The most effective 2024 may give us for Tremendous Bowl LVIII is a rerun. The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs marching right into a showdown in opposition to a defensive juggernaut helmed by a lowly-regarded quarterback is one other reminder that point is a flat circle. We even received a Shanahan-McCaffrey revival 25 years after Ed McCaffrey and Mike Shanahan gained their closing of three Tremendous Bowls collectively, starting with their first when Shanahan was a coordinator in San Francisco. Christian McCaffrey is the Eminem of working backs, one way or the other incomes MVP nods at a time when the remainder of his place group is being devalued and paving a path ahead for the place. However these aren’t even the headliners.
When you’re a netizen who’s been shopping Cam Newton’s podcast catalogs and located your self nodding at his assessments of sport managers and sport changers, this Tremendous Bowl presents you with an immaculate narrative to chug for the subsequent week. For professional-Cam parts of the hate-watching neighborhood, Purdy is solely doing a slick imitation of 2019 Jimmy Garoppolo. In actuality, Purdy is the one quarterback on this Tremendous Bowl who tapped right into a franchise savior mode in San Fran’s heroic comeback efficiency in opposition to the Lions, whereas Mahomes solely threw one move within the closing 10 minutes of Kansas Metropolis’s AFC Championship victory final week.
Whither classic Patrick Mahomes?
Watching Mahomes is miserable today. He was once an adrenaline rush to observe. The youthful, extra dynamic Mahomes would pirouette out of the pocket, launch the pigskin into sizzling air balloon altitudes, and pray for the very best. He can nonetheless do all that stuff, simply with a extra pronounced dad bod, however Andy Reid has parked the ostentatious Ferrari offense that Mahomes gained MVPs helming, and he’s been compelled to place his luxurious quarterback behind a minivan offense.
The one stalwart from these glory days is Travis Kelce, whose verify engine mild has been blinking for months. Travis Kelce is making financial institution within the consideration financial system, however the overexposure is starting to put on everybody down. When you watch sufficient Kelce content material, you may nonetheless hear him beginning each thought with “bro” in your goals or nightmares. When you assume you’ve been inundated together with your fill of Kelce storylines previously yr, you haven’t seen something but, bro. You thought Mama Kelce was consuming up display time a yr in the past? Simply wait till Jason exhibits as much as Allegiant Stadium hammered and shirtless after a day Vegas pool get together, then climbs out of a personal suite to exhibit the efficacy of the Tush Push to equally drunken followers.
If Kansas Metropolis wins its third Tremendous Bowl in 5 years, Kelce-mania could unfold. It’s laborious to inform what’s been extra grating about Chiefs broadcasts this season, between the awkward allusions to Taylor Swift or the incessant griping concerning the 45 seconds she’s proven on the display per sport. To make issues worse, lengthy after we’re all mud and bone particles, half-assed historians will attribute Travis as the daddy of the thrill minimize with tapered sides that’s been a staple of black barbershops for many years, because of the New York Instances.
If anybody has been KC’s anchor this season, it’s Chris Jones. Kansas Metropolis’s roving defensive lineman rushes the sting and stitches up the center higher than nearly anybody in soccer. But Kansas Metropolis received stingy along with his cheddar and performed brinkmanship with Jones till he signed a one-year extension on the verge of their common season kickoff. Kansas Metropolis gained’t respect what it’s received in Jones till he’s lining up reverse them in a brand new uniform subsequent season.
Possibly a lightly-used Nick Bosa is extra your factor?
It’s additionally an election yr, which implies the unhinged nature of nationwide politics has permeated into the Kelce-Swift maelstrom. When you’re below the impression that Swift is a Biden 2024 psyops marketing campaign although, Nick Bosa is the participant for you. President Rumpelthinskin’s favourite NFL participant may need erased his oldest tweets, however the Web by no means forgets. If the Niners weren’t prepping for a playoff sport in January of 2021, January sixth may have ended radically otherwise. However that’s the Bosa of 4 years in the past.
It can’t be careworn how common Bosa has been since he earned an extension. Bosa, the backfield infiltrator, has performed like he’s working on fumes. His strain fee, sack totals and general affect has by no means been worse. Paired with former No. 2 decide Chase Younger, the Niners have the widest disparity between manufacturing and title recognition within the league. George Kittle is the very best tight finish on this sport in case you are assessing matchups primarily based on every workforce’s most up-to-date 19, 20-game pattern dimension. If he’d performed the final decade in an offense catered to him, we may be speaking about his Corridor of Fame resume. Sadly, Kittle has endured an meeting line of caretaker quarterbacks.
Quarterback Karma?
One could be inclined to imagine the Niners earned all of the quarterback uncertainty they confronted previously 20 years by passing up Tom Brady six instances. In that point, they’ve run by means of an assortment of cease gaps starting from Alex Smith to Colin Kaepernick, Trey Lance, and Jimmy G. In addition they handed on Peyton Manning after he underwent neck surgical procedure, however determined they’d moderately have Kaepernick and Smith tag workforce in a Greg Roman offense. In 2017, they chose Solomon Thomas over Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, though they might have dodged a bullet with the latter. Kyle Shanahan additionally thought he was smarter than everybody else in 2020 once they elected to trip with Jimmy G over Brady once more. Nothing would carry the collective NFL universe extra pleasure than watching Shanahan rue the implications of his errors in judgment as soon as extra.
Watching Purdy shrink on the massive stage would flood his detractors’ nervous techniques with ranges of satisfaction they’ve not often felt all through their unhappy lives. Purdy is an inspirational determine. His ascension from Mr. Irrelevant to shock starter and Tremendous Bowl quarterback has been a singular journey.
Not like Jimmy GQ, Purdy doesn’t make it any simpler to keep away from being underestimated by naturally resembling a doppelganger for Prime Pete Buttigieg. However when he’s below middle he’s stored the Niners buzzing alongside like an Acela prepare. Okay, that’s the one Division of Transportation quip I’ve in my repertoire. Mahomes can’t afford to be outdueled right here. It’s one factor to lose to a graying Tom Brady, however his GOAT marketing campaign could by no means get well if Purdy bests him.
If there’s any justice although, Kyle Shanahan loses one other Tremendous Bowl squeaker when Patrick Mahomes Supermans Kansas Metropolis to a different come-from-behind victory, Kelce pops the query on the sphere and finally all of us purge this postseason from our reminiscences.
Comply with DJ Dunson on X: @cerebralsportex
