Super Bowl 59 Preview

Only one game remains for the 2024 NFL season: Super Bowl LIX, pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles on the league's biggest stage for the second time in three years.

The Chiefs are looking to make NFL history, continuing their dynastic run in search of a record third straight Super Bowl victory. The Eagles, meanwhile, rebounded from a 2023 collapse to weather the entire NFC playoff race and are hoping to avenge their Super Bowl loss to Kansas City just two years ago.

How can you tune in for this must-see heavyweight showdown? And who’s bound to hoist the Lombardi Trophy when it’s all said and done? Here’s my early prediction.

In some ways, this matchup feels like last year’s Super Bowl, in that the NFC team boasts the better all-around roster, but the Chiefs have the advantage of, well, inevitability.

Not since Tom Brady led the New England Patriots has there been an NFL contender so undeniable in its title contention each year. Unlike the San Francisco 49ers of Super Bowl LVII, however, the Eagles enter this one with added big-game experience of their own. Their core—quarterback Jalen Hurts, coach Nick Sirianni, and star weapons A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith—just went blow for blow with the Chiefs in a recent Super Bowl. They’ve weathered serious storms to get back here, right on the doorstep of a title.

Patrick Mahomes is darn near unbreakable in the playoffs. Once a show-stopping big-play artist, he now thrives on the margins, showcasing his backyard movements to spread the ball around when it matters most. But the rest of this matchup should be supremely tight.

The Chiefs are heavier on the pass, and the Eagles are heavier on the run, but both teams enter with top-10 run and scoring defenses, clamping down when it counts. And while Kansas City excels at finishing close, lower-scoring games, Philadelphia has enjoyed a higher ceiling as both a passing offense and defense.

The major difference between this year’s matchup and the one from two years ago is the Eagles' addition of All-Pro running back Saquon Barkley. He’s coming off the best season of his life and absolutely dominated his opponents this year. He most likely would have broken the NFL single-season rushing record had he not sat out of the final game against a struggling Giants defense. He led nearly every other statistical category for running backs this year.

The Eagles’ offense now runs through Saquon, and they no longer rely on Jalen Hurts’ mediocre passing to carry their scoring. This adds a completely different dynamic to Super Bowl 59 that we did not see in the matchup two years ago. I doubt the Chiefs will be able to entirely contain Barkley. I think he’s a shoo-in for a 100+ yard game and will almost certainly score a touchdown in some way.

I don’t envision any scenario where the talent disparity leaves the Chiefs completely overwhelmed, as Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in Mahomes’ only Super Bowl loss back in 2020. At the end of the day, it’s still extremely difficult to bet against K.C. when the club has proven time and again to possess the game’s most reliable trio of quarterback, head coach, and defensive coordinator. Not to mention the controversial calls that referees always seem to hand to Kansas City.

In a weird way, however, the Eagles losing to the Chiefs in 2022 helped make them who they are today. They’ve been battle-tested throughout the playoffs, and now they also have a not-so-secret weapon to keep Steve Spagnuolo honest in Saquon Barkley. It would only be fitting that he ends this magical run with a ring—on his birthday, no less—and further cements his place in Eagles and NFL history.

I see the game going in the direction of the Eagles, with a final score of 31-22.