Andy Reid's assertion that Patrick Mahomes can do "everything in the game plan" despite his ankle sprain will boost confidence the Kansas City Chiefs can prevail in Super Bowl LVII, but their head coach does not want to be distracted by talk of a dynasty.

Mahomes has led the Chiefs back to the biggest stage despite suffering a high ankle sprain in the Divisional round win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Reid and his star quarterback have faced persistent questions about his physical condition, which will seemingly place no limitations on Mahomes at State Farm Stadium on Sunday as the Chiefs look to reclaim the Lombardi Trophy with victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, having last won it in Super Bowl LIV at the end of the 2019 season.

"Yeah, so he's been doing really well with his ankle," Reid said at his Wednesday press conference.

"We had a fast practice a couple days ago, and he moved well. He can really do just about everything, at least everything in the game plan that we've asked him to do. I think he'll be fine today."

For his part, Mahomes insists he will not have a complete picture of what he will be able to do until he steps on the field in Glendale, Arizona.

"I don't think you'll know exactly until you get to gameday," said Mahomes. "I'm definitely in a better spot. I definitely can move around better than I was moving last week or two weeks ago.

"So just trying to continue to get the treatment and the rehab and get to as close as I can to 100 per cent and then rely on some adrenaline to let me do a little extra when I'm on the field.

"It's going to be definitely better, more mobile, be able to move around a little bit better, for sure, and then we'll see on gameday how close to 100 per cent I can be."

Sunday's clash will mark the Chiefs' third Super Bowl appearance in four seasons, with Kansas City losing to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV a year after their win over the San Francisco 49ers.

However, Reid is not thinking about his team's place in NFL history.

"I'm not really into all that," Reid responded when asked if the Chiefs can be labelled a dynasty.

"I'll let you guys deal with that. It's important in our world as coaches and players you try to get better every day.

"You're only as good as your last game, or your next game I should say. We're striving to focus on this thing and try not to worry about all that stuff.

"That's good when you retire, kind of go 'hey, they said we were a dynasty', but right now we don't let that get in here [pointing at head], stay away from that."

Jason Kelce and Travis Kelce are making history at Super Bowl LVII, but so far the experience has been nothing out of the ordinary for their football family.

Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce will become the first brothers to face each other in a Super Bowl on Sunday.

They were team-mates at the University of Cincinnati before both were drafted by Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Jason was picked by the Eagles in 2011, Reid's penultimate year as head coach in Philadelphia, with Travis then selected by the Chiefs in 2013, Reid's first season in Kansas City.

Both have since experienced Hall of Fame career trajectories, but one will see their resume somewhat blotted at least in part by their sibling in the season-ending showpiece at State Farm Stadium.

But the historic nature of their encounter has not been reflected by the build-up, at least in the mind of elder brother Jason.

Asked about the unique situation of being an opponent to his younger sibling, Jason said: "I don't know, we're handling it pretty good right now, but I think on game day, we're going to truly get the feel of what that's going to be like when all the adrenaline's going, the testosterone is pumping.

"You know, we're both highly competitive individuals. Right now we're still pretty good. We're being like brothers.

"My mom was at the media night last night with cookies. So it's been a pretty normal family affair up to this point.

"But obviously the closer you get to game time, the more the competitive nature is gonna come out."

Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid conceded Patrick Mahomes is not 100 per cent healthy ahead of Super Bowl LVII.

Mahomes' health is the dominant storyline for the Chiefs ahead of their clash with the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium on Sunday.

He suffered a high ankle sprain in the Chiefs' Divisional round win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, an injury that forced him to come out of the game before returning in the second half.

Mahomes subsequently played through the injury in the AFC Championship Game with the Cincinnati Bengals, willing them to a thrilling 23-20 victory.

Speaking at Opening Night on Monday, Mahomes said his ankle is "definitely better", however Reid on Tuesday clarified that his star quarterback is still not at full strength.

"Yeah, so I wouldn't tell you he is 100 per cent," Reid said.

"But the training staff works with him endlessly. I guess it'd be a tribute to both of them for Pat coming back for more and for those guys cranking on him."

Despite his ankle issue, Mahomes has still performed at a very high level in the postseason.

