The Super Bowl is Sunday and many of the players in that game were highly-ranked prospects during their time in high school. Many were not. Here’s a look at the active rosters of both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs and the unique and roundabout ways many of them made it to the game’s highest stage:
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
Five-stars: 2
Four-stars: 17
Three-stars: 13
Two-stars: 8
Unranked: 9
The two five-star prospects on the Eagles’ roster are both defensive ends in Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham and then a whole host of four-star prospects are making a tremendous impact on offense and helped Philadelphia to get to the Super Bowl.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts was a four-star prospect. So were leading rusher Miles Sanders (one notch below five-star status) and the Eagles’ top-two receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown, who also finished one rung below being a five-star.
Philadelphia’s offensive line is a mish-mash of all kinds of interesting stories but both guards Isaac Seumalo and Landon Dickerson were four-stars who were one bump away from being five-stars as well.
Other offensive players who were ranked as four-stars were running back Trey Sermon, tight end Grant Calcaterra and center Cam Jurgens, who wanted to play tight end but was moved to the offensive line at Nebraska.
On defense, there are former four-star prospects at every level with Jordan Davis, Fletcher Cox, Ndamokong Suh and Robert Quinn on the defensive line, Kyzir White and Nakobe Dean at linebacker and then Josh Jobe and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson in the secondary.
Three-stars abound in QBs Ian Book and Gardner Minshew, RB Kenneth Gainwell, TE Jack Stoll, DT Linval Joseph, LBs Patrick Johnson, Kyron Johnson and T.J. Edwards and defensive backs Darius Slay, Josiah Scott, Zech McPhearson, Avonte Maddox and K’Von Wallace.
There are some significant contributors among the two-stars in WRs Quez Watkins and Britain Covey, OL Jack Driscoll and Andre Dillard, DT Milton Williams, LB Christian Elliss and DBs James Bradberry and Reed Blankenship.
Interestingly, some of the most important Eagles players were unranked coming out of high school with WR Zach Pascal, LB Haason Reddick, RB Boston Scott, TE Dallas Goedert, OL Jordan Mailata, Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce, DL Javon Hargrave and DB Marcus Epps making up that list.
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KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Five-stars: 5
Four-stars: 11
Three-stars: 17
Two-stars: 7
Unranked: 10
Kansas City has five five-stars on the roster including a quarterback – but it’s not Patrick Mahomes. QB Chad Henne, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and defensive linemen Carlos Dunlap, Josh Kaindoh and Chris Jones make up that list.
There are four-stars across the board with some making significant contributions to the team and others not. QB Shane Buechele, RB Ronald Jones (one notch below five-star status), TE Blake Bell, OL Trey Smith and Prince Tega Wanogho, DL Malik Herring, George Karlaftis and Derrick Nnadi, LB Willie Gay and cornerbacks Deon Bush and Trent McDuffie are included there.
Seventeen three-stars are on the roster, none more important and none a bigger rankings miss than Mahomes. He should have been ranked higher based on his college career and NFL Draft position but Mahomes developed an incredible amount from high school, to college and now into the NFL.
RBs Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Jerick McKinnon and Isiah Pacheco, WRs Kadarius Toney and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, OL Nick Allegretti, Lucas Niang, Joe Thuney, Orlando Brown, Creed Humphrey and Darian Kinnard, DE Frank Clark, LBs Nick Bolton and Leon Chenal and safeties Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill round out the three-star group.
Two-stars include WR Skyy Moore, TE Noah Gray, TE Travis Kelce (faceplant on the ranking here), OG Andrew Wyline, DE Mike Danna, LB Darius Harris and CB L’Jarius Sneed.
It’s also worth a study – or a shot of excitement to players at lower levels – that the NFL is not out of reach for anyone based on some examples of unranked Chiefs players.
WR Justin Watson went to Penn, Jody Fortson played at Valdosta State, DL Khalen Saunders (Western Illinois) and Brandon Williams (Missouri Southern), LB Jack Cochrane (South Dakota), DB Joshua Williams (Fayetteville State) and S Bryan Cook (Howard) were not playing on the biggest stages. Safety Nazeeh Johnson started as a walk-on at Marshall.
