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The latest
Super Bowl LVII picks: Will Kansas City Chiefs or Philadelphia Eagles win Lombardi Trophy? | NFL.com
Jeremy Bergman: Chiefs 23, Eagles 19
Why: Andy Reid and Co. learn their lesson from Kansas City’s Super Bowl LV loss to Tampa Bay and scheme up a creative quick game to beat Philadelphia’s prolific pass rush.
Super Bowl LVII MVP: Patrick Mahomes
Bold prediction: Isiah Pacheco has more touches than Kansas City’s wide receivers combined, the most by a rookie in a Super Bowl since Colts RB Joseph Addai in Super Bowl XLI (29).
Andy Reid Redefined the Kansas City Chiefs With a Decade of Dominance | The Ringer
Yet even the most optimistic Chiefs fan understood that however good Reid and new GM John Dorsey—who was simultaneously hired away from the Packers to replace Pioli—were at their jobs, this would not be a quick fix. You don’t turn the worst team in the NFL into a contender overnight.
But Reid and Dorsey turned the Chiefs into a contender, seemingly overnight. They almost immediately traded for veteran quarterback Alex Smith and began rebuilding the roster: They used the no. 1 pick in the 2013 draft on left tackle Eric Fisher, who protected Mahomes’s blind side when the Chiefs won a Super Bowl seven years later, and a third-round pick on Travis Kelce, who in a decade in Kansas City has crafted a Hall of Fame résumé. (In subsequent years, the Chiefs would go on to draft elite players like defensive end Dee Ford, cornerback Marcus Peters, center Mitch Morse, and receiver Tyreek Hill; while none of those players remain on the Chiefs today, they helped fortify a depleted roster around Smith and had set the Chiefs up for success when Mahomes arrived.)
Super Bowl 2023: How Chiefs got back to Super Bowl after Tyreek Hill trade | SBNation.com
June 8, 2022: Chiefs re-sign RB Jerick McKinnon
If you ever needed evidence that not even NFL teams quite know what they have in veteran players, look no further than McKinnon: The league let him sit in free agency for three months and finally allowed him to just simply go back to Kansas City on a cheap one-year deal for barely more than $1 million.
Whoops.
McKinnon’s rushing numbers don’t pop—72 carries, 291 yards, one touchdown—but that’s never been the case. However, he has in ways been the Tyreek Hill replacement in the passing offense that the Chiefs needed and posted career-bests of 56 catches, 512 yards, and nine touchdowns.
Jerick McKinnon caught more touchdowns this season than Justin Jefferson, Jaylen Waddle, Tee Higgins, DeVonta Smith, DK Metcalf, Mike Evans, Christian Kirk, Brandon Aiyuk, and yep, Tyreek Hill.
Defensive Player of the Year
San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa, who led the league with 18.5 sacks, edged out Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones and Cowboys defensive end/linebacker Micah Parsons.
Bosa is the third 49ers player to win the award, joining defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield (1997) and cornerback Deion Sanders (1994).
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
It’s too obvious to say the Chiefs’ path to victory on offense runs through quarterback Patrick Mahomes. The likely NFL MVP has been simply incredible this season and seemed to take that standard to the next level in Kansas City’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC championship game. But who Mahomes will be delivering the ball to matters.
Tight end Travis Kelce ranks fourth in these playoffs with 177 receiving yards, and his three touchdowns lead all pass catchers. Mahomes and Kelce will show up, but an X-factor here is wide receiver Kadarius Toney, who reportedly will play in the Super Bowl as he deals with an injury. Toney has just 45 receiving yards on 15 receiving snaps this postseason, but he has a 53.3% wide receiver usage rate, which means when he’s on the field, they look to get him the ball at a very high rate. The Chiefs traded for Toney for this very game — for him to be an athletic difference-maker. They’ll use him as such.
On the defensive side of things, outside of Chris Jones being a game-wrecker in the middle, the Chiefs’ path to victory is stepping up their run-defense game. The team’s 61.6 run-defense grade in the playoffs ranks ninth out of 14 teams, but their expected points added allowed per rush is second worst. That’s not ideal when facing a team that would love to run the ball as long as it is effective.
