The Las Vegas Raiders are expected to release quarterback Derek Carr after he informed the team he would not accept a trade to the New Orleans Saints.

Carr's refusal to join the Saints, in a trade deal that had already been agreed between the teams, was reported on Sunday by ESPN and NFL Network.

Reports earlier in the week had detailed Carr's plan to visit the Saints after he was given permission to speak to the team.

However, it is said the contract on offer in New Orleans would require Carr to take a pay cut.

That was not something the QB was willing to do, refusing to waive his no-trade clause, and with only the Saints approaching the Raiders about a trade, the obvious alternative was for the player to be released.

The Raiders would have to cut Carr by Wednesday to avoid paying his full salary in 2023 and instead allow him to enter free agency.

Carr has been with the Raiders since he was selected in the second round of the 2014 NFL Draft, but he said goodbye to fans in an emotional social media post in January.

Las Vegas had hoped for a big season in 2022 but finished third in the AFC West as Carr struggled for form.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire is inactive for Super Bowl LVII, the Kansas City Chiefs running back unable to make his return from a high ankle sprain.

Edwards-Helaire was activated from injured reserve ahead of Sunday's showpiece at State Farm Stadium, having been sidelined since Week 11 because of the injury.

But the former first-round pick will not feature in Glendale, Arizona, meaning Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon will shoulder the bulk of the workload in the backfield.

Rookie Pacheco has enjoyed an outstanding season, rushing for 830 yards and five touchdowns.

He has done an excellent job of creating yards even when the opposing defense creates disruption in the backfield. Pacheco has averaged 3.68 yards per carry on runs where there was a disruption, the third most among backs with at least 100 carries.

McKinnon's impact has been primarily been as a receiver, catching nine touchdowns in the regular season.

One player who will return from an ankle injury to play in the Super Bowl is the Eagles' Australian punter Arryn Siposs, who was confirmed as active for the game having been out since December. He will reassume the punting duties from Brett Kern.

Trent McDuffie perhaps did not have the profile of a typical first-round draft pick.

Undersized even for a cornerback at 5ft 11in and 193 pounds, McDuffie did not have the standout college production of a top selection, registering only two interceptions in three seasons for the Washington Huskies.

But McDuffie's long speed and coverage ability convinced the Kansas City Chiefs he was worthy of their opening selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, taking him with the 21st overall pick.

That decision now looks an extremely astute one, with McDuffie shining as the starting nickel corner for a secondary that features five rookies and will be critical to the Chiefs prevailing when they face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII on Sunday.

McDuffie has allowed receivers to get open on 21.54 per cent of his matchups across man and zone coverage, giving him the fourth-best such ratio among all cornerbacks in the NFL.

He believes his immediate success, and that of seventh-round rookie corner Jaylen Watson, second-round safety Bryan Cook and fourth-round corner Joshua Williams, is the product of an outstanding learning environment and the culture of a team playing in a third Super Bowl in four seasons, having reached the AFC Championship Game in each of those years.

"It feels so long since I was drafted, I've just been learning so much," McDuffie told Stats Perform.

"This year I've been able to be around vets who know the game, be around coaches who know the game and understand what an organisation that has gone back to back to back, what that looks like, the environment, the culture, it's been huge.

"When I first got there, I was like, you can tell something's a little different, and I think the biggest thing is they want to teach us so much that just the learning environment is huge.

"You don't get that in a lot of places, but it's just constantly people trying to develop you, trying to teach you, trying to help you learn, and with that I feel like that's why so many rookies are able to play so quickly and come in to this."

McDuffie has yet to register an interception in his pro career but knows that strong play at the catch point, even if it is simply preventing receptions, will be pivotal against two excellent ball-winners in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

Brown finished his first regular season in Philadelphia with 1,496 receiving yards and 11 touchdown receptions, while Smith racked up 1,196 yards and seven touchdown catches.

"I feel like the Eagles offense is super dynamic in terms of the offensive line is strong, their wide receiver core is strong, their depth at each position, they're so strong," added McDuffie.

"All 11 [starting defenders] are needed, that's something that, one, it's going to be fun because the dogs are going to go hunt, but again it's a challenge I'm excited to take on.

"After a full year of being in the NFL, the confidence is definitely there. We know we can play, we know we can do it.

"We've gone against the guys at the top of the league. It's going to come down to attacking the ball at the point of the catch because A.J. Brown, DeVonta, have really strong hands, so we're going to have to go out there and be a receiver on our own pretty much."

Josh Allen should be fit for the start of the 2023 NFL season, with the Buffalo Bills quarterback reportedly not needing elbow surgery.

Allen suffered a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in the Week 9 loss to the New York Jets in November, though he was able to keep playing while wearing a brace. 

A report from NFL.com's Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport claims the fact that the 26-year-old has not re-injured the area means surgery will not be necessary and further rest should see him able to line up in Week 1 of the 2023 campaign.

