Super Bowl 2025 rosters: How the Eagles, Chiefs starters rated as high school recruits before NFL

Super Bowl LIX is a testament to player identification and talent development. Neither the Philadelphia Eagles nor the Kansas City Chiefs are lacking in headline players, even if one were to go all the way back to the high school recruiting days.

But there are plenty of listed starters that didn’t even hold a ranking when they were being sought after by college programs across the nation. Seven expected starters on the Eagles and the Chiefs were unranked when they signed out of high school; Philadelphia has three on offense, while Kansas City has three on defense. A good few of those unranked prospects cut their teeth in junior college before moving on to play major college football.

Not all paths are created equal. For every formerly unranked prospect competing in the Super Bowl, there’s a standout athlete with a five-star pedigree to his name. Especially on defense, where almost half of the expected defensive line starters for both teams held a five-star ranking — that means almost every top program in the nation would have been calling for their services.

The rosters are mostly filled out with ex-three and four-star prospects, which makes sense given that those players tend to constitute a bulk of the recruiting rankings during each cycle. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who is gunning for his third straight Super Bowl win, was a three-star when he signed with Texas Tech in 2014.

Ahead of Sunday’s clash between the Eagles and the Chiefs, here’s how each expected starter (according to the teams’ respective official depth charts) ranked as a high school prospect. Rankings are provided courtesy of the 247Sports Composite.

Philadelphia Eagles offense

QB Jalen Hurts	4	No. 175	No. 3 DUAL QB
RB Saquon Barkley	4	No. 119	No. 13 RB
WR A.J. Brown	4	No. 36	No. 4 WR
WR DeVonta Smith	4	No. 62	No. 9 WR
WR Jahan Dotson	3	No. 192	No. 36 WR
TE Dallas Goedert	Unranked	N/A	N/A
LT Jordan Mailata	Unranked	N/A	N/A
LG Landon Dickerson	4	No. 31	No. 4 OT
C Cam Jurgens	4	No. 193	No. 7 TE
RG Mekhi Becton	3	No. 399	No. 42 OT
RT Lane Johnson	Unranked	N/A	N/A

Philadelphia Eagles defense

EDGE Nolan Smith Jr.	5	No. 1	No. 1 WDE
DT Jordan Davis	3	No. 424	No. 29 DT
DT Jalen Carter	5	No. 18	No. 4 DT
DT Milton Williams	2	No. 2,640	No. 127 SDE
EDGE Josh Sweat	5	No. 8	No. 1 WDE
LB Nakobe Dean	5	No. 19	No. 2 ILB
LB Zack Baun	3	No. 1,055	No. 83 ATH
CB Darius Slay Jr.	3	No. 1,439	No. 160 WR
CB Quinyon Mitchell	3	No. 1,830	No. 159 CB
NCB Cooper DeJean	4	No. 359	No. 26 S
S C.J. Gardner-Johnson	4	No. 42	No. 4 CB
S Reed Blankenship	3	No. 1,713	No. 132 S

Kansas City Chiefs offense

QB Patrick Mahomes	3	No. 389	No. 22 PRO QB
RB Isiah Pacheco	3	No. 665	No. 30 RB
FB Carson Steele	Unranked	N/A	N/A
WR DeAndre Hopkins	4	No. 210	No. 30 WR
WR Xavier Worthy	4	No. 62	No. 8 WR
TE Travis Kelce	2	No. 1,602	No. 85 TE
LT Joe Thuney	2	No. 1,537	No. 131 OT
LG Mike Caliendo	3	No. 1,782	No. 101 OG
C Creed Humphrey	4	No. 290	No. 3 OC
RG Trey Smith	5	No. 14	No. 4 OT
RT Jawaan Taylor	3	No. 927	No. 46 OG

Kansas City Chiefs defense

DE George Karlaftis	4	No. 59	No. 4 SDE
DT Chris Jones	5	No. 18	No. 2 SDE
DT Tershawn Wharton	Unranked	N/A	N/A
DE Mike Danna	3	No. 2,034	No. 94 WDE
LB Nick Bolton	3	No. 1,114	No. 39 ILB
LB Drue Tranquill	4	No. 281	No. 21 S
LB Leo Chenal	3	No. 635	No. 35 ATH
CB Trent McDuffie	4	No. 126	No. 12 CB
CB Jaylen Watson	Unranked	N/A	N/A
S Justin Reid	3	No. 365	No. 21 S
S Bryan Cook	Unranked	N/A	N/A