Across his two playoff games, Mahomes has completed 69.9 per cent of his passes for 521 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions.

Reid is used to seeing Mahomes producing magic on the field, but even he has been taken aback by what his signal-caller has produced while playing on one healthy ankle.

"So, Julie [Frymyer, Chiefs physical therapist] spent most of the time with him," Reid added. "We've got all the latest greatest stuff to use, technology-wise, so he's used it all and has been able to make these jumps here where he can actually function and play in a game, which is very remarkable."

American football, its exponents are often fond of saying, is the ultimate team sport. With victory requiring 46 players spread across offense, defense and special teams to perform as close to their best as possible and frequently contingent on telepathic understanding between players executing blocking schemes, route concepts, pass coverages and pressure packages, it is tough to find a flaw in their argument.

In that sense, it is a contradiction that the quarterback position, being the most important for any team, commands so much of the attention. 

Most of the focus will be on the signal-callers in Super Bowl LVII, and rightly so. Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are making history in becoming the first black quarterbacks to face off in a Super Bowl in the Kansas City Chiefs' mouth-watering clash with the Philadelphia Eagles and are both candidates to win the MVP award on Thursday at the NFL Honors ceremony in Phoenix.

While that pair of superstars will obviously have a mammoth part to play in deciding the winner of the Vince Lombardi Trophy, so often it is the game within the game in other areas that settles the NFL's showpiece.

And there are several such granular contests that figure to have a substantial bearing on the outcome in Arizona. Here, Stats Perform digs into the numbers in examining three matchups that could decide Super Bowl LVII.

Chris Jones vs. Isaac Seumalo and Jordan Mailata

When the Chiefs have needed him most in the postseason, Chris Jones has typically delivered. Jones is in the curious position of being established as one the premier defensive linemen in the NFL but still arguably being underrated.

While so much emphasis is placed on the offensive side of the Chiefs' Super Bowl LIV comeback four years ago, Jones was the man who ensured the San Francisco 49ers could not respond with the disruption he provided up front.

In the AFC Championship Game this season, it was Jones – deployed off the edge rather than his familiar interior spot – who easily beat Cincinnati Bengals right tackle Hakeem Adeniji and brought Joe Burrow down for the key fourth-quarter sack that ended a prospective game-winning drive for the Bengals and gave the ball back to Mahomes to lead the Chiefs to a decisive field goal.

Ranked third among all defensive linemen in his aggregate pass rush and run block win rate, Jones is a versatile force who has the talent to disrupt the best-laid plans of the Eagles.

The Eagles rank first in pass block win rate and second in run block win rate, encapsulating the well-rounded nature of their ultra impressive offensive line. However, there are weaknesses, with right guard Isaac Seumalo (61.5 per cent) well below the 70.5 per cent pass block win rate average for his position and left tackle Jordan Mailata (74.3 per cent) only just above the NFL baseline of 72.9 per cent for his spot.

As such, Jones will almost certainly see snaps on the interior where he lines up against Seumalo and others where he is one on one with Mailata. Their ability to hold their own against the best defensive player on the field will go a long way to determining whether the Eagles can justify their status as slight favourites.

Travis Kelce vs. Avonte Maddox

The trade of Tyreek Hill to the Miami Dolphins ultimately did no damage to the Chiefs' status as one of the NFL's pre-eminent modern offenses, with Kansas City leading the league in Efficiency Versus Expected (EVE) on offense in 2022.

With Hill out of the picture, Kelce has unsurprisingly served as the focal point of the attack. Arguably no two players in the NFL enjoy the same level of symbiosis as Mahomes and Kelce consistently display, the future Hall of Fame tight end continuing to confound defenses with his route-running and ability to create yardage after the catch.

His domain while generating those headaches for defenders has primarily been the slot. 

Of Kelce's routes in the 2022 season, 300 have come from the slot, compared to 173 from the outside receiver position and 139 from a traditional tight end alignment. 

Kelce's burn rate, which measures how often a receiver wins his matchup on a play where he is targeted, is 75.0 per cent from the slot, the seventh-best among slots with at least 25 targets. In other words, he has created separation from his defender on three quarters of his slot targets in 2022.

