Super Bowl 2023 rosters: How the Chiefs and Eagles starters rated as high school recruits

Super Bowl LVII kicks off Sunday with the Kansas City Chiefs facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona. The biggest game of the year also happens to feature a pair of former Big 12 quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs was once a gunslinger at Texas Tech, while Jalen Hurts of the Eagles ended his collegiate career at Oklahoma after beginning at Alabama. However, only one of the two (Hurts) was a blue-chip recruit.

In fact, out of 11 listed starters on Kansas City’s offense, only three were rated as blue-chip recruits. Mahomes, meanwhile, was a three-star prospect, though he was borderline as a top-400 recruit. Philadelphia has six former blue-chip recruits on offense, but balances it out with five starters who were either two-stars or completely unranked — notably Jason Kelce, who walked on at Cincinnati before becoming an All-Pro center in the pros.

The highest hit rates on recruiting rankings came on defense. Three of the eight starting defensive lineman for the game were former five-stars, while every member of Kansas City’s defense was given three stars or higher as prospects. To the contrary, the offensive line is filled with late bloomers. Kelce is one of three Eagles offensive linemen who were unranked coming out of high school. Joe Thuney and Andrew Wylie each ranked as two-stars before landing in Kansas City.

Of course, this list only features starters and not key backups. But while four- and five-star recruits start from ahead, the five unranked prospects starting in the Super Bowl signal an important reminder: No matter where you start, there’s always a path to the highest stage.

Here’s a look at the Chiefs’ offense based on the team’s depth chart (all are high school rankings courtesy of 247Sports Composite):

QB Patrick Mahomes	3	No. 398	No. 22 PRO QB
HB Isiah Pacheco	3	No. 665	No. 30 RB
FB Michael Burton	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster	5	No. 21	No. 3 ATH
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling	3	No. 1,545	No. 218 WR
TE Travis Kelce	2	No. 1,583	No. 85 TE
LT Orlando Brown	3	No. 453	No. 36 OT
LG Joe Thuney	2	No. 1,498	No. 129 OT
C Creed Humphrey	4	No. 294	No. 3 OC
RG Trey Smith	5	No. 14	No. 4 OT
RT Andrew Wylie	2	No. 2,011	No. 193 OT

Now let’s take a look at the Chiefs defense:

DE George Karlaftis	4	No. 59	No. 4 SDE
DT Khalen Saunders	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
DT Chris Jones	5	No. 18	No. 2 SDE
DE Frank Clark	3	No. 692	No. 42 ATH
SLB Carlos Dunlap	5	No. 14	No. 2 SDE
MLB Nick Bolton	4	No. 1,114	No. 39 ILB
WLB Willie Gay Jr.	4	No. 70	No. 3 OLB
CB L’Jarius Sneed	3	No. 1,968	No. 141 S
CB Trent McDuffie	4	No. 126	No. 12 CB
SS Justin Reid	3	No. 366	No. 21 S
FS Juan Thornhill	3	No. 676	No. 53 ATH

Let’s switch over the the Eagles and check out their offense based on the team’s official depth chart:

QB Jalen Hurts	4	No. 192	No. 4 DUAL QB
RB Miles Sanders	5	No. 21	No. 1 RB
WR A.J. Brown	4	No. 36	No. 4 WR
WR DeVonta Smith	4	No. 62	No. 9 WR
WR Quez Watkins	2	No. 2,253	No. 315 WR
TE Dallas Goedert	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
LT Jordan Mailata	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
LG Landon Dickerson	4	No. 31	No. 4 OT
C Jason Kelce	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
RG Isaac Seumalo	5	No. 28	No. 1 OG
RT Lane Johnson	N/A	Unranked	Unranked

And here’s the Eagles defense:

DE Brandon Graham	5	No. 16	No. 3 ILB
DT Fletcher Cox	4	No. 157	No. 11 DT
DT Javon Hargrave	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
DE Josh Sweat	5	No. 8	No. 1 WDE
SLB Haason Reddick	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
MLB T.J. Edwards	2	No. 2,195	No. 180 ATH
WLB Kyzir White	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
CB James Bradberry	2	No. 2,350	No. 156 ATH
CB Darius Slay	3	No. 1,446	No. 161 WR
S Marcus Epps	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
S C.J. Gardner-Johnson	4	No. 42	No. 4 CB
NCB Avonte Maddox	3	No. 1,073	No. 88 ATH