Allen had a productive 2022, throwing 35 touchdowns – only Patrick Mahomes (41) had more – and rushing for another seven during the regular season, throwing for an average of 267.7 yards per game.

That increased to 308.0 yards per game in his two postseason outings, where he contributed to four more touchdowns (three passing, one rushing) before the Bills were eliminated in the Divisional round by the Cincinnati Bengals.

In the Week 5 thrashing of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Allen became the first quarterback in NFL history to record 250+ passing yards, 50+ rushing yards, three or more passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, 80 per cent completions and a win all in one game.

The Kansas City Chiefs' decision to trade Tyreek Hill this offseason was greeted by many with understandable bemusement.

With Hill sent to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a 2022 first-round pick, a 2022 second-round pick, two fourth-round picks, and a 2023 sixth-round pick, the Chiefs lost the player who, save for quarterback Patrick Mahomes, struck the most fear into the hearts of opposing defenses.

How could the Chiefs' offense be as devastating without him? Surely the Chiefs and head coach Andy Reid had a plan?

Turns out they did, and it wasn't to spend either of their two first-round picks on a wide receiver. The Chiefs opted for defense in the form of Trent McDuffie and George Karlaftis, instead filling the void with a pair of veterans in Juju Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and a second-round pick in Skyy Moore.

Moore is quicker than fast and, though Valdes-Scantling was the de-facto deep threat for Aaron Rodgers in the Green Bay Packers' offense, neither can claim to boast anywhere close to the explosive speed Hill possesses.

And yet the Chiefs' offense has actually been more explosive than it was in the 2021 season, suffering no drop-off as Kansas City surged to the number one seed in the AFC and has since overcome injuries to quarterback and receivers alike to progress to Super Bowl LVII against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

The Chiefs racked up 249 plays of 10 yards or more in 2021, but that number has jumped to 257 in 2022. On top of that, the Chiefs finished first in the NFL in Stats Perform's Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) metric on offense.

While much credit must go to All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce – who ended the regular season with 1,338 receiving yards and a career-high 12 touchdowns – and head coach Andy Reid for finding joy running three-tight end formations, there is no doubting the influence of Kansas City's reconstructed receiver corps.

Smith-Schuster ended the year with 933 receiving yards, carving out a role as a dependable possession receiver who – according to Stats Perform data – won his matchup with a defender on a play where he was targeted 74.5 per cent of the time (the average is 60.2).

Valdes-Scantling has been an effective big-play threat, averaging 16.4 yards per reception in the regular season and, though Moore has not had the impact some may have envisaged, sporadic contributions from in-season trade acquisition Kadarius Toney – a former first-round pick of the New York Giants – and Justin Watson have helped ensure the Chiefs have continued to thrive throwing the ball.

How has everything coalesced so effectively for the Chiefs' new-look receiver group? In the view of Mahomes, their success is a tribute to the effort they have each shown since arriving in Kansas City.

"Just a lot of hard work. The guys work their tail off every day," said Mahomes of his receivers.

"It's a tough place to be to learn a whole new playbook and really execute and get better and better throughout the season and have no drop-offs, those guys have done that since OTAs and gotten better and better and that's what's got us in this position, so I'm excited for those guys to go on the world stage and showcase what they've worked all year for."

Kelce similarly praised the way Smith-Schuster and Co. have attacked the challenge, while also hailing Reid for identifying players who could slot seamlessly into an offense that was built heavily around Hill.

"The wide receiver group this year has been absolutely unbelievable," said Kelce. "Being able to come in year one and master this offense the way they have – this isn't an easy offense to figure out – it's just been cool to see the professionalism on top of the leadership that's been brought into this building for a lot of the young guys that are still in that room.

"There were just a lot of specific Tyreek routes, man, routes that only that guy could run. Hats off to coach Reid for creating those routes for the strengths of the guys that are in the building now. 

"This offense has had one of its best years, and it's not by surprise, it's not by accident, there's a lot of guys in that room that have the strengths and the abilities to go out there and have success and I'm happy they're going out there and having it."

Having such success may be a tough ask against an Eagles defense that allowed only 4.8 yards per pass play in the regular season, the fewest in the NFL.

But, even if the Chiefs' offense cannot produce the explosive plays to propel them to a second Super Bowl title in four seasons, the receiving group they have constructed has already emphatically expelled all doubts about Kansas City's decision to move on from their superstar wideout.

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa expressed gratitude to the team for an extended stay in concussion protocol.

The third-year quarterback was diagnosed with two separate concussions this season and was limited to 12 games. He hit the back of his head on the ground on both occasions.

Tagovailoa first entered concussion protocol in September after he was knocked unconscious during a 27-15 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. He was taken off the field on a stretcher and didn't return until nearly a month later.

