The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will meet at Super Bowl 57 in Glendale, Arizona. One of these teams will have captured a second Super Bowl championship within the past half-decade, while the other will fall just short of inching closer to dynasty status.
There are a lot of reasons to get hyped about a Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl matchup, but there are also some other enticing Super Bowl showdowns that would have been even juicier.
Here are 10 Super Bowl 57 matchups we would’ve preferred to see over the Eagles vs. Chiefs.
Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Francisco 49ers
A rematch of Super Bowl 54? This would have been a dandy, alright.
Yes, their Week 7 showdown at Levi’s Stadium earlier this year was a snooze-fest, with Kansas City crushing Kyle Shanahan’s squad 44 to 23. It was essentially the one REALLY bad game San Fran’s defense had in the regular season.
But there’s no way the Chiefs would’ve put up that many points on DeMeco Ryans’ unit again. And if Brock Purdy were healthy, the 49ers would have an upgrade at quarterback over Jimmy Garoppolo — whose last two outings against KC left a lot to be desired.
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Seeing the game’s best quarterback against the league’s best defense would have been another incredible chess match. Andy Reid and Kyle Shanahan, two of the game’s all-time great offensive minds, duking it out on the grand stage for the second time in four years? Who wouldn’t want to see that?
Think of all the offensive weaponry in this showdown. Mahomes. Travis Kelce. Marquez Valdes-Scantling. JuJu Smith-Schuster. Deebo Samuel. Christian McCaffrey. George Kittle. Brandon Aiyuk. There would be no shortage of playmakers on the field at any given time..
Their showdown in Miami three years ago certainly didn’t lack in drama – but adding Purdy, Aiyuk and Run CMC to the equation this time around would have added even more thrill.
Super Bowl 58, perhaps?
Buffalo Bills vs. Philadelphia Eagles
Records aside, there’s a case to be made that the Bills were football’s second-best team this year behind only the Philadelphia Eagles.
The pre-season Super Bowl favorites lived up to that billing in the regular season, winning 13 games behind the league’s No. 2 scoring offense and No. 2 scoring defense. However, a blowout loss at the hands of Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals in the Divisional Round ended Buffalo’s latest quest for a Super Bowl.
So that means we won’t get a showdown of two star-studded rosters with all-world talent on both sides of the ball. Josh Allen vs. Jalen Hurts, two of the game’s most dynamic dual-threat quarterbacks, would have been can’t-miss drama.
Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis vs. James Bradberry and Darius Slay? AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith vs. that loaded Buffalo secondary? For all the marbles?
On the bright side, these two teams will meet at Lincoln Financial Field in the 2023 regular season. So at least we don’t have to wait too long to see Allen vs. Hurts for the very first time.
Buffalo Bills vs. San Francisco 49ers
A battle of the No. 2 seeds? That’s something we would’ve gotten behind.
This would have been an enticing battle of the NFL’s two best defenses from the regular season. Both clubs were also among the top-six in scoring offense, so it would’ve been a thrilling battle no matter which team has the ball.
How would Josh Allen maneuver his way around the 49ers’ resilient pass rush led by Nick Bosa and Fred Warner? How would the 49ers’ array of offensive weapons solve the Bills’ lockdown secondary? Unfortunately, we’ll never get to find out.
You’d also have the history aspect. Do the 49ers join the New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers as the only franchises to win six Super Bowls? Or do the Bills officially remove themselves from the “No Titles” club by winning their first Lombardi Trophy?
Well…both teams are built to compete for several more years. Who knows? We might even get a Bills-49ers Super Bowl matchup several times over the next half-decade. But man, we just wish we didn’t have to wait any longer for it.
Los Angeles Chargers vs. Minnesota Vikings
If you love offense and hate defense, then this would have been the matchup for you.
The Chargers and Vikings had two of the NFL’s most explosive offenses in 2022, but they ranked 21st and 28th in scoring defense, respectively. There would have been plenty of fireworks and maybe like…4 punts MAX in this game.
Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen, Austin Ekeler and Mike Williams would have had a field day against Minnesota’s defense. But Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson would have also gone off against that Chargers defensive unit.
Also, both the Bolts and Vikings have a knack for choking in big games. So would this simply come down to “Who chokes last?” Someone would have to win, one way or another. And even a neutral fan would have to shed a tear for either long-suffering franchise if they were to win the Super Bowl.
Given both teams’ knacks for falling apart in big games, we’ll probably never see a Super Bowl matchup between these two teams. Doesn’t mean we can’t at least dream of it.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Cincinnati Bengals
You can also make a strong case that the Bengals were the best, most complete team in the AFC this season. They were, after all, just a couple of controversial calls away from preparing for their second straight Super Bowl appearance.
Last time these two clubs met? Week 3 of the 2020 season, which you may recall ended in a 23-all tie that dropped both clubs to 0-2-and-1 on the year. Who’da thought that both would celebrate a Super Bowl appearance within the next 2 years?
Of course, the Bengals weren’t an established juggernaut at the time, and the Eagles were in the midst of a disastrous final season with Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson. Fast forward to 2022, and you now have two of the NFL’s most prolific offenses led by young franchise signal-callers and dynamic receiving units.
How would Joe Burrow fight his way through an Eagles defense that racked up a whopping 70 sacks in the regular season? Would Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd have their way with the scary corner duo of James Bradberry and Darius Slay? How would Lou Anarumo’s front seven fare against the NFL’s best o-line?
