The NFL’s biggest stars will take center stage on Sunday when the Kanas City Chiefs battle the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are looking to complete the NFL’s first three-peat, while Jalen Hurts and the Eagles are looking to avenge their loss to Kansas City in Super Bowl LVII.
Mahomes and Hurts are two of the most accomplished quarterbacks in the NFL, but which signal-caller would you want under center if you had to choose just one?
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On the defensive side of the ball, these are the two best units in the sport, but which team has the advantage?
To answer those questions, I combined both team’s projected starters to create an ultimate Super Bowl starting 11 on both offense and defense.
In choosing players to be listed here, I took liberties. Regardless of how they played in high school, college or as pros, I wanted the best possible team I could muster. I imagined being the general manager for Super Bowl LIX vs. the Monstars. And I have to say, I like our chances against the aliens because this team is loaded.
Offense
QB: Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs)
It’s easy to forget the numbers Hurts put up in college. In one season at Oklahoma, he had 3,851 passing yards, 1,298 rushing yards and 53 total touchdowns. By comparison, Heisman winner Jayden Daniels, who is considered by many to be one of the best NFL rookie quarterbacks ever, accounted for 3,812 passing yards, 1,134 rushing yards and 50 total touchdowns at LSU.
Hurts squats the truck out front, can toss it 60 yards and is the feature back in the most automatic play from scrimmage in football history. He has days when he’s more deadly than Agent Smith with a dial tone.
But, with that said, I’m picking the guy who threw for 700 yards against Oklahoma and has made “dad bods” the peak of athletic performance: Patrick Mahomes.
RB: Saquon Barkley (Eagles)
Barkley has been unstoppable. He accounted for an average of 1,900 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns in his last two years at Penn State.
In the NFL, Barkley notched 2,000 yards from scrimmage as a rookie and as a seventh-year vet.
Eric Dickerson needs to send a Trans Am to Nick Sirianni. With 2,005 rushing yards in 16 games, Barkley was set to break Dickerson’s 40-year-old record, but Sirianni held Barkley out of the team’s final regular-season game.
Since 2015, Barkley has rushed for at least 1,000 yards and picked up at least 1,200 yards from scrimmage in all but two seasons, including his time in college and the NFL. And he played just two games in 2020.
WRs: DeVonta Smith (Eagles), A.J. Brown (Eagles), Hollywood Brown (Chiefs), DeAndre Hopkins (Chiefs)
Smith, the Slim Reaper, took a scythe to college football in 2020. That season, we watched him turn into Jason and Alabama into the Argonauts. He had 117 catches, 1,856 yards, and 23 touchdowns while leading the Crimson Tide to a national championship.
Smith left college football with two national titles, the Heisman and the tears of opponents who learned in real-time they are mortal men. And he is not like them.
TE: Travis Kelce (Chiefs)
The late bloomer personified. Kelce’s best offer coming out of high school was Cincinattti, and he took it. He played in 35 collegiate games, hauled in just 59 catches, and notched just one season of 700 receiving yards or more.
Fast-forward 13 years, and Kelce is attempting to win his fourth Super Bowl. He has made seven All-Pro teams, 10 Pro Bowls and solidified himself as the greatest postseason player at his position — ever.
OL: Creed Humphrey (Chiefs), Landon Dickerson (Eagles), Lane Johnson (Eagles), Joe Thuney (Chiefs), Jordan Mailata (Eagles)
This group has made more than 500 combined starts, have 15 combined Pro Bowls and have won seven combined Super Bowls.
Humphrey, Dickerson and Thuney were All-Americans in college, while Johnson is a five-time first- or second-team All-Pro.
Defense
DL: Chris Jones (Chiefs), Jordan Davis (Eagles), Jalen Carter (Eagles), Nolan Smith (Eagles)
I wrote that Davis should’ve been a Heisman finalist all the way back in October 2021. And I look smarter by the day.
The Eagles are a personified recruiting brochure for Kirby Smart’s Georgia program.
DB: Trent McDuffie (Chiefs), Cooper DeJean (Eagles), Justin Reid (Chiefs), Quinyon Mitchell (Eagles)
Line up DeJean across from Kansas City’s best wideout and leave him on the island. Like Chuck Noland in “Castaway,” he’ll find a way.
LB: Nakobe Dean (Eagles), Jeremiah Trotter Jr. (Eagles), Leo Chenal (Chiefs)
Before his injury, Dean enjoyed the best regular season of his professional career with 128 tackles, nine tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a pick.
Dean won the Butkus Award in high school. Then he won it again at Georgia, where he majored in mechanical engineering, graduated cum laude, captained the Bulldogs and led them to their first national title in 40 years.
The man left Horn Lake, Mississippi, and said, “watch me!”
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RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast “The Number One College Football Show.” Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young and subscribe to “The RJ Young Show” on YouTube.
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