"For concussion protocol, I think the team did me the biggest service throughout that," he told USA Today on Friday. "They never allowed me to go through protocol normally until the season was done. So that’s why it might have seemed like it took forever, but they were just protecting me from myself. And me and my family are very thankful to the Dolphins.

"But it really entailed a lot of exertion, so like running, ocular and vestibular movements, so like balance, proprioception – things like that. Having went to see a doctor in Pittsburgh, got clear from him and then had to do a written test, memorisation."

Tagovailoa took another hard hit four days before the Cincinnati game during a win over Buffalo. He appeared to show concussion symptoms, but was evaluated and stayed in the game, drawing widespread criticism of why he was allowed to return.

He entered protocol for the second time on December 26, one day after a 26-20 victory over the Green Bay Packers. He sat out the remainder of the season, including Miami’s playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Tagovailoa said he is tired of being asked about his concussions, though he understands where people are coming from.

"For one, people haven't heard from me in however long after the incident, and I would say another thing is some people are actually genuinely worried about my health," he said. "I hear people telling… people that are in my close circle, like, 'Hey, you should retire, hey you should do this' – and I feel like I’ve heard it all.

"But I think I’ve had all the information that I need to move forward with the decision that I made with me and my wife and my family, and understanding that you're playing this sport, and understanding knowing the precautions that these things can happen. It's football. It's a physical sport."

Dolphins general manager Chris Grier and head coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa will be the team’s starting quarterback in 2023.

Steve Spagnuolo is the definition of a football lifer.

He's been in coaching since 1981, when he took on a job as a graduate assistant at the University of Massachusetts and, since being appointed as a defensive assistant on Andy Reid's original Philadelphia Eagles staff in 1999, he has developed a reputation as an aggressive coach who is not afraid to send the house in order to get results.

Now 24 years on, he is again on coach Reid's staff, having served as the defensive coordinator of the Kansas City Chiefs since 2019. That description perhaps does not paint a completely accurate picture of a coach who is more versatile in his approach than he is given credit for.

Spagnuolo will indeed go on the attack. In the 2022 regular season, only four teams blitzed with six or more pass rushers more frequently than the Chiefs, who did so 6.6 per cent of the time.

But the fact his defense is set to go against the Eagles' offense in Super Bowl LVII is in part a tribute to Spagnuolo's malleability.

The Chiefs were in the top half of the NFL when it came to overall blitz rate in the regular season, but their rate of 26.9 per cent was only enough for 15th in the NFL.

Kansas City sent four pass rushers 70.8 per cent of the time when defending aerial attacks, but they still led the NFL in pressures with 299.

In other words, Spagnuolo's defense can win with the blitz, but it can also succeed frequently getting pressure with just four down linemen, which is critical for every defense in an era where two-high safety coverages that protect against explosive plays have never been more prevalent.

The Chiefs' defense finished the regular season as the eighth-best by yards per play allowed and ranked ninth by Stats Perform's Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) metric.

It is in the postseason, though, where Spagnuolo's defenses continually come alive.

That was the case in 2007 when his New York Giants defense held the finest offense in New England Patriots history, one that propelled them to an beaten 16-0 regular-season record, to just 14 points in Super Bowl XLII.

His first season with the Chiefs ended in Super Bowl glory as they swarmed Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers late in the fourth quarter in an underrated aspect of Kansas City's 31-20 comeback win in Super Bowl LIV. In the 2020 postseason, only a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that ruined the Chiefs' hopes of a repeat at the final hurdle had more pressures than Kansas City's 55.

And this postseason the Chiefs have again risen to the challenge on defense.

The Chiefs have racked up seven sacks in the postseason, second only to the Eagles, and tallied 23 pressures of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the AFC Championship Game, the most crucial being a sack by Chris Jones that gave the ball back to Patrick Mahomes for a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter.

Spagnuolo, though, does not appear interested in taking credit for the continual joy his defenses find in the playoffs, pointing more to the impact of players like Jones than any schematic wizardry.

"I always say this, what you've done in the past or prior games doesn't mean anything going into these games, it's all about our guys stepping up and doing it again," said Spagnuolo on Thursday. 

"Chris Jones, if he's having the game he had last week [in the AFC Championship Game] that certainly helps us, we need our best players to play their best football and I think it comes back to those guys, I think that's why in the big moments we've been able to do that.

"None of that matters now, it's a whole different game and different gameplan, hopefully we can find 60 more minutes of good football."

Speak to the Chiefs' defenders, however, and they won't hesitate to wax lyrical about their coach's prowess for putting them in positions to thrive.

Rookie cornerback Trent McDuffie has enjoyed an excellent rookie season, allowing a combined open percentage across man and zone coverage of 21.54 that is tied for the fourth-best among all corners, according to Stats Perform data.

