Super Bowl LVIII has no shortage of big-name players from Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce to Christian McCaffrey and Deebo Samuel. Even Brock Purdy is already turning into one of the league’s most polarizing figures as fans debate how to handle his instant success as Mr. Irrelevant turned Super Bowl starter.
But Super Bowls are team efforts, and it is common for an unheralded name to make or break their team’s night in the big game. Think of Malcolm Butler (2014 Patriots), David Tyree (2007 Giants), Mike Jones (1999 Rams), and Larry Brown (1995 Cowboys) as some of the unlikely Super Bowl heroes in history.
We wanted to highlight 5 under-the-radar players in Super Bowl LVIII who could have a big impact on the game for the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
George Karlaftis – Chiefs DE
Pass rush is a key to winning the Super Bowl. Everyone knew the Ravens led the NFL with 60 sacks on defense this year, but the Chiefs were right behind them with 57, and the Chiefs had a much higher pressure rate. On Sunday, it sure looked like the better pass rush was from Kansas City as the Chiefs were relentless in going after Lamar Jackson in their win.
Kansas City’s pressure rate was 27.8% in the regular season, which ranked No. 2 in the league according to Pro Football Reference. Surprisingly, the Lions were No. 1 in that stat at 28.2%. But after a great season, Detroit’s best pass rusher, Aidan Hutchinson, was a ghost in Sunday’s title game loss. He did not register a single tackle and his most noteworthy play was getting pancaked by tight end George Kittle of the 49ers.
If the Chiefs are going to win this game, they are going to need a solid pass rush against Brock Purdy, who can force passes for interceptions at times. One of Kansas City’s best pass rushers is edge rusher George Karlaftis, who tied with Chris Jones for the team lead with 10.5 sacks in just his 2nd season in the NFL.
Karlaftis has been hot down the stretch with 4 sacks over the last 4 games, including a sack of Jackson in the AFC Championship Game. Karlaftis ranks 2nd on the team with 35 pressures and they’ll need even more out of him after Charles Omenihu tore his ACL on Sunday. Omenihu had the strip-sack of Jackson in the 2nd quarter that changed the tone of the game for Kansas City. Karlaftis was the one who recovered the fumble.
Sometimes it just takes one well-timed edge pressure to decide a Super Bowl. The Chiefs have a good young player in Karlaftis who already got some Super Bowl experience last year against the Eagles.
Charvarius Ward – 49ers CB
A corner can have a revenge game too. Charvarius Ward was a starting corner for the Chiefs in 2018-21, including a couple of Super Bowl starts with the team. But he moved on in free agency to San Francisco in 2022, and he just made his first career Pro Bowl this year with a career-high 5 interceptions, doubling his career total before the year.
Ward’s coverage numbers are also solid as he allows just 6.6 yards per target and a 64.5 passer rating. In the playoffs, he only allowed 1 catch for 7 yards against the Lions.
But when Ward played the Chiefs last year, he was torched by Patrick Mahomes for 122 yards, the 2nd-highest game in his career. That can’t happen again with this Kansas City receiving group.
The wide receiver position has been the most scrutinized for the Chiefs this year, but rookie Rashee Rice has emerged as their new No. 1 wideout. He has been very active this postseason, though the Ravens caught onto his short catches and held him under 50 yards. But Rice has gone for over 100 yards multiple times this year and has shown big-play ability.
The 49ers could use Ward to take on Rice or even help with the coverage against tight end Travis Kelce, who is still Patrick Mahomes’ favorite target in this offense. Ward has no interceptions in 16 career playoff games, but he would sure love one more than anything in a Super Bowl against Mahomes and his former team.
Nick Allegretti – Chiefs G
One of the few Chiefs to make the All-Pro team this season was left guard Joe Thuney, a former Patriot who would be starting in his 5th Super Bowl if he could suit up in Vegas. But a pectoral injury knocked him out of the Buffalo win and he missed the AFC Championship Game in Baltimore. It does not sound optimistic that he will be able to return for the Super Bowl, a disappointing finish to his first season making the All-Pro team.
This just means Nick Allegretti, a 7th-round pick by the Chiefs in 2019, needs to step up again. He played the whole game in Week 18 against the Chargers when the Chiefs rested key starters, then he got in 13 snaps in Buffalo when Thuney was injured. He started against the Ravens and did a respectable job, playing all 81 snaps on the road and communicating well with his teammates as they mostly had a clean game up front.
Allegretti to The Rescue?
