is applying pressure on 12.1% of his pass rush attempts this postseason. The only player with more pass rush attempts than Smith (124) among all teams who participated in the postseason is Jalen Carter (135). Josh Sweat (102) and Milton Williams (93) are third and fourth on the list.
Defensive Tackle: Chris Jones, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: For his career, Jones is applying pressure on 11.63% of his playoff pass rush attempts. That percentage jumps to 13.66% if we focus on just the last three years (2022, 2023, and 2024).
Defensive Tackle: Jalen Carter, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Carter is only half a sack away from totaling as many career playoff sacks as Fletcher Cox (2.5). Cox appeared in 12 playoff games with the Eagles. Tonight marks Carter’s fifth playoff game and fourth playoff start. He’s applying pressure on 14.81% of his pass rush attempts this postseason.
Linebacker: Zack Baun, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Baun has as many tackles for loss in this playoff run (two) as he had during his first three NFL seasons combined. He never forced or recovered a fumble during his four years with the New Orleans Saints but has a forced fumble and two recoveries in the past three games.
Linebacker: Nick Bolton, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Bolton’s percentage of tackle attempts missed during the regular season has climbed each year he’s been in the NFL, starting at 4.9% in 2021 and reaching 14.4% in 2024. PFF has charted him with missing 21.4% of his tackle attempts this postseason.
Cornerback: Trent McDuffie, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: McDuffie has only recorded one pass rush attempt this postseason compared to ten in 2022 and 14 in 2023. His transition away from playing in the slot removes him as a potential weapon in this area.
Cornerback: Quinyon Mitchell, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Mitchell has only allowed seven yards after the catch (YAC) this postseason. That’s tied for fifth fewest among all cornerbacks this year with a minimum of 50 playoff defensive snaps. No one who allowed under ten YAC this postseason was targeted more than six times except for Mitchell, who has been targeted 13 times.
Nickel: Cooper DeJean, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: PFF has not credited DeJean with allowing a touchdown in coverage during his rookie season. The last touchdown he allowed was in Week 8 of the 2022 college football season against Ohio State and C.J. Stroud.
Safety: Justin Reid, Kansas City Chiefs
Stat: Reid allowed four receiving touchdowns in coverage in each of the past two regular seasons but has never allowed a touchdown in the playoffs despite appearing in 12 games.
Safety: C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles
Stat: Over the past three regular seasons, Gardner-Johnson is averaging an interception every 2.38 games or roughly every 89.6 snaps in coverage. He only has one playoff interception across nine games (301 coverage snaps) during that time.