McDuffie credits Spagnuolo's paternal influence and the varied way in which he uses his defensive backs as key reasons why he has thrived in year one.

McDuffie told Stats Perform: "He's very detailed, which could be tough at times because when you make one little mistake he catches it and it's like 'man yeah I was in the wrong', but he's such a loving dude, he's become such a father figure for me at least, I don't think I could have been here without just the guidance from him and the wisdom he's given me.

"I just love the mentality that our defense is aggressive, we are going to attack the offense, if you're a defensive player knowing you have an offensive gear like 'we're going to go attack the offense', it makes the game much more fun, because you can do so much more. I'm blitzing, I'm playing zone, I'm playing man. He's allowed me to do so much in the defense."

The numbers reflect McDuffie's words. The Chiefs have predominantly dealt in the kind of two-deep safety coverages that have proliferated across the NFL because of the threat posed by their own quarterback, Patrick Mahomes.

Cover 4, Cover 6 and Cover 2 are the coverages in which they have primarily lived, however, they have also played Cover 2 man, where every coverage defender except for the two deep safeties plays man coverage, on 8.92 per cent of pass defense snaps, well above the league average of 2.7 per cent.

Kansas City's defense does often get extremely aggressive when blitzing, playing Cover 1 man, where every coverage defender plays man except for a deep safety, on 25.24 per cent of blitzes, and Cover 0 – where there are no deep defenders – on 18.57 per cent of blitzes.

But there are still a significant amount of zone blitzes mixed in. The Chiefs run quarters (Cover 4) when blitzing 19.52 per cent of the time and Cover 2 on 9.52 per cent of blitzes.

Spagnuolo does look to 'attack the offense', but he takes a multi-faceted approach to doing so, one which consistently pays off in high-leverage situations.

The Chiefs have 27 sacks in the postseason since 2019, 16 of which have come in the second half or overtime, with five in the final two minutes.

Perhaps it is therefore Spagnuolo's timing that is the foundation for the success of his playoff defenses.

Against the Eagles, picking his spots will be crucial.

Aggression will almost certainly need to be tempered given Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts' aptitude for capitalising on attack-mode defenses through his prowess running the zone-read, the read-option and the run-pass option.

It sets up a fascinating battle between arguably the NFL's most diverse and devastating offense, which consistently makes life easy on its quarterback, and a defense that is significantly more dynamic than many believe and excels at putting quarterbacks in difficult positions in the most important moments.

For Spagnuolo, the challenge is to craft a gameplan that maintains the attacking tendencies of his defense while protecting against the array of dangers Hurts presents.

"There's a lot of responsibility football when you play that kind of offense," Spagnuolo said.

"If we can be good on first and second down to get them in the long third downs, then maybe we can do that [attack], short of that you're always facing the possibility of a run or an RPO on any down and distance, and if you're doing something, you know it could be a big play for you, but it might be a really big play for them."

It's quite the dilemma for Spagnuolo to solve. Fortunately for the Chiefs, history is on the side of him succeeding.

Tom Brady has filed his retirement letter with the NFL and National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), effectively rubber-stamping the end of his professional career, according to reports.

The veteran quarterback originally announced his retirement last year following two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, before walking back on his decision.

Following Tampa Bay's defeat in the Wild Card round to the Dallas Cowboys last month, however, the 45-year-old announced he was to quit for good.

On Friday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Brady has written to the league and the NFLPA to formally confirm his decision to retire.

The move makes the seven-time Super Bowl winner eligible for the Class of 2028 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to which he is likely to be an immediate inductee.

Across a two-decade-plus tenure following his selection by the New England Patriots, Brady became one of the NFL's undisputed greats.

During his time in New England he won six Super Bowls, before adding a seventh ring to his collection during his spell in Florida with the Buccaneers.

Brady is set to take up a role as a broadcaster with Fox Sports for their NFL coverage following his retirement, though he will not start in the role until 2024.

He is due to instead take a year out from the sport, missing the 2023 season in all capacities, before he joins the commentary booth the following year.

J.J. Watt, the former Houston Texans and Arizona Cardinals defensive end who announced his retirement in December, quoted tweeted Schefter's report with the caption: "I was unaware there was paperwork... Definitely not gonna [sic] fill that out, but definitely retired."

For most teams in most NFL seasons, the offensive linemen are not superstars.

Their work of attempting to prevent men of around 300 pounds from breaking into the backfield and trying to create lanes for the ground attack is a remarkably difficult one, but it is not normally one that is conducive to receiving large amounts of attention.

It may, therefore, seem a little bemusing on first blush to see center Jason Kelce with a plethora of cameras pointed in his face ahead of Super Bowl LVII.

Kelce is, of course, playing in special circumstances as he and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce prepare to become the first brothers to go against each other in a Super Bowl.