Allegretti is not as good as Thuney, but he knows the offense well in his 5th season with the team. He can hold his own, and it doesn’t decimate the Chiefs up front like in 2020 when they lost tackle Eric Fisher before the Super Bowl and had to shuffle multiple spots against Tampa Bay to replace him. The result was 29 pressures on Mahomes and a 31-9 loss. This is not that kind of situation at all.
But Allegretti will have to step up as he is facing a quality defensive line with Arik Armstead and Javon Hargrave, the latter of whom played against the Chiefs in last year’s Super Bowl as a member of the Eagles. He’ll be out looking for revenge too.
As we mentioned above with Karlaftis, pass rush is a key to winning games like this. If Mahomes had a hair less time to throw on 3rd-and-15 against the 49ers in Super Bowl 54, that 44-yard pass to Tyreek Hill likely never gets off, and the Chiefs do not win that game. That is why any backup starting on the line must be at his absolute best in this game.
But as far as replacing an All-Pro lineman with a backup goes, this has a low threat level of being a disaster for the Chiefs. They already survived the situation in Baltimore last week, and that defense was No. 1 in points, sacks, and takeaways this year.
Jake Moody – 49ers K
You should never assume a Super Bowl won’t come down to the leg of a kicker. The Chiefs have one of the best in Harrison Butker, but the 49ers have rookie Jake Moody, who has a long way to go to prove himself as reliable in spots like this.
Last season, the 49ers played in Allegiant Stadium against the Raiders late in the year and veteran kicker Robbie Gould was no good on a 41-yard field goal that would have won the game in regulation. He did win the game in overtime with a 23-yard kick, but it was time to move on and find a younger kicker.
The 49ers drafted Moody with the 99th pick in the 3rd round, which raised eyebrows as that is higher than usual for a kicker. His early test in crunch time did not go well either as he missed a 41-yard field goal in Cleveland that decided the game. The 49ers lost 19-17.
During the regular season, Moody was mostly reliable, hitting 21-of-25 field goals (84.0%) and 60-of-61 extra points. But in the postseason, Moody has been inconsistent. Moody missed a 48-yard field goal against the Packers when it was blocked, but he did come through with a 52-yard field goal to start the 4th quarter when the team was still trailing.
However, that did not carry over to the Detroit game as Moody missed from 48 yards again to start that game. He made his other 2 field goals.
Moody is going to be rooting for Christian McCaffrey and company to score as many touchdowns as possible so that he just kicks extra points. But if he gets his moment to shine, we’ll see if he can be clutch like Adam Vinatieri or blow it like Scott Norwood did for the 1990 Bills, which is still the only game-deciding field goal miss in Super Bowl history.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling – Chiefs WR
What if Marquez Valdes-Scantling (MVS) manages to save his best moments for the playoffs? He kind of already did that last year in his debut season with the Chiefs. He has always been a frustrating player with speed that is almost canceled out by bad hands and drops.
But in 2022, he had as many touchdowns in the playoffs (2) as he had in the regular season for Kansas City. He had a season-high 116 yards and a touchdown in the 2022 AFC Championship Game against Cincinnati, stepping up nicely for Mahomes that day. MVS’ only other 100-yard game happened to be when he had 111 yards in San Francisco against the 49ers.
Back on Track?
This year, MVS declined instead of improving in this offense. He dropped a 50-yard touchdown against the Eagles that could have won the game potentially, and he was not able to draw a flag for pass interference in Green Bay on a big play against his former team. He finished the season only catching 50% of his targets with 1 touchdown.
But in the playoffs, MVS has doubled the number of games he had with at least 38 yards this year from 2 to 4 games. He caught a pair of 30-yard deep balls against the Bills, finishing with 62 yards. Then in the AFC Championship Game against the Ravens, Mahomes trusted MVS enough to catch the dagger on 3rd-and-long, and he caught the pass falling down and hung onto it for a 32-yard gain to ice the game and send the Chiefs back to the Super Bowl.
MVS did not have a catch in the Super Bowl last year against the Eagles, but could he repeat some of his playoff magic with a big catch in this one? Remember, he had over 100 yards against San Francisco last year and that was a better defense than this one.
But with the Chiefs leaning on Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice so much, MVS can be that unexpected deep threat who has a memorable Super Bowl catch in this one a la David Tyree (2007 Giants) or Mario Manningham (2011 Giants). Remember, it was a 44-yard bomb to Tyreek Hill that saved the game for the Chiefs in the last Super Bowl against the 49ers, and he is gone. Maybe MVS can step up for his career-defining moment in this game.
