Super Bowl features matchup of 1st- and 2nd-team All-pro QBS
It’s only fitting that the top two quarterbacks in the regular season based on All-pro voting are the last two quarterbacks standing in the NFL this season.
First-team All-pro quarterback Patrick Mahomes will take his Kansas City Chiefs into the Super Bowl against second-team All-pro Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles.
This marks the seventh time since the merger that the first-team All-pro quarterback will face the second-teamer for the championship, with it last happening in the 2016 season when second-teamer Tom Brady’s Patriots beat first-teamer Matt Ryan’s Falcons 34-28 in overtime.
That’s been the pattern in all six of the matchups, with the second teamer coming out victorious each time: Drew Brees over Peyton Manning in the 2009 season, Mark Rypien over Jim
Kelly (1991), Joe Montana over Dan Marino (1984), Montana over Ken Anderson (1981) and Roger Staubach over Bob Griese (1971).
Both Mahomes and Hurts are among the five finalists for the MVP award that will be announced next week. The winner of the AP NFL MVP hasn’t won the Super Bowl since Kurt Warner did it for the Rams in the 1999 season. The last eight MVPS to play in the game all ended up losing.
Mahomes will be starting in his third Super Bowl at the young age of 27 years, 148 days — 39 days younger than Brady in the 2004 season when he became the youngest QB to start in three Super Bowls.
Hurts is set to start his first Super Bowl at age 24, joining Mahomes and six others to do that before turning 25.
This will be the third Super Bowl with both starting QBS younger than 28, with Brett Favre (27) beating Drew Bledsoe (24) in the game following the 1996 season and Jim Mcmahon (26) besting Tony Eason (26) following the 1985 season.
Hall of Famer Beathard dies:
Bobby Beathard, the architect of four Super Bowl-winning teams with two different organizations during his lengthy tenure in football, has died. He was 86.
A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders said Beathard’s family told the team he died Monday at his home in Franklin, Tennessee, less than a week after his 86th birthday. A cause of death was not immediately available.
Beathard was director of player personnel for two of the NFL championships by Miami in the 1970s and served as general manager for two more by Washington in the ’80s. He also scouted for Kansas City when the Chiefs won the American Football League title and made Super Bowl I following the 1966 season and was
GM with San Diego when the Chargers got there in the mid-1990s.
Mccarthy to call Cowboys’ plays:
Dallas Cowboys coach Mike Mccarthy is set to call plays in 2023 after the club parted ways with offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.
Owner/general manager Jerry Jones told reporters at the Senior Bowl on Wednesday that Mccarthy will run a version of the West Coast offense he used when calling plays as head coach in Green Bay from 2006-18.
Executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones hinted at philosophical differences between Mccarthy and Moore, who kept the play-calling role for three seasons after Mccarthy was hired.
The Los Angeles Chargers hired Moore as offensive coordinator Monday, a day after the Cowboys announced Moore’s departure.