But the attention is not limited to Kelce. Tackles Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata each gathered a crowd this week at the Eagles' media availability and, as the former heavily emphasised ahead of their clash with the Chiefs on Sunday, being out of the ordinary is a defining trait of this group.

The makeup of the Eagles' offensive line is marked by its level of contrasts. Kelce and Johnson stand as the veteran lynchpins, two perennial All-Pros who have long since set the standard at their respective positions and are destined for the Hall of Fame.

On the other side of the spectrum, there is left tackle Mailata, the Australian former South Sydney Rabbitohs rugby league player who was selected in the seventh round of the 2018 draft having never played a single down of American football but blossomed so quickly that he is now the Eagles' undisputed starter at one of the most critical positions on the roster and represents the biggest success story of the NFL's International Player Pathway program.

The stark difference in the journeys of the players anchoring the middle and the right side of the O-Line from that of the unexpected star on the left side is a situation unique to the Eagles. 

But the Eagles have thrived on being unique in 2022. Their multi-faceted offense is unique in how it slows even the strongest and fastest defenses through the way in which Philadelphia utilise their dual-threat quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who has experienced a leap few envisaged in 2022.

And the joy they have experienced on offense has come in large part because the mix of All-Pro veterans, two extremely dependable guards in Landon Dickerson and Isaac Seumalo, and a left tackle who has gone from greenhorn to a foundational piece of the attack has produced a calibre of play up front that no team in the NFL can match.

Indeed, the Eagles rank first in Stats Perform's pass block win rate and second in run block win rate, dominance that can be attributed to the approach of offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland, whose distinctive coaching style helps make sure his group are never ill-prepared for any eventuality they might face on gameday.

"He's unique, he makes every meeting like a gameday with his voice," Johnson said of Stoutland.

"He's very loud, he asks a lot of questions, we call those 'cold calling' questions, which is like a pop quiz, a lot of that puts you on the spot, answer questions under duress. 

"He likes to simulate a game-like meeting room, which can be uncomfortable at times but you kind of respect it and you love it."

The numbers illustrate the merits of Stoutland's unconventional brand of coaching.

Johnson ranks second in pass block win rate (89.6 per cent) among offensive linemen with at least 100 total plays, Dickerson is ninth on that same list with a win rate of 83.5 per cent.

Dickerson's pressure rate allowed of 3.9 per cent is the best among all guards, while Kelce (2.0) and Johnson (2.9) rank second in that regard among centers and tackles respectively. 

Seumalo's 7.0 per cent may be less impressive, but it is still average (7.1) for guards this season.

Both Seumalo and Dickerson have unquestionably benefited hugely from playing next to Kelce, whose aggregate win rate across pass protection and run blocking of 83.48 per cent is the second-best in the NFL behind only Laremy Tunsil of the Houston Texans.

In the mind of Seumalo, who is finally solidified as a starter and was named a Pro Bowl alternate following years of persistent injury troubles, both Kelce and Stoutland deserve tremendous credit for how the Eagles' offensive line has coalesced into the elite unit in the NFL.

"To be a good offensive line you need really good players, and then Jeff Stoutland continually puts us in positions to be successful, we stick to our bread and butter and don't try to do too much," Seumalo told Stats Perform. 

"And then on the field Jason Kelce puts us in really good spots. When you have a combination of really good players, really smart players and an offensive line coach that continually puts us in good positions, it’s going to be successful. 

"Jeff Stoutland's work ethic is unmatched in terms of scheming and then knowing how to get guys lined up a certain way and also being ready for a lot of the grey.

"Being like 'let's show them what we expect' and then again, you're always going to get what you didn't see and then being ready to see that kind of stuff too. 

"Sometimes it's going to be tougher than what it should be, the easier and simpler you can make it the better."

Mailata's progress encapsulates Stoutland's ability to make things easy on his players. While he is still far from the finished article in pass protection, giving up a pressure rate of 11 per cent, he has excelled at preventing teams from disrupting the Eagles' ultra-versatile run game.

He has allowed a run disruption rate of 6.6 per cent that is ninth among all offensive tackles to have played at least 200 snaps in 2022, conceding a disruption to a defensive player on only 27 of his 411 run-blocking snaps.

Johnson believes there is much more to come from Mailata and Dickerson, who entered the NFL with the equivalent of a football masters degree having played at Alabama under Nick Saban but has still demonstrated surprisingly quick progress in making the switch from center to guard after suffering a knee ligament injury in his final season with the Crimson Tide.

"You look at it just the size they have with Mailata, Landon, the strength they have is unique," added Johnson.

"There's a lot of boxes they’re checking, which is physically gifted, speed, the more they're playing the better they're getting, they're on their way to be consistent top of the game every year."

Mailata and Dickerson checking those boxes has allowed Hurts and the Eagles' skill position-players to torment opponents who reside in the defensive box, with linebackers consistently crippled by hesitation due to the variety of threats they must account for when reading the Eagles' quarterback at the mesh point with his running back.