Shutting down Kelce is a challenge few have had much success rising to, but the Eagles have a player who is statistically the best remedy to the threat he poses in slot cornerback Avonte Maddox.

Maddox's combined open percentage allowed across man and zone coverage of 18.1 per cent is the best of any cornerback in the NFL. By that measure, Maddox is the elite at the slot corner position, and he will need to prove it for the Eagles to have any hope of containing Kelce and, in turn, the Chiefs.

Jalen Hurts vs. Chiefs' front seven

Two weeks removed from winning the AFC Championship Game on a sprained ankle, there is the question of how much of a running threat Patrick Mahomes can be in a game where even a sporadic impact from him on the ground would make a significant difference to keeping the Eagles' defense off the front foot.

While he has recently dealt with a sprained shoulder, there will be no such doubts surrounding Hurts. The Eagles will run the ball, and Hurts will be integral to their game plan in doing so.

Hurts and the Eagles have, for the entirety of the season when the starting quarterback has been healthy, done an outstanding job of keeping defenses guessing with a diverse run game built around the zone-read and the read-option.

That presents a rather large problem for the Chiefs, whose primary weakness on defense is – you guessed it – against the run.

The Chiefs rank 17th in run defense EVE, with their performance in that metric dropping to 24th against the rush in neutral situations – when the offense could realistically either run or throw the ball. 

Philadelphia's offense thrives by creating doubt in the defense over what is coming in neutral situations, excelling at doing so to the point in the NFC Championship Game where San Francisco 49ers linebacker Fred Warner – who represents the gold standard at his position – was left stationary for key plays as indecision superseded his usually outstanding instincts.

Kansas City's linebackers are not on the same level as Warner, with starters Nick Bolton and Willie Gay Jr. both below the average in run defense win rate (17.7 per cent) for the position. 

Their fallibility in that regard is something the Eagles will endeavour to attack time and again in pursuit of their second Super Bowl. It will take an intelligent and likely more measured approach from a defensive front known for its aggressiveness and an exceptional display of awareness from the Kansas City linebackers for the Chiefs' defense to avoid a long and very painful evening on the biggest stage.

Jalen Hurts believes he and Patrick Mahomes will be "uplifting the next generation" in Sunday's Super Bowl, the first time both starting quarterbacks will have been African Americans.

Philadelphia Eagles signal caller Hurts will be making his Super Bowl debut, while Mahomes has featured twice before, experiencing both winning and losing.

Ahead of the State Farm Stadium showpiece, both men were in demand at Monday's Opening Night, with Hurts confident he can cope with the pressure of the big occasion.

"It's been what it's been my whole career," the 24-year-old said. "I ain't worked this hard to stay the same. I've put the work in to have opportunities like this, so it'll be a fun one.

"As a team we've come a long way. I don't want to make this about me. I want to make this about the work we've put in. We want to go out there and prepare to play our best game, when we need it most."

His role and the battle with Mahomes will be under the spotlight, however much Hurts does not want to make the narrative about his own performance.

Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl in 1988, when he led the then Washington Redskins to victory over John Elway and the Denver Broncos.

Now Hurts and Mahomes take centre stage, and Hurts said: "It's historic. Think about all the rich history in this game. To be a part of such a historic moment is special.

"There's so many quarterbacks before me, including Pat, that laid the foundation for me to have this opportunity. Seven African American quarterbacks to play in this game and now the first time for two to go head-to-head, and that's uplifting the next generation of quarterbacks.

"That four-year-old, five-year-old kid back in Houston, back in Philly, back in Texas, Louisiana, wherever across the world, regardless of what someone may say or have an opinion about you, you can do it.

"I value the platform I have, I'm sure Pat does, as well. We just want to inspire the next people."

Hurts said Philadelphia, who won their lone Super Bowl in the 2017 season, would be ready to add a second.

"We're coming to finish the job we set out to do," he said.

"We definitely respect our opponent. They're a really good team. They play good on both sides of the ball and special teams, and we want to go out and what we've done the entire time: to try to play clean football and play together, most importantly."

Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni acknowledges his Kansas City Chiefs exit under Andy Reid left him with a "chip on your shoulder" ahead of their Super Bowl LVII encounter.

