Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid’s quest for legendary status will face its final and BIGGEST hurdle against a battle-hardened Eagles team.
Perhaps the most obvious difference is undoubtedly the offseason acquisition of Saquon Barkley. Barkley has had his best career performance in his lone season thus far in an Eagles jersey. The Penn State graduate registered 2,005 yards in the 2024 season, becoming only the ninth player to do.
Barkley entered his second-ever playoffs with a bang. He scored a 62-yarder within the first 67 seconds against the Los Angeles Rams in the divisional round. Then he went for a trifecta of touchdowns against Washington. This performance booked the Eagles a plane ticket to New Orleans.
Barkley is going to be a thorn in the Kansas City defense.
Of course, Barkley did get some help from the big men up front, some of whom will make their return to football’s biggest stage: Jordan Mailata, Lane Johnson and Landon Dickerson.
According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Mailata has a run-block rating of 94.5 for the regular season. That is astounding when you compare it back to the 2022 season when his run-block rating was 75.9. Lane Johnson meanwhile, has a run-block rate of 80.0 in comparison to the 73.5 from two years ago. Lastly, Landon Dickerson, in his sophomore year in 2022, had a run-block rating of 65.3. This season he ended up with 79.7.
It goes without saying, that this Eagles team will enjoy relying on the run.
The Chiefs’ run defense will have their hands full guarding the Eagles’ run. The Philly faithful can at least be at peace that their run defense can put up a fight. At least more than they could in two years.
In 2022, the Philadelphia defense had 72 missed tackles, 210 stops, and caused 3 forced fumbles. Two years later, the team registered 58 missed tackles. They made 212 stops and caused 9 forced fumbles. These are improvements across the board.
Furthermore, five players have a PFF run-defense rating of 80.0 or higher compared to three from two years ago.
Cooper DeJean, despite playing a majority of his snaps as a slot corner, had the highest PFF run-defense rating of 90.8 as his stats included 20 stops and a forced fumble.
Regarding multi-dimensional players, linebacker Zack Baun has the highest PFF coverage rating on the team with 91.7. Despite being a linebacker, Baun has played 514 coverage snaps, the fourth-highest on the team.
His high coverage rating is thanks to his 33 defensive stops on pass plays. He also has 36 defensive stops on run plays. Both of those are the highest and second-highest in their respective categories.
The Chiefs better beware because this year’s Eagles are a different animal. Explore Stadium Rant for more Super Bowl LIX and NFL insights.
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