There is one confusing narrative headlining the conversation surrounding Super Bowl LVII. The narrative, which happens to be false, is that the Kansas City Chiefs will be rolling out an offensive line incredibly inferior to that of the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles do have stars in its offense’s trenches. Led by center Jason Kelce, Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata bookend the unit and, to their credit, have been phenomenal this season.
But the Chiefs’ offensive line has a few studs of its own. Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney and Trey Smith aren’t household names, but what they lack in star power they make up for in production.
In fact, the Chiefs led the NFL in pass block win rate (75%) in the regular season. Meanwhile, the Eagles (62%) check in at 12th in this particular metric.
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— Arif Hasan, but NFL 🏈 (@ArifHasanNFL) February 8, 2023
Sure, Jalen Hurts uses his legs on a more frequent basis than Patrick Mahomes. But the extra sacks Hurts takes due to his tendency to run should cover up those he eludes due to his rare escapability.
When the rubber meets the road on Sunday, the team that does a better job protecting its quarterback will have a massive advantage.
The Chiefs’ work is cut out for them going up against the best pass rush in football, but head coach Andy Reid is surely accounting for this with quick hitters in the passing game.
Most sacks as a team this season, including the playoffs:
1. Eagles: 78
2. Chiefs: 62The 140 combined sacks by the two teams is the most in Super Bowl history, per @EliasSports.
The OL vs. DL matchups on Sunday will be elite.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) February 8, 2023
There are plenty of fair talking points for this highly anticipated matchup between two explosive offenses. However, the discourse surrounding the Chiefs’ offensive line play needs to be properly outlined.