The two will face off on Sunday at State Farm Stadium in Arizona, with the former set to face off against the team he started his NFL coaching career with in 2009.

Sirianni worked his way through the ranks to become receivers coach with the Chiefs but exited the role in 2013 after Reid arrived as head coach, having brought assistant David Culley with him.

Though he has no issue with how his departure was handled by Reid, Sirianni still looks upon his departure as motivation to get the better of his opposite number years later.

"Do you always have this little chip on your shoulder? Sure, yeah, you do," he said. "But that's who I am as a coach and as a person.

"I want to make sure I'm working my butt off to get as good as I possibly can. You hold on to some of those things.

"Did I want to leave Kansas City? No. My future wife was from there, she had a nice teaching job, she had all her friends there, her mom and dad were a half-hour down the road.

"Of course I didn't want to leave there. But when I look at it, God's always put me in great positions and guided my paths. I know I don't say stuff like that all the time, but I know he has."

Sirianni subsequently joined the San Diego Chargers, holding a number of positions he became offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts.

He posted a 9-8 record in his first year in charge of the Eagles in 2021, before bettering that with a 14-3 finish this season to set them on the path to Super Bowl LVII.

Patrick Mahomes never wants to experience the sour taste of defeat in a Super Bowl again, as the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback prepares to face the Philadelphia Eagles.

Mahomes was MVP when the Chiefs won Super Bowl LIV three years ago, but a year later they were outgunned by Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Last season saw Kansas City edged out by the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, so they missed out on the biggest game of the year.

This time they are back in the spotlight in Phoenix, raring to go at Glendale's State Farm Stadium, and Mahomes underlined the highs and lows of the Super Bowl as he looked back on his mixed bag of experiences.

"The win is amazing," said Mahomes. "It's one of the best moments of your entire life. You take away all the positives from that.

"But that loss, that stings. That motivates you for years. That's what it's done for me. It's motivated me to be back in this game again. I want to make sure that I can have that winning feeling and not that losing one because that losing feeling is one you'll never forget."

He said the Eagles possess "one of the best defensive lines in history", and with both teams managing NFL-best 14-3 records in the regular season it is clear Sunday's match will see the two best teams of the year duke it out for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Ahead of Super Bowl LVII, Mahomes spoke at Opening Night, saying: "The motivating factor is to be the best.

"You're in the biggest game of your life, and you want to go out there and make memories with your teammates. I think the biggest motivating factor is to step on that field and try to be the best. We know we have a great challenge in the Philadelphia Eagles, so it'll be a great game."

There will be a first sight of two African American quarterbacks going head to head in a Super Bowl, with Mahomes facing Jalen Hurts.

"It's special," Mahomes said.

"I have a lot of respect for the guys who came before me and laid the foundation. To play against a guy like Jalen – a genuine, great dude who has worked his tail off to be in the position that he's in – it's going to be a special game and a special moment for a lot of kids to watch."

Patrick Mahomes' injured ankle is "definitely better" than before the AFC Championship Game as he prepares for his third Super Bowl appearance on Sunday.

Mahomes helped the Chiefs reach a third Super Bowl in five seasons by helping Kansas City defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Conference Championship on January 29.

It was a case of the MVP frontrunner overcoming the odds, knocking off a Bengals team that had stunned them at the same stage last season despite playing on a sprained ankle he suffered in the Divisional round win over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Mahomes will now go against a vaunted Eagles defense in a mouth-watering Super Bowl LVII clash at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.

And he goes into the game seemingly in much improved shape.

Asked about his ankle at Super Bowl Opening Night in Phoenix on Monday, Mahomes replied: "It's definitely better for sure.

"You never know until you get into the game, but it's definitely better than it was this time last week before the game.

"I'll play through all the injuries that the trainers let me play through."

He then joked: "[Tight end] Travis Kelce hurts my feelings like every single day and I still play so I'm still going to play through it and try to get a win."

Mahomes threw for 5,250 yards and 41 touchdowns in the regular season, marking the second time in his already glittering career he has surpassed 5,000 yards and 40 touchdowns in the same season.