Hurts would of course not be able to generate such indecision in the minds of defenders without faith in the ability of his offensive line to hold up.

However, with aggressive defensive lines who get too far upfield in their efforts to pressure Philadelphia's quarterback extremely susceptible to the run, the line's odds of keeping the pass rush at bay are improved by facing defenders who are fighting their natural instincts, with that internal conflict also enabling the Eagles to get their blockers on the front foot in the run game and create chasms for Hurts, Miles Sanders and Kenneth Gainwell to surge through.

"The threat of Jalen, he's become a really good passer this year, his ability to run and get a lot of offense there helps our offense tremendously and then his ability to scramble and make plays for sure is helpful, helps everybody, it’s definitely an advantage," added Seumalo.

In his praise of Hurts, Johnson once again leaned on what appears to be his favourite descriptor of this Eagles' attack.

"Just a unique guy with his strengths," said Johnson. "His ability to run, he's dynamic, so [with the] gameplan, you have to be very crafty with what you do because when the play breaks down he can scramble for 30 yards. Unique player."

Johnson clearly believes Philadelphia's offense, particularly the line, is one of one. Should the Eagles keep a Chiefs defense led by All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones at bay and prevail in Glendale, then there won't be many doubting Stoutland's group deserves recognition as one of the standout offensive lines of the Super Bowl era.

Kansas City Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes has his sights set on a second Super Bowl title on Sunday, and he will go into Sunday's clash with the Philadelphia Eagles as a two-time MVP.

Mahomes and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts will face off at State Farm Stadium, having long since been seen as the two frontrunners for the MVP award.

A late-season shoulder injury damaged Hurts' hopes, while Mahomes made history with his tremendous production.

Despite seeing star wide receiver Tyreek Hill traded to the Miami Dolphins in the offseason, Mahomes threw for over 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns in a single season for the second time in his career.

In doing so, he joined Tom Brady and Drew Brees as the third quarterback with multiple seasons with 5,000 or more passing yards, while only he and Brees have more than one season with 5,000 yards and 40-plus touchdowns.

Achieving such a feat made Mahomes the obvious choice for MVP, the 2017 first-round pick reclaiming the award he won in 2018 after his first full season as a starter, in which he threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns.

But Mahomes winning the MVP may not be a good omen for the Chiefs' Super Bowl prospects.

No NFL MVP has won the Super Bowl in the same season since Kurt Warner in 1999, however, if anybody can end that run, it is Mahomes.

Nick Bosa had long since been seen as the Defensive Player of the Year-elect, and he was confirmed as the premier player on that side of the ball on Thursday.

The San Francisco 49ers defensive end collected the award at the NFL Honors ceremony on Thursday following a dominant campaign from the Niners' star pass rusher.

Dallas Cowboys edge rusher Micah Parsons and Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones had been in contention for the prize, but Bosa was the clear frontrunner having led the NFL in sacks.

Bosa racked up 18.5 sacks, also tallying 48 quarterback hits and 19 tackles for loss as the 49ers went 13-4, going on to win two playoff games before their NFC Championship Game defeat to the Philadelphia Eagles.

He becomes the third 49er to win Defensive Player of the Year, following in the footsteps of Deion Sanders (1994) and Dana Stubblefield (1997).

Bosa received 46 of the 50 first-place votes and can now look forward to a contract extension that will almost certainly make him the NFL's highest-paid defensive player.

Justin Jefferson has made an astonishing start to his NFL career, and now has two individual awards to his name in his opening three seasons after being named Offensive Player of the Year on Thursday.

Jefferson claimed the award after reaching new heights in terms of receiving yards, racking up a league-high 1,809 yards and hauling in eight touchdown catches.

It marked his third successive season with at least 1,400 yards, having reached that tally in a record-breaking rookie season, which saw him win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

He followed that with 1,616 receiving yards in 2021, before helping the Vikings return to the playoffs in the 2022 campaign with yet another outstanding year.

The Vikings lost to the New York Giants in the Wild Card round, but Jefferson will have silverware with which to remember his superb season.

Jefferson's 4,825 receiving yards since 2020 are nearly 400 more than his nearest challenger, Davante Adams (4,443), and he will hope that 2023 is the year the Vikings can make sure his production translates into a season that ends with him spending Super Bowl week preparing for the game.

"Oh that's nice."

Avonte Maddox's reaction was one of polite surprise when he was told he was the premier corner in the NFL by Stats Perform's matchup data.

No corner in the NFL can claim to be superior to Maddox in terms of open percentage allowed across both man and zone coverage in 2022.

