Super Bowl LIX Comparisons: Defensive Backs

Leading up to the Philadelphia Eagles rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans, Sports Talk Philly and Eagledelphia will compare the personnel of the two teams each day until gameday is here.

In this edition of our week-long comparison, we will look at the defensive backs that the Eagles and Chiefs will field for the big game.

Philadelphia DBs | Darius Slay, Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, Reed Blankenship, Isaiah Rodgers, Kelee Ringo, Eli Ricks, Avonte Maddox, Tristin McCollum, Sydney Brown, Lewis Cine

In his 12th season, Darius Slay has dealt with nagging injuries a lot more and doesn’t have the turnovers he used to this season. That said, he’s been a great mentor and is at least an above league average corner. In the playoffs, he has really stepped it up with an interception and five passes defensed. The other corners are manned by Defensive Rookie of the Year finalists Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Mitchell has been a lockdown corner with most QBs not even looking his way and getting 12 defensed passes when they did. He recorded no turnovers during the regular season but has two interceptions in just two playoff games to go with his four defensed passes. DeJean started the year injured, but when he got into the lineup he never left. He has six defensed passes with a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. While tackles aren’t a good corner stat most of the time, DeJean has been a huge key in the run and screen games smacking players hard (and occasionally lifting them off the ground) for little gain or a loss with 51 tackles and getting in on a sack from the nickel.

Avonte Maddox does see time in some packages and has unfortunately found himself getting beaten even on some of those minimal number of snaps. The bigger key is Isaiah Rodgers, who serves as the top backup at outside corner. He may not have great ball skills, but he’s efficient and he’s appeared in 13 games during the regular season and all three playoff games to play some defense in relief of Slay, who leaves the field almost once per game as of late. Kelee Ringo is a special teamer ready as the deeper outside backup and he’s even gotten more than a few defensive snaps in about five games this season, so there’s experience there. 

At safety, C.J. Gardner-Johnson can be a bit of a reckless player, but he hits hard and has cleaned up a lot of his early-season woes. He ended the season with six tackles and 12 defensed passes along with 59 tackles. Blankenship tends to be more involved in the run game and had 78 tackles to go along with his four INTs and six defensed passes. He also registered a fumble recovery. McCollum is the first backup for the safeties and saw real defensive snaps in eight games this season, recording 33 tackles (some from special teams) and two defensed passes.

Eli Ricks has been inactive recently and Sydney Brown serves as the fourth safety, but is primarily a special teamer. Lewis Cine was grabbed very late in the season in what appears to be a move to get him some time with Fangio to see if he thinks Cine can be developed in a move seemingly to stash the recent first-round pick for next season to see if he can reach the talent that made him go that high in the draft.

Kansas City DBs | Trent McDuffie, Jaylen Watson, Justin Reid, Bryan Cook, Joshua Williams, Nazeeh Johnson, Keith Taylor, Jaden Hicks, Chamarri Conner, Chris Roland-Wallace

McDuffie has been the CB1 for a bit due to injuries and has been effective in that role with 13 defensed passes, two interceptions, and getting in on a sack. Jaylen Watson will be tested again. He returned from injury for the playoffs and played plenty of snaps the past two weeks, but wasn’t fantastic – something to be expected from someone who missed the previous 11 games. Watson missing time, however, has allowed Joshua Williams time to acclimate to playing far more snaps for the defense and it’s worked out reasonably well for Kansas City, though they haven’t used him at all defensively in the playoffs. Nazeeh Johnson is the other corner the Eagles will want to plan for. He doesn’t have any turnovers on the season, but he does have four defensed passes and a sack playing more defensive snaps during the back half of the season.

At safety, the Chiefs also have plenty of experience. They have four players who have played a significant number of snaps on defense in 10 or more games this season, particularly as they utilize three-safety looks. The “starters” would technically be Reid and Cook. Reid led the way with 87 tackles, 9 defensed passes, and two interceptions during the regular season – he’s added 12 tackled and a broken-up pass in the playoffs. Cook added 2 INTs of his own and recorded 78 tackles with five defensed passes this season. Chamarri Conner is the next more important player at the position to watch out for as he’s played a majority of snaps the past two weeks. During the regular season, he recorded 77 tackles, a sack, a fumble recovery, a forced fumble, four defensed passes, and two interceptions. He’s been the most effective safety in the postseason run for the Chiefs, with 14 tackles a sack, and a forced fumble. The Eagles will need to watch out for him.

Jaden Hicks hadn’t played a majority of the snaps most of the year, but he has been playing a lot more during the postseason and the final three games of the season for KC. Despite not playing many snaps until the end of the year, he did record 3 interceptions during the regular season and has 9 tackles in the postseason.

Chris Roland-Wallace is a special teamer that did see time in seven games defensively this year. He’s not a top-tier player, but he did have two turnovers in his limited snaps. Keith Taylor was a special teamer, but has been inactive during the playoffs.

Edge:

The Chiefs don’t have nearly as many turnovers coming from their safeties, but they do have far more depth at the position. On the flip side, the Eagles’ corner position not only has the higher-quality guys but has more depth than what KC can offer. The depth kind of works out to a wash between the two positions, but the Eagles starting corner unit gets the slight edge and the ability of the Eagles top two safeties to force turnovers gives them just a bit of an edge over the top Chiefs unit. The Chiefs having their top corner coming off a major injury not too long ago helps to make this a victory for the Birds.