Super Bowl 57 Prediction

By: Garret Kryzanowski

It is finally here, it is now Super Bowl week. I truly believe the fans are going to be in for a treat on Sunday when we see the 16-3 Kansas City Chiefs take on the 16-3 Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 57 at State Farm Stadium.

This game has the making of potentially being an all time classic. This matchup has the top seed in the NFC conference facing off against the top seed in the AFC conference. The Chiefs come in winning 11 of there last 12 games and haven't lost since December 4, 2022, while the Eagles are 16-1 in game that there starting quarterback Jalen Hurts has played. Both these teams are juggernauts in there own unique ways and vying for a chance to prove themselves. For the Chiefs, that is cementing the legacy of Head Coach Andy Reid and starting Mahomes on the path to potentially be an all time great player. In the case of the Eagles, they are trying to solidify there defence as one of the best of all time and springboarding the career of Jalen Hurts and second year head coach Nick Sirianni.

For the Kansas City Chiefs this is familiar territory. On top of the five straight AFC championship game appearances this is their third Super Bowl appearance since 2019. They do have a 1-1 record in those games, but they do have the experience edge in both the player and coaching apartment. For Andy Reid this will be his fourth Super Bowl being a head coach compared to this being Nick Sirianni's first appearance as a head coach. Coaching experience in big games is one of the decisive advantages the Chiefs have over the Eagles as Reid has been a head coach in the NFL for 24 seasons compared to Sirianni, who just finished his second full season as an NFL head coach. Now you could say the same for the quarterback position as Patrick Mahomes is a Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl MVP and NFL MVP but Jalen Hurts isn't just any third year quarterback. Hurts is a former national champion at the University of Alabama and heisman finalist at the University of Oklahoma. He has stood in the face of adversity every game of his career and hasn't blinked. It is fair to say he would of been the favourite to win the MVP award this season if not for an injury late in the season. Needless to say this quarterback matchup isn't the mismatch everyone thinks it will be, but a battle between two MVP finalists.

The Kansas Chiefs are going to have to lean on the coaching experience of Andy Reid as well as the playmaking ability of Patrick Mahomes and his favourite target Travis Kelce. Thankfully if a team were to rely on any two players and a coach you couldn't find a better option anywhere else in the league. Reid has a unique history when looking at this Super Bowl matchup. Reid is the winningest coach in Philadelphia Eagles history with 140 wins, including postseason wins. On top of that Reid is one win away from being the winningest coach in Kansas City Chiefs history, sitting at 128 total wins including postseason wins. That is 269 wins in his career, which is an incredible advantage in experience over Nick Sirianni's 25 total career wins. Advantage Chiefs in the coaching department.

Then there is the Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce duo. This duo is one of the greatest we have ever seen in the long history of the NFL. They put numbers we've only seen in the true hall of fame duos. I'm talking Montana and Rice. Brady and Gronkowski. Manning and Harrison. For context four of those names are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the other two? Brady and Gronkowski. And I guarantee they will both be in the Hall of Fame as soon as there eligible. I tell you this to show you just how special the Mahomes and Kelce duo is. The crazy part is you could argue that there duo is more dominant then any of the other duos. I'm, not saying they are better but any Chiefs fan who does argue it has every reason too. Kelce has the second most postseason receiving touchdowns of all time with 15 behind only Jerry Rice, who has 22 receiving touchdowns. Then there is Patrick Mahomes with his 10-3 post season record and 32 touchdown passes in only five postseasons. The dominance by these two players is something we've only seen a few times in the past 50 years. You'd have to be crazy to pick or bet against Reid, Mahomes and Kelce. So call me crazy because that is exactly what I am doing.

The reason I am making this crazy choice is simple, an NFL roster has 53 players on it. The reason I say that is because I believe the Eagles are better at 51 of the 53 spots on the roster. Roster depth is what I believe will be the key factor in Super Bowl 57. Make no mistake, the Eagles have the deepest and best roster in the NFL. It is the reason that they were able to dominate for most of the NFL season, only slipping up once with Jalen Hurts at quarterback. And that slip up came in a divisional game, and anyone who knows sports or played knows that your rivals always play you tough. Being better at every position except two would be a massive advantage for any team. The two positions the Chiefs are better at as stated earlier is quarterback and tight end.

Now at tight end no one on the Eagles compares to what Travis Kelce has done and will do in the game. However, I truly believe that even though Patrick Mahomes is better then Jalen Hurts, he isn't so much better to make a difference in this game. Hurts is not only a good pocket passer but fiercely dangerous in the run game with his legs. He not only runs around defenders he runs through them. How he runs ignites a fire in not only his offensive teammates but his defensive ones too. That energy is going to ignite a defence that had 70 sacks in the regular season. They're going to be flying off the ball and an injured Mahomes isn't going to be able to get out of all the trouble the Eagles are going to cause. Mahomes is going to get hit over and over and I think we will see a rattled Mahomes for the first time since Super Bowl 55 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Eagles ability to swarm the quarterback coupled with Jalen Hurts tearing apart every defence he has played is the reason the Eagles will win their second Super Bowl in franchise history. My prediction; the Eagles force two Mahomes turnovers and Hurts finds the endzone with both his legs and his arms. Final score, 34-26 Eagles.

This Super Bowl is going to be one of the all time great games.