Maddox allowed opposing receivers to get open on just 18.1 per cent of his matchups this season for the Philadelphia Eagles, excelling for a defense that boasts the premier defensive front in the NFL. With Philadelphia's starting nickel corner playing alongside the likes of Darius Slay and James Bradberry, they also have a strong claim for possessing one of the top secondaries in the league.

His reward for establishing himself as a top-tier slot corner at the highest level in 2022 could come on Sunday, when he will have an integral role to play as the Eagles battle the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.

So why has it all clicked this season for the fifth-year defender?

Maddox is quick to credit defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon.

"A good coach, he coaches us hard to be the best we can be," Maddox told Stats Perform. 

"I've learned a lot of things about offenses and just put myself in the best position to win, just making sure I do everything right from a technique point, detail point, watching film to the point of making sure I be where I have to be at the right time on the field to be the best."

Maddox will be going against the best at State Farm Stadium, where he is sure to spend much of the game lined up across from All-Pro and future Hall of Fame tight end Travis Kelce.

In the 2022 season, Kelce ran 300 routes from the slot, compared to 173 as an outside receiver and 139 from the traditional tight end. Those numbers foreshadow a duel between Kelce and Maddox that will likely be a defining one in what promises to be a captivating contest of two number one seeds.

Kelce has developed a reputation for being "always open". While the numbers – his open percentage across man and zone is 46.73 per cent, well above the 28.16 per cent average for tight ends – suggest there are, in fact, plenty of times when he isn't, but his mind meld with Patrick Mahomes that is often most prevalent on broken plays and scramble drills makes Kelce a formidable challenge for any defender.

Explaining Kelce's remarkable prowess for finding free space, Chiefs coach Andy Reid told Thursday's press conference: "Travis has a good feel for the game, in particular for space, teams have doubled him and banged him around in man coverage, put defensive backs on him, corners and safeties, linebackers – they’ve tried a lot of different things throughout his career.

"Now he’s seen about everything you can put on him, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

"He has a great relationship with our QB, those two are on the same page, they see the defenses the same way, they're best friends off the field and on the field, that helps too. If you're a receiver you want to be friendly with the quarterback for sure.

"Travis studies, he comes off like a nice funny guy and happy-go-lucky, but he studies like crazy and he knows defenses and he can see and react to them quickly during the game."

Maddox sees the apparent telepathic understanding between Mahomes and Kelce as the biggest challenge to stopping the latter.

"Him and Mahomes work really well together. Whatever Mahomes is thinking in his mind, Travis hears it, whenever he starts scrambling he starts scrambling, and it's like they're right on the same page," Maddox said.

"It's definitely a good challenge, but you've just got to make sure you plaster, trusting our D-Line to get him [Mahomes] down, if he doesn't then make sure I don't have bad eyes to the point where I'm going to take my eyes off him [Kelce] when he's running to get open, so just have good eyes and be violent and attack.

"Your eyes won't lie to you, if you see him [Kelce] go left and right you're gonna go left and right. You just gotta keep your eyes on him." 

Misdirected vision has hardly been a problem for Maddox as he has set the standard for inside and outside cornerbacks in 2022 and, for the Eagles to have a hope of disrupting one of the most prolific quarterback-pass-catcher connections in NFL history, that clarity must be maintained.

In the NFL, there are some players who simply feel inevitable. You may succeed in containing them, but you won't stop them.

The Chiefs have three of them.

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce's collective inevitability has powered a run that has seen the Chiefs progress to three Super Bowls in four seasons and helped Kansas City boast the most efficient offense in the NFL – by Stats Perform's Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) metric – in 2022 despite the loss of Tyreek Hill.

Mahomes and Kelce are card-carrying members of the superstar club, and it is past time for the third member of the Chiefs' band of unstoppables, Chris Jones, to see his application approved.

Defensive tackle Jones has been the embodiment of consistency since he was drafted out of Mississippi State in 2016. His 65 sacks in that period are tied for the seventh-most, while his 471 pressures over that span rank third.

It's no surprise then that Philadelphia Eagles All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson labelled Jones "the elite of the elite" ahead of a mouth-watering Super Bowl LVII matchup between the Chiefs and the Eagles in Arizona on Sunday.

Johnson's effusive praise is reflected by Jones' performance in both pass rush and run defense win rate.

Indeed, Jones ranks ninth in the NFL in 2022 with a pass rush win rate (min. 50 rushes) of 58.03 per cent and fourth in the league (min. 50 run defensive opportunities) with a 72.73 per cent run defense win rate. His aggregate of those two metrics of 54.79 puts him behind only Derrick Brown and Aaron Donald, the defensive lineman long since considered the elite of the elite.

It is not just the production and the level of the disruption that separates Jones from the majority of his peers, but the timing of the destruction he has so frequently wrought.

While Mahomes' turnaround-sparking third-and-15 connection with Hill stands out as the defining play of the comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, the Niners might have succeeded in getting off the mat if not for Jones taking over and spiking Jimmy Garoppolo passes as if he was playing volleyball.

