The Super Bowl rematch between the Chiefs and Eagles doesn’t feature a plethora of rookies, yet there is a set of first-year pros who will do their part shaping the game and quietly help determine who ultimately takes home the Lombardi Trophy. This game isn’t solely about Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and Travis Kelce.
With that in mind, let’s rank the most critical first-year pros in Super Bowl LIX:
The words ‘Worthy’ and “slow” aren’t typically written in the same sentence, unless it also features the word “not” in it. When it comes to his development in Year 1, Worthy has slowly matured into a more nuanced receiver as the season has progressed. In Kansas City’s two playoffs games, the burner has 11 catches for 130 yards with a touchdown.
Now, the Chiefs have lost only one game without Worthy as a clear focal point to date. He’s one of the full-time starters at receiver, and JuJu Smith-Schuster and DeAndre Hopkins have mostly gone dormant of late, thereby boosting Worthy’s importance to the offense, especially considering his wildly different skill set to either of those two veterans.
The Chiefs very well could need a splash play downfield to keep pace with the Eagles in this Super Bowl.
In football, things happen in a flash. A year ago, Hunt was rushing the passer at Houston Baptist. Heck, in 2021, he was a safety back at Cornell. In the NFC Championship, Hunt logged a season-high 42 snaps in the beatdown of the Washington Commanders and registered two pressures of Jayden Daniels. Amazing.
The Eagles are perpetually deep along the defensive line. As long as Howie Roseman’s the general manager, that won’t change. Hunt isn’t the first, second or even third player we think of when we ponder how deep Philadelphia is in the trenches, yet he’s become a key role player, having played at least 20 snaps in eight separate contests since Week 10.
A raw but athletic specimen on the edge, Hunt has the juice to threaten the outside shoulder of either of the Chiefs tackles in this game, especially with Kansas City’s blockers mostly focused inside on Jalen Carter and Co.
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The Chiefs boast two stable veteran safeties in Justin Reid and Bryan Cook, who are integral to all the confusing zone blitzes deployed by Steve Spagnuolo. They don’t play 100% of the snaps, and Hicks is the crucial, role-playing third safety. He played 50 snaps in each of Kansas City’s two playoff games leading into this Super Bowl.
He’s an intimidating presence at nearly 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds — more linebacker than pure safety. And Hicks has proven to play well beyond his years as a tackler in Year 1 within Spagnuolo’s defense. He’s missed just one tackle on 430 snaps. There’ll be a handful of opportunities for Hicks to make an impact on this Super Bowl against Barkley and middle of the field throws from Jalen Hurts.
Mitchell’s health will be critical for the Eagles’ defensive game plan in the Super Bowl, and the only reason he’s not at No. 1 is because the Chiefs don’t deploy a clear, No. 1 perimeter receiver like Philadelphia does.
In this rookie season, Mitchell made the transition from the MAC to the NFL as smoothly as anyone has experiencing that competition jump. Well over 1,000 snaps counting the playoffs, the elite athlete has surrendered just 45 catches on 82 targets in his coverage area, has two postseason picks and 12 total pass breakups.
Despite the Chiefs not leaning on a Tyreek Hill type Mitchell could conceivably shadow, essentially eliminating one of the options for Mahomes will undoubtedly make things harder for Kansas City to consistently move the ball.
DeJean has been a godsend for the Eagles defense. Remember, two Super Bowls ago, the Eagles were ravaged in the secondary entering the game, and Mahomes went 21 of 27 yards for 182 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.
Nickel cornerback Avonte Maddox probably wasn’t fully healthy for that game. Despite his normal standing as a reliable slot defender, he was charged with five catches allowed on five targets for 43 yards and a touchdown in that Super Bowl defeat.
DeJean has “allowed” just 7.4 yards per catch this season, without giving up a touchdown with nine total pass breakups. There’ve been a decent amount of tackles, which is also worth monitoring in this Super Bowl. From Kelce to Noah Gray to a variety of carefully crafted screens and RPOs over the middle, DeJean’s play in the middle of the field will be crucial in this Super Bowl.
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