Linebacker Nick Bolton has the second-highest run-defense grade against RPO looks (73.4) among Chiefs defenders this postseason. Fellow starting linebacker Willie Gay Jr. has the second-lowest mark on the team (54.3), and what’s also worrisome is that rookie edge defender George Karlaftis carries the worst grade (54.1). The key to victory for Kansas City on defense is to stay disciplined in their run defense, which is a lot easier said than done against this Eagles team.
Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2023 revealed at ‘NFL Honors’ | NFL.com
Darrelle Revis: The preeminent cornerback of his generation is a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Revis, a four-time first-team All-Pro, starred on one of the toughest defenses of his era, the Rex Ryan-led Jets of the 2010s. The CB’s prowess for shutting down marquee receivers one-on-one during New York’s 2009 march to one of two straight AFC title games earned him the moniker “Revis Island.” His 95 passes defensed during his first five seasons in the NFL are the most by any player since the stat was first tracked in 1991, and his 31 PDs in that historic ‘09 season is tied for the third-most in a single campaign. Alas, Revis finished second in voting for the Defensive Player of the Year that season to Charles Woodson. The star corner left the Jets in 2013 for Tampa Bay, then to the rival Patriots in 2014, where he won his first and only Super Bowl title. Revis returned to the Jets in 2015 and wrapped up his career with the Chiefs in 2017, finishing with 29 interceptions and 139 PDs. Already a member of the 2010s All-Decade team, Revis will now be honored as one of football’s all-time greats.
Round 1 - Pick 30
Peter Skoronski OT
NORTHWESTERN • JR • 6’4” / 315 LBS
Kansas City
Skoronski is a gifted pass blocker at left tackle, and the Chiefs do need to add another piece to their offensive line.
Around the NFL
Cowboys QB Dak Prescott named 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year | NFL.com
Prescott was named the 2022 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year at the annual NFL Honors from Symphony Hall in Phoenix, just days ahead of the Arizona Super Bowl.
“Thank you to the NFL, to Commissioner [Roger] Goodell, to Nationwide for recognizing the impact that we as NFL players can have off the field,” Prescott said. “To the Payton family, I have such appreciation for Walter, for your beautiful family that continues the legacy through your charitable work.
“That’s something I’ve always said, that I hope that when I finish this game, they can say he was a helluva player, but he was a much better person.”
After producing career-high numbers in almost every category, Jacobs is in a much different situation heading into a possible stint in free agency this offseason. The soon-to-be 25-year-old hopes he returns to Las Vegas in 2023 and beyond.
“I mean for me, I’ve got the Raiders seal tatted on me. It’s always something that I wanted to be a part of,” Jacobs said Thursday on Good Morning Football. “I want to give back to win and change the culture to get the winning mentality and things like that, I’m fully invested in that.
“I mean I just bought a house in Vegas, it’s definitely a place that I want to be.”
In case you missed it on Arrowhead Pride
If observers were unaware of Saunders, perhaps they will take notice after one of the most vocal Chiefs players praised him on Wednesday.
“I’ve seen Khalen Saunders develop into one of the best d-tackles in football,” Chiefs edge rusher Frank Clark declared at the team’s Super Bowl media availability. “Some people would kill me for saying that — but I’m saying it. I know football. I know players — and Khalen Saunders is that. I feel like he’s the real deal.
“I feel like there’s a lot of players who don’t get the love and attention because of the dynamic of our team. I feel like Khalen is definitely one of those players.”
Kansas City selected Saunders in the third round of the 2019 NFL draft. While he flashed potential as a rookie, Saunders’ development was stunted by injuries that limited him to only ten games across the next two seasons. He knows his health has cost him precious opportunities in his young career.
“Health plays a big part in that,” Saunders explained, “being able to actually be on the field, get some reps, and stuff like that. So coming into this year, I was just planning on kind of reintroducing myself as an athlete and a player. I hadn’t lost the athleticism, but I just haven’t had the opportunity to show it. So this year was big on that for me.”
A tweet to make you think
A message from QB1's biggest supporters ❤️@PatrickMahomes | #MVPat pic.twitter.com/7rCKBeuy9P
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) February 10, 2023
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