Similarly, the Chiefs might not even be in Arizona had Jones not blown past the attempted block of Cincinnati Bengals right tackle Hakeem Adeniji and hauled down Joe Burrow on the Bengals' final offensive series of the game, ending a potentially decisive drive for Cincinnati and giving the ball back to Mahomes to get Kansas City in position for the winning field goal in a thrilling 23-20 triumph.

That pivotal play saw him lined up on the edge and Jones' 23.9 per cent pressure rate when shifted outside in 2022 is 10th among all defenders with at least 50 edge plays.

Jones' success in quenching his insatiable appetite for destruction is not dependent on where he lines up, but why is Jones so consistently impactful in the clutch?

"I think it's opportunity. As the game is played, more opportunities open up for me and I'm able to make a play," Jones said on Wednesday. 

"Obviously they have their gameplan in how they want to attack me, double team, or slide [the pass protection] my way or run away from me, so I have to be patient with that. 

"I think that's an evolving piece of my game, being patient, realising what's going on, realising how the offense is attacking me, kind of react off it when I can."

Offensive lines have found little success in attacking Jones regardless of the plan. His production in terms of pressures and sacks have come despite him being double-teamed on 93 of his pass rush snaps, accounting for 46.5 per cent of them. Against the run, the double teams have been more effective, with Jones defeating only two of the 45 he has faced when defending the ground game.

That could be considered an avenue to success for an Eagles team that has thrived in large part because of a diverse and devastating run game with quarterback Jalen Hurts at its heart.

But the Eagles' ground attack is built around unpredictability, and that uncertainty does not exist without the threat of a passing game that Jones specialises in taking away.

The Chiefs succeeding in limiting an Eagles aerial attack teeming with talent is obviously in part contingent on their young defensive backfield excelling against the likes of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but with Jones up front, their lives are a lot easier.

"You know that the quarterback has to throw the ball, quickly, so as a defensive back, when Chris is on it's like, 'we got about three seconds to cover, ball's coming out, let's do it,'" cornerback Trent McDuffie told Stats Perform. "Even dudes like Derrick Nnadi, Frank Clark, Mike Danna, George [Karlaftis], that defensive line having them has made it so much better for us on the back end."

The assistance Jones and his fellow defensive lineman offer will be badly needed against an offense that racked up 253 plays of 10 yards or more in the regular season, a tally second only to that of the Chiefs (257).

Against an Eagles offensive line that ranks first in pass protection win rate and second in run block win rate, Jones might need to display particularly high levels of patience to get his chance to provide that help to the secondary, and he may be forced to take a less aggressive approach than usual due to the duplicitous nature of Hurts' game, which allows the quarterback to emphatically punish defenders who overplay their hand.

The strength of the Eagles' offensive line and the personalities they have in the trenches have seen the likes of Jason Kelce, Jordan Mailata and Johnson receive substantial attention in the build-up to a fascinating battle.

Despite Jones' exploits and the strides made by his lieutenants up front, the level of hype surrounding the Chiefs' defensive line has been comparatively small.

That is not of any concern to Jones, who said of Kansas City's D-Line: "We're always overlooked so it's all good."

That feeling of being underappreciated may only be furthered at Thursday's NFL Honors ceremony, at which Nick Bosa of the 49ers is expected to be named Defensive Player of the Year ahead of Jones.

But if Jones once again rises to the occasion against the Eagles to reprise his role of closer and ensure the Chiefs complete their rise back to the top of the NFL mountain, the superstar recognition Jones has long since deserved will almost certainly come his way.

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin appeared in Phoenix on Wednesday to collect an honour for his charitable work just over a month after collapsing against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The 2021 NFL draft pick was rushed to hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest during the January 2 regular season game, but has since shown remarkable progress in his recovery.

In the wake of his collapse, which led to the cancellation of the game, donations totalling more than $9million (£7.4m) were raised for the Chasing M's Foundation, for which Hamlin had backed a toy drive in 2020.

Taking to the stage at the Phoenix Convention Center with his parents in a surprise appearance during Super Bowl week, he was named the winner of the NFLPA Alan Page Community Award.

The 24-year-old vowed to continue making a difference.

"Giving back to my community has always been a big part of who I am," Hamlin said.

"I'm thankful to my father, who's right here behind me.

"Growing up, just watching him do community days in our community, and I just always was waiting on my time when it came. One of my favourite quotes is that it's a blessing to be a blessing.

"With that being said, I plan to never take this position for granted and always have an urgent approach in making a difference in the community where I come from and also communities across the world."

Hamlin's foundation received a $100,000 donation for his further work.

The Bills saw their season ultimately come to an end in the playoffs against the Bengals after they were eliminated in the Divisional round in a 27-10 loss.