The Super Bowl: Where stars shine the brightest and great players make even greater plays. It’s the ultimate goal in the NFL, the goal that every team sets out to achieve at the start of training camp every summer.
The Kansas City Chiefs are attempting something that no other NFL team has ever achieved, and that’s winning three Super Bowls in a row. Three-peating might make quarterback Patrick Mahomes the greatest player in NFL history, considering Tom Brady has never won that many Super Bowls in succession. With that being said, Brady does have the most rings in NFL history, with seven — six with the New England Patriots and one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady also beat Mahomes twice in the playoffs: once in the 2019 AFC Championship Game and the other in Super Bowl LV. Mahomes’s 0-2 record against Brady all-time in the playoffs will only hurt him as his career goes on, but one thing he can add to his resume is this three-peat.
The Philadelphia Eagles were the first team to fall to the Chiefs during this near-historic run. Through the adversity of uncertainties surrounding head coach Nick Sirianni and the injuries they dealt with to wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, they still find themselves atop the NFC with a chance to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.
Kansas City added some pieces this past offseason and retained one of the best players in the sport. Defensive tackle Chris Jones was signed to a five-year, $158.75 million deal, with $95 million guaranteed. The Chiefs added wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, linebacker Drue Tranquill, and re-signed defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi.
Kansas City had their fair share of injuries this season. They lost running back Isiah Pacheco to a broken right fibula that he suffered in week two and signed a familiar friend in, Kareem Hunt, as his replacement. In week four, wide receiver Rashee Rice suffered a Grade 3 torn ACL, which landed him on the season-ending injured reserve. About a month later, the Chiefs traded for former All-Pro wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins prior to the trade deadline.
The Eagles made just about every move they could to separate themselves from the rest. General Manager Howie Roseman hired Vic Fangio as the team’s defensive coordinator and then Kellen Moore as the offensive coordinator. Fangio spent the 2023 season as the Miami Dolphins’ defensive coordinator, but prior to that, he joined the Eagles’ staff in the playoffs to help with the defensive scheme against Mahomes in Super Bowl LVII.
Mahomes has an 8-0 record when facing Fangio with a team points per game differential of plus-15 and a touchdown to interception ratio of 11-3.
Roseman’s greatest move came in free agency 11 months ago when he signed running back Saquon Barkley after his relationship with the New York Giants deteriorated. Barkley responded by having one of the greatest seasons by a running back in NFL history and serving as a true sparkplug to an Eagles team that needed a major refresh after last year’s nosedive.
He became just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in the regular season (2,005) and is just 30 yards from breaking Terrell Davis’ all-time record for most rush yards (2,476) in a single season, including the playoffs.
The Eagles have a shot at preventing the three-peat if they can establish the run game early with Barkley and get off the field on third down against Mahomes. The Chiefs will three-peat if they limit Barkley on the ground and get the ball to their playmakers, like tight end Travis Kelce and Brown.