The Eagles represent arguably his biggest test yet, though, their defense the best in the NFL by yards per play allowed. In two playoff games, Philadelphia's defense has given up a combined 14 points.

Outside of the World Cup and the Olympic Games, no sporting event commands attention quite like the Super Bowl. 

The build-up to an opening kick-off witnessed by a cavalcade of television and smartphone cameras is a week-long celebration of North America's dominant professional sport, a seven-day period in which talking heads agonise over every storyline in the only game of the year that doubles as a de-facto national holiday in the United States.

On occasion, such storylines may be contrived in a bid to create excitement for a matchup that does not instantly capture the imagination. Yet the modern NFL is one spoilt by the number of captivating contenders that reside in the league, and commissioner Roger Goodell could not have asked for a more enticing Super Bowl clash than the one that will take place in Arizona on Sunday.

Indeed, the meeting between AFC Champions the Kansas City Chiefs and NFC Champions the Philadelphia Eagles is one positively teeming with storylines that make Super Bowl LVII a game worthy of the ceaseless hype it will receive before Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts and Co. settle matters on the field in their fight to secure the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

Mahomes and Hurts are poised to make history with their duel at State Farm Stadium. Their matchup is the first in the Super Bowl between two black starting quarterbacks and, by the time the Chiefs and Eagles have taken the field, one of them will likely have been crowned as MVP — both are finalists for the league’s most prestigious individual honour, which will be announced at a ceremony in Phoenix on Thursday.

Theirs is a battle between a signal-caller who is by this point established as the gold standard of his generation, with a prospective second MVP for Mahomes just reward for a campaign in which he threw for 50 passing touchdowns and over 5,000 yards in the same season for the second time in his career, and a quarterback who seems to be in the midst of an unexpected rise to the elite after startling growth in his second full season as a starter.

Yet both head into the game with plenty to prove. Mahomes will consider it past time to end his wait for a second Super Bowl title after breaking the hearts of the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LIV, while there will be many still questioning whether Hurts can excel against this calibre of opposition. The Eagles went 14-1 with him as the starter in the regular season but faced only six teams who finished the year with a winning record. So far in the postseason, they have blown out an overachieving New York Giants team and seen a mouth-watering NFC Championship Game with the 49ers reduced to a no-contest after injuries left San Francisco with no healthy quarterbacks.

But questions about the opposition Hurts has faced do nothing to detract from the quality of his overall play. He has performed extremely impressively as a deep-ball thrower, with his passer rating of 112.1 on passes of 21 air yards or more the fourth-best among quarterbacks with at least 25 such attempts. The Eagles have utilised Hurts’ running ability to devastating effect as he has rushed for 13 touchdowns, while the Philadelphia quarterback ranks fourth in yards over expected in true passing situations (among quarterbacks with at least 100 such throws).

Mahomes is second by the same measure, illustrating this game’s status as a legitimate matchup between two of the very best at the game’s most important position.

Both Mahomes and Hurts will depend heavily on a man named Kelce as they look to guide their team to glory, with Travis and Jason becoming the first brothers to play against each other in the Super Bowl. Tight end Travis Kelce became the undisputed top option in the Kansas City offense in the wake of the Tyreek Hill trade and added another hugely impressive season to a Hall of Fame resume. 

His campaign featured 1,338 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns with his 19 receptions of at least 20 yards the most of any tight end and the seventh-most in the NFL. The impact of an offensive lineman can sometimes be less tangible, but no center in the league makes their presence as obvious as Jason Kelce, the engine to an Eagles line that ranks first in pass block win rate and second in run block win rate, according to Stats Perform data.

Both Kelce brothers were drafted by Andy Reid, Jason picked in 2011 when the 64-year-old was Eagles head coach, with Travis then selected in his first year in Kansas City in 2013, a tenure in Philadelphia defined by frustrating near-misses coming to an end in 2012.

Reid lost three successive NFC Championship Games with the Eagles between the 2001 and 2003 seasons before finally getting them to the Super Bowl in the 2004 campaign, with his time management skills vehemently criticised in a loss to the New England Patriots.

