Super Bowl might hinge on middle men as Chiefs, Eagles prep for opponent's fierce interior pass rush
Once Josh Allen backpedaled from the shotgun snap after the Buffalo Bills had just gone ahead of Kansas City, this crucial 2-point conversion play late in the third quarter of the AFC championship game quickly turned into chaos.
Allen retreated to the 14-yard line, sized up the pressure and desperately darted right as two pass rushers converged. Chris Jones, the star of this daunting Chiefs defense, fittingly finished the strip-sack.
Over those few unfortunate seconds for Bills left guard David Edwards, Jones provided yet another vivid example of why he's been a first team All-Pro for three years in a row.
With a straight-forward bull rush, Jones simply overpowered Edwards from his defensive tackle position and single-handedly destroyed the pocket around Allen. Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, after pushing right tackle Spencer Brown back more than 5 yards, shrewdly veered left to keep Allen from scrambling around the end and then deftly shed the block with a jump back inside. Karlaftis helped corral Allen low, while Jones hit him high to dislodge the ball.
There's no better way to blow up a play in the NFL these days than with strong pressure through the middle.
“It’s the most direct path to the quarterback,” NFL Network analyst and former offensive lineman Brian Baldinger said. “The evolution of the quarterback position and the ability of these guys to either extend plays or just become a runner, it’s changed the way people have to rush these guys now. If you can collapse the pocket on the inside, you can make it a lot harder on them.”
The outcome of Super Bowl 59 on Sunday between Kansas City and Philadelphia might well hinge on which team can better protect the interior against the fierce pass rush lurking on the other side. The Eagles, led by Pro Bowl pick Jalen Carter, accounted for three of the top eight and four of the top 22 interior pass rushers in the league this season as ranked by Pro Football Focus.
Jones got the highest overall grade for interior defenders in 2024 and was also ranked as the best pass rusher at his position in PFF's independent analysis.
“He’s got very light feet for a big guy. He’s very big, size-wise. He’s got tremendous hands, and his feet and his hands are always moving. He’s very slippery. It’s hard to get hands on him, and he’s excellent at getting his hands off you. He’s constantly gaining ground while getting to your edge,” Baldinger said. “He just knows when those key moments are and how to win those moments.”
Left tackle has always been a premium position for the vital role of blocking the right-handed quarterback's blind side, and as the quality of pass rushers spread across the league, a right tackle who could also consistently hold his own against a dominant player on the edge became equally important to have. There are 32 tackles in the NFL with contracts carrying an annual average value of $10 million or more, according to salary data compiled by Over The Cap.
But the guards and the centers are catching up in value. There are 20 guards and six centers whose current deals average at least $10 million per year, according to OTC, beginning with Eagles left guard Landon Dickerson. The Chiefs' Creed Humphrey is the league's highest-paid center.
Just like with the defensive linemen they'll be trying to fend off, this Super Bowl will be a showcase of some of the best interior blockers in the game — whose success has been aided by revered veteran offensive line coaches. Kansas City's Andy Heck is in his 12th season with the team and 21st as an NFL coach. Philadelphia's Jeff Stoutland is also in his 12th season with the team, spanning three head coaches, and his 41st year of coaching.
Humphrey and left guard Joe Thuney, who recently moved over to left tackle to help shore up an unsettled position, gave the Chiefs a pair of first team All-Pros. Right guard Trey Smith was a Pro Bowl pick who'll be a prize free agent at age 25 next month. The Chiefs could move Thuney back to his natural spot if D.J. Humphries is deemed healthy enough to return to left tackle.
For the Eagles, Dickerson was selected for his third straight Pro Bowl. Center Cam Jurgens got his first such honor after stepping in this season for retired stalwart Jason Kelce. Right guard Mekhi Becton, a 2020 first-round draft pick by the New York Jets, was a former tackle who signed with Philadelphia and quickly took to his new position. Dickerson started the NFC championship game at center because Jurgens was dealing with a back injury. Then Dickerson hurt his knee, forcing Jurgens back into duty.
“These guys are playing through pain. I just can’t say enough about how much I respect these guys of what they have to do with their bodies," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “I don’t think anyone knows the half of it, what they have to do to play the long season.”
Aaron Donald redefined the defensive tackle position with an eight-time All-Pro career over 10 seasons, and Jones has picked up the baton for the interior pass rushers since Donald retired. But the guards and centers have more than just those freak-of-nature players to be concerned about.
More and more teams will slide their edge defenders inside on passing downs for a matchup advantage. Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, for one extreme example, repeatedly put his four best pass rushers in standup positions on the line on third downs.
“The guys we’re going against are bigger, and as they get bigger they’re still staying fast, they’re still staying twitchy,” Vikings right guard Dalton Risner said earlier this postseason. “The game of football is ever changing, ever evolving. Everyone’s trying to figure out one way to one-up it.”
The teams with more vulnerability in the middle play at their own peril. Take the Vikings as another example, with interior pass protection that has been a problem for the past several years. Their 14-win season went up in flames when they were blown out in Week 18 by the Detroit Lions and in their wild-card round playoff game by the Los Angeles Rams. Quarterback Sam Darnold was swallowed up by the rush in those games, starting up the middle.
The Chiefs and Eagles are here because they've kept that from happening.
“How many pressures you gave up and how many sacks you gave up, those are the stats that we all know,” Sirianni said. “Sometimes you only get focused on for the negative thing. But I love offensive linemen. I’ve always loved offensive linemen because of that selflessness they have. They’re protectors, right? They’re there to protect and serve other people. That’s the best thing you can say about a human being, that you want to do well for yourself to do well for others.”
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