So many juicy matchups we could’ve seen in an Eagles-Bengals Super Bowl. Perhaps next year!
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The last time these teams met in the Super Bowl was only two seasons ago. Unfortunately, the game never got close to living up to the hype, because Patrick Mahomes stood no chance behind a practice squad-level offensive line, against Tampa Bay’s potent front seven.
And their Super Bowl 55 rematch back in Week 4 wasn’t exactly a thrill, either. The Chiefs never trailed and cruised to an easy 41-31 victory, but trust us, the game wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
So, why does this make the list? Because of two men: Tom Brady vs. Patrick Mahomes.
The GOAT and the best active player in the NFL have split their six meetings. A Super Bowl 57 showdown would have marked quite the rubber match. And given the weaknesses in KC’s secondary, it’s safe to say that Brady, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin could have kept pace with the Chiefs’ offense. This game would have surely been closer than their Week 4 matchup.
Cincinnati Bengals vs. San Francisco 49ers
We were very close to getting the third-ever Bengals-49ers Super Bowl matchup last year, but San Francisco dropped a heartbreaker to the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game.
In Week 14 of the 2021 season, the 49ers narrowly defeated Burrow’s Bengals 26-23 in an overtime thriller. Fast forward to 2022, and both clubs finished as runner-ups in their respective conferences.
Bengals fans have waited more than three decades for revenge on the 49ers, who defeated them in two Super Bowls during the Joe Montana glory years of the ‘80s….so there would have been a very juicy, historical significance to this matchup.
Watching Joe Burrow and the high-powered Cincy offense go to work against the NFL’s best defense would have been a real treat. Even that Cincy front seven against Trent Williams and the 49ers’ powerful o-line would’ve been must see television.
Well, for that it’s worth, the Bengals will visit the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium at some point in the 2023 regular season. So there’s that!
Buffalo Bills vs. Minnesota Vikings
The Bills and Vikings met at Highmark Stadium back in Week 10…and it only turned out to be the GAME of the year… Maybe even the best regular season game of the past decade!
Justin Jefferson’s one-handed catch late in the fourth quarter was a thing of beauty — arguably the best catch of all-time. And that’s not an exaggeration.
So we don’t need to explain how epic a sequel would have been. This would’ve been another high-scoring affair between two offensive juggernauts. And you’re also talking about two franchises who both carry tragic 0-and-4 records in the Super Bowl. One of them would make it 0-5, and the other would finally end over a half-century of misery.
That’d be a fun storyline to follow. But the bottom line is that Josh Allen, Gabe Davis and Stefon Diggs vs. Kirk Cousins, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen and Justin Jefferson would have made for an all-time great Super Bowl.
But alas, the Vikings were one-and-done and the Bills were dominated by the Bengals in the Divisional Round. Both clubs just added to their histories of postseason misery instead of vying for a Super Bowl.
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Baltimore Ravens
The Eagles and Ravens finished with the No. 2 and No. 5 rushing offenses in 2022, respectively. A lot of that success is thanks to the dual-threat abilities of quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Lamar Jackson.
We could say “Hurts vs. Jackson” and end it at that, but why stop there? What about Baltimore’s loaded secondary consisting of Kyle Hamilton, Marcus Williams, Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey going up against DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert?
On the flip side, how would Baltimore’s stout o-line led by Tyler Linderbaum and Ronnie Stanley hold up against a defense that led the league in sacks in the regular season?
John Harbaugh will go down as one of the greatest offensive-minded head coaches ever. Nick Sirianni is just getting started as part of the new wave of innovative coaches, which includes Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan, Matt LaFleur and Kevin O’Connell.
So it would’ve been exciting to see the Ravens’ veteran coach try to outsmart the up-and-coming Sirianni.
Another fun footnote: Harbaugh’s NFL coaching career began with the Eagles back in 1998, where he served as the special teams’ coordinator before spending one year as the defensive backs coach in 2007. Wouldn’t it have been fun to see Harbaugh coach against the team that gave him a chance in the first place?
Here’s hoping Jackson stays in Baltimore long-term. Then, maybe, we’ll get to see this battle somewhere down the road.
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Dallas Cowboys
Yes, yes, we know. Most of America is thrilled that the Cowboys choked in the Divisional Round and thus won’t be playing in the Super Bowl. Doesn’t mean that this wouldn’t have been a thrilling Super Bowl matchup.
The Chiefs and Cowboys are two of the NFL’s most polarizing teams. You either love ‘em or you hate ‘em. The Chiefs are the present of the NFL, whereas the Cowboys and their fans love clinging to the past. Wouldn’t it be fun to see these two fanbases engage in a bunch of back-and-forth trash talk on social media?!
However, the main reason we have this game on here is because of the actual matchup itself. These are two high-powered offensive units led by quality defenses that are still prone to giving up a ton of big plays. So we’d confidently bet on each team putting up 27-plus points.
With all due respect to Dan Quinn’s defense, nobody stops Mahomes in the playoffs — as long as he’s not playing behind a battered offensive line. But at the same time, KC wouldn’t have the pieces to contain Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, CeeDee Lamb, and the Cowboys’ high-powered offense.
This would be an epic back-and-forth contest that could’ve easily seen 70-plus points combined. But alas, Dallas just had to choke in the postseason once again to thwart a dream Super Bowl matchup like this one.
