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When looking at players taking to the field for NFL Championship Sunday, most of the focus is on the quarterbacks. There’s good reason for this. We’re talking about three NFL MVP finalists in that of Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Jalen Hurts as well as a history-making rookie quarterback in Brock Purdy.
With that said, the four teams competing for a spot in Super Bowl LVII wouldn’t be here if they didn’t have great all-around rosters.
The Philadelphia Eagles boast one of the most-dominant wide receivers in the game. Their counterparts in that of the San Francisco 49ers have an elite dual-threat running back.
Over in the AFC, a certain record breaking tight end in Travis Kelce dominated last week. Can he do his thing against the Cincinnati Bengals as the Kansas City Chiefs look to avenge their loss to Cincy in last year’s conference title game? These are among the 10-best players set to take to the field for NFL Championship Sunday.
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Eagles general manager Howie Roseman deserves NFL Executive of the Year based solely on the A.J. Brown trade with the Tennessee Titans during last year’s draft. Philadelphia sent its first-round pick (18th overall) and a third-round selection to Tennessee for Brown, inking him to a four-year, $100 million contract in the process.
Boy, has it paid off leading into NFL Championship Sunday. Brown put up 95 yards or more eight times during the regular season. While he struggled to the tune of three catches for 22 yards in the divisional playoffs, there’s every reason to believe this dude will come up big Sunday night in Philadelphia.
Truly one of the most-underrated players in the game today, Jones has been a force of nature since Kansas City made him a second-round pick in 2016. He’s now made the Pro Bowl squad four consecutive seasons with three straight All-Pro teams mixed in.
This past regular season saw Jones rank first in the NFL at win rate against double teams. This means that he’s been able to put pressure on the opposing quarterback despite multiple blockers being thrown in his direction. The only lingering question here is whether Jones can come up big when it counts the most. Heading into NFL Championship Sunday, Jones has registered exactly five quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and zero sacks in 13 career playoff games. That’s just ugly.
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Battling a calf injury heading into the NFC Championship Game, McCaffrey indicates that there’s zero percent chance he’ll miss the matchup against Philadelphia. This has to be music to the ears of Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers’ squad. In the 12 full games that McCaffrey has played in San Francisco since being acquired from the Carolina Panthers in October, the team has not lost a single one. The 49ers’ offense is averaging a resounding 30.4 points per game during that span.
With rookie quarterback Brock Purdy going up against an Eagles team that registered 70 regular-season sacks, he’s going to need a ton of balance on offense. McCaffrey can provide that both on the ground and in the quick screen passing game. After all, he’s tallied 1,403 total yards in 12 games with San Francisco.
Hurts has seen somewhat of a decline in production since returning from a shoulder injury that cost him two games late in the regular-season. In two outings since, he’s tallied three total touchdowns against one interception while completing 61% of his passes. Prior to said injury, the NFL MVP finalist was completing 67% of his passes with an average of 2.5 total touchdowns per game.
Philadelphia will need the pre-injury iteration of Hurts to show up come NFL Championship Sunday against a league-best 49ers defense. In particular, he’ll need to be able to do it on the ground. San Francisco has had issues against mobile quarterbacks in the past. There’s every reason to believe that Hurts will be up to the task.
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Despite missing five games to injury, Chase continued to dominate as a sophomore. Including the first two rounds of the playoffs, Chase has tallied 54 receptions for 586 yards and five touchdowns in seven games.
There are two issues holding Chase back from being ranked higher on this list. He’s dropped 22 passes in 29 career games. Meanwhile, Joe Burrow has thrown 10 interceptions in two seasons when targeting Chase. That equates to a 3.8% interception rate compared to a 2.0% for Burrow’s career. This could be something to watch heading into NFL Championship Sunday.
Despite putting up an historical career at LSU and being seen as a generational quarterback prospect leading up to the 2020 NFL Draft, Burrow has not failed to live up expectations. The quarterback had a great individual rookie season going before suffering a torn ACL 10 games in. He then led Cincinnati to a shocking Super Bowl appearance as a sophomore.
This season has been no worst. The Bengals head into Sunday’s AFC Championship Game having won 10 consecutive games. This span has seen Burrow compile 22 touchdowns against six interceptions. Forget about being one of the best players remaining in the NFL Playoffs, Burrow will soon also become one of the highest-paid.
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Already considered a future Hall of Famer, Kelce finished his 10th regular season ranked fourth all-time among tight ends with 814 career receptions and 10,344 yards. He’s pretty much been a dynamo since the former Cincinnati star missed all but one game during his rookie season back in 2013.
This past regular season saw Kelce post career-highs in both receptions and touchdowns. He was even beter in the AFC Divisional Playoffs, catching both a Chiefs franchise high and NFL all-time tight end high 14 catches in Kansas City’s win over the Jaguars. With Patrick Mahomes hobbled to an injury heading into NFL Championship Sunday, the quarterback will need much more of the same against Cincinnati.
It’s still stunning that San Francisco was able to acquire this future first ballott Hall of Famer from Washington for a third-and-fifth-round pick during the 2020 NFL Draft. Williams earned a Pro Bowl spot in each of his final seven seasons in Maryland. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler with two consecutive First-Team All-Pro honors in San Francisco. For good reason.
According to Pro Football Focus, Williams finished as the No. 1 left tackle in the NFL during the regular season. He was the league’s top run blocker from the position and allowed a single sack in 871 snaps. San Francisco will be relying on this dominance with rookie quarterback Brock Purdy starting against an elite Eagles defensive line in Philadelphia come Sunday evening.
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Bosa led the NFL with 48 quarterback hits and 18.5 sacks during the regular season. He tied with the aforementioned Parsons for the most total pressures with 90. He also ranks first in the NFL Playoffs with 41 total pressures since entering the league back in 2019. For those counting, that’s an average of six pressures per game.
Given what Jalen Hurts brings to a table from a dual-threat ability, the onus is going to be on Bosa to set a tone early on. If he does that, San Francisco’s elite defensive frontswill have a real chance to control the line of scrimmage.
The likely NFL MVP for the second time in his career, Mahomes is on an island all by himself. It’s not necessarily that close. Here’s a dude who has racked up 23,957 passing yards with 192 touchdowns and just 48 interceptions in his first five seasons as a starter.
To put this into perspective, it took all-time great quarterback Joe Montana nine seasons as a starter to hit 189 passing touchdowns. Sure the eras are different, but that goes to show us how dominant Mahomes has been from a statistical perspective. It’s now all about seeing how Mahomes overcomes a high-ankle sprain in the AFC Championship Game. If he performs at the level we’re accustomed to, Kansas City could very well be looking at its third Super Bowl appearance in the last four years.