He got back to the NFC Championship Game one more time with Philadelphia in the 2008 season, but never did so again following a loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Though his triumph with the Chiefs four years ago will obviously have softened the pain of seeing the Eagles get over the hump without him in the 2017 campaign, a contest between a man who could never quite get job done in Philadelphia and a coach in Nick Sirianni who is a game away from winning the Super Bowl in his second season is a fascinating plot point in a heavyweight encounter. 

Such will be the attention on messrs Mahomes, Hurts, Reid and the brothers Kelce that some of the critical battles on which the destination of the Lombardi could hinge may well fly under the radar.

Chief among them will be the fight in the trenches. Defensive Player of the Year contender Chris Jones has led the way for a Kansas City defensive line that has tallied 18 quarterback hits in the postseason, tied for the most among 2022 playoff teams. However, he and his team-mates up front will be tested not only in defeating the blocks of the Philadelphia offensive line but in tempering the aggressiveness by which Steve Spagnuolo's defense has come to be defined against a diverse Philadelphia ground game that is well-equipped to use it against Kansas City.

In comparison to Jones, Kansas City’s young secondary is an underrated aspect of the Chiefs’ roster. The Chiefs' defense ranks 11th in open percentage allowed, though the prospective return of cornerback L'Jarius Sneed from a head injury will be key to their hopes of limiting the impact of the Eagles' star receiver duo of A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, who rank 11th and 13th respectively in combined open percentage across man and zone coverage. 

Sneed has lost just 22 of his 76-man coverage matchups. Only four players to have faced 75 such matchups have allowed a receiver to get open less often.

Stopping the Eagles is of course only half the battle for Kansas City and, for as frequently as 'Mahomes magic' has rescued the Chiefs, he cannot do it alone.

Encouragingly, the Chiefs rank ninth in rushing offense in Stats Perform's Efficiency Versus Expected metric and are going against an Eagles defense 21st by the same metric against the run.

The Eagles largely shut down the 49er run game in the NFC Championship Game, but that was primarily due to the fact the Philadelphia defense could focus solely on stopping the ground attack with the threat of the passing game removed.

With Philadelphia having played an offense that was reduced solely to running the ball, the Chiefs will have received an in-depth look at how the Eagles fit their defense to stop the rush, potentially improving their odds of finding weaknesses in that area and taking advantage of them.

Mahomes remains the primary weapon and most will expect and want to see a bewitching duel between and the top two MVP candidates. Yet the Super Bowl can throw up unexpected heroes and, though there are bonafide stars and storylines aplenty, the post-game tales could well be of the job the Eagles did on Jones, how rookie Isiah Pacheco gashed Philadelphia’s run defense or how Sneed and Jaylen Watson kept Brown and Smith at bay. There's plenty of intrigue beneath the surface in a potential all-time classic.

Patrick Mahomes revealed as no surprise that he wanted to retain star wide receiver Tyreek Hill for this season, but he trusted the plan of Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach.

Hill, 28, was drafted by the Chiefs as a fifth-rounder in 2015, and he is likely on track to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame after becoming one of the most devastating offensive weapons in league history.

He made the Pro Bowl every year from 2016-2022, and this season earned his fourth First Team All-Pro selection after setting career-highs with 119 receptions and 1710 yards with the Miami Dolphins.

Veach said there were warning signs early in free agency that Hill would demand a record-breaking contract for a receiver, and he had to make the painful decision to prioritise the defensive side of the ball instead.

"It became obvious as free agency started, given the way wide receiver contracts were going up, that it was going to be tough to do both [extend Hill and address the defense]," he said. 

The Chiefs knew some tough calls were on the horizon after Mahomes signed his NFL-record 10-year, $450million deal, as his salary jumped from $8m in 2021 to $35m this season.

Hill ended up signing a four-year, $120m deal – and in a salary-capped league, something had to give.

"Everyone knew what the next two or three years would look like and how many players we'd have to potentially cut and how difficult things would be,'' he said. "We would have had a lot of expensive players.

"It's hard to be successful in this league year after year. It's hard to win games year after year. There are going to be moments where we have to step out there and do something uncomfortable. 

"No one wanted to lose Tyreek – he's a great player. But if you're going to do something, trust the process and trust how you do things and don't be afraid to commit to change a year sooner when you have more ability to potