SI:AM | What Patrick Mahomes and Brock Purdy Have in Common

Plus, grading the most important NBA trades made at the deadline.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’ve gone back and forth on this several times but I’m taking the Kansas City Chiefs to win Sunday.

In today’s SI:AM:

🎥 Super Bowl film study

✅ Picks for the game

🔄 NBA trade grades

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Don’t ignore the rest of these rosters

From a narrative perspective, this is as interesting a Super Bowl as we’ve had in recent years. On one side, you have Patrick Mahomes chasing his third Super Bowl at the age of 28 and Andy Reid seeking to become just the fifth coach in NFL history with at least three Super Bowl victories. On the other side, you have the storied San Francisco 49ers, routinely one of the best teams in the NFL over the past five years, seeking its first championship in almost 30 years with a quarterback who went from the last pick in the draft to an MVP candidate.

Quarterbacks always drive the narrative of a game and this matchup feels like a referendum on Brock Purdy. Because he was the 262nd pick in the 2022 draft, and because coach Kyle Shanahan has a history of getting the most out of subpar quarterbacks (remember when Nick Mullens averaged 284.6 yards per game in eight starts as an undrafted rookie?), Purdy’s accomplishments have been viewed with a healthy amount of skepticism.

Before the season, I was among those who doubted Purdy. I still think that was fair. He was coming off an elbow surgery and had played only eight full games as an NFL starter. There was no guarantee that he’d continue to be as effective. But Purdy was excellent this season. He passed for 4,280 yards with 31 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 69.4% of his passes. All those numbers are better than Mahomes’s stats. He also led the league in yards per completion (13.9), passer rating (113.0) and QBR (72.7).

If Purdy can win Sunday, it’ll be a great feel-good story about a guy who was passed on by 31 teams. If he loses, it’ll spark a new round of arguments over whether he has what it takes to lead the Niners to a title. (Never mind that he’s currently 21–4 in games that he starts and finishes.)

But there are obviously other factors at play. A major reason why Purdy has been so good is that he has a fantastic supporting cast. The Niners have elite offensive talent around him with Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel to make Purdy’s job a lot easier. The same can’t be said for Mahomes and the Chiefs. Their lack of offensive weapons is still a concern. Travis Kelce has 23 catches in Kansas City’s three playoff games and Rashee Rice has 20. The rest of the roster has combined for 27.

So the Chiefs are heavily leaning on two receivers to carry the passing game, but it hasn’t handcuffed Mahomes too much. He’s been remarkably efficient this postseason, particularly in the last two games (less so in that brutally frigid game against the Miami Dolphins). He completed 76.9% of his passes in the AFC title game against the Baltimore Ravens. The yardage numbers haven’t been gaudy (239.3 per game this postseason), but Mahomes has found ways to move the ball down the field when needed.

If the Chiefs win, Mahomes will get most of the credit and be lauded as the best quarterback of his generation—as he should be. But just as Purdy benefits from playing alongside the NFL’s best collection of skill position players, Mahomes isn’t winning these games by himself.

Now, it’s the elite defense. Offense has been Kansas City’s hallmark during the Mahomes era, but this year it was surprisingly average. The Chiefs ranked 15th in the league in scoring this season after not ranking lower than sixth in that category in any of Mahomes’s first five seasons as starter. They scored only 11 more points this season than the Chicago Bears, who went 7–10. But the defense ranked second in the league this season in both points and yards allowed. When the offense sputters, the defense holds opponents in check and allows the Chiefs to squeak out victories.

The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and with good reason. It usually takes a great QB to win a championship. But no matter who wins Sunday—whether it’s the team led by the unquestioned superstar or the one led by Mr. Irrelevant—it’ll only be because other players shine.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Courtesy of Vanderbilt Athletics

• Here’s who our experts are picking to win the Super Bowl.
• With the 49ers back in the Super Bowl, Albert Breer explains why San Francisco’s personnel development machine will keep the franchise among the league’s best.
• Matt Verderame broke down game film to show the types of plays the Chiefs and Niners need to make to win on Sunday.
• Verderame also wrote about the most important matchups in Sunday’s game.
• Greg Bishop spoke with Jerry Rice about the 49ers’ past, present and future.
• Gilberto Manzano ranked all 35 coaches who have won a Super Bowl.
• Former MLB All-Star Dave Stewart is part of a potential ownership group seeking to bring an expansion team to Nashville. Tom Verducci spoke with him about why he believes Nashville is the right city for a big league team.
• Rohan Nadkarni graded three of the most consequential NBA trades made at the deadline yesterday. Here’s what he thought about the Knicks acquiring Bojan Bogdanović, the 76ers landing Buddy Hield and the Mavericks adding P.J. Washington.
• A player on the Korn Ferry Tour shot a 57, the lowest score ever in a PGA Tour–sanctioned event.
• Soccer officials are reportedly considering a proposal to introduce a blue card to punish players by sending them off the pitch temporarily.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Robin Lopez reading a book at the scorer’s table during the Bucks’ game after Milwaukee traded him earlier in the day. Lopez is expected to be bought out by the Trail Blazers, so he didn’t have to get on a plane to Portland. (Lopez also had a great tweet about the Bucks trading for Patrick Beverley.)

4. This dunk that caused the whole hoop to collapse in a college basketball game.

3. Timberwolves announcer Jim Petersen’s withering comment about Thanasis Antetokounmpo.

2. Luka Dončić’s behind-the-back assist.

1. LeBron James’s no-look tap pass.

SIQ

Which of the following cities was not granted an expansion franchise when the NHL doubled in size from six to 12 teams on this day in 1966?

• Pittsburgh
• San Francisco
• Vancouver
• Los Angeles

Yesterday’s SIQ: Women’s ice hockey made its Olympic debut on Feb. 8 of what year?

• 1992
• 1994
• 1998
• 2002

Answer: 1998. Women’s hockey was approved to join the Winter Olympic program in July 1992, but it was too soon to hold the first competition at either the ’92 or ’94 Olympics, so the sport made its debut in Nagano in ’98.

Canada had dominated the women’s game up to that point, winning the first four IIHF World Championships, but the United States beat the Canadians twice in Nagano—once in the preliminary round and again in the gold medal game to claim the first Olympic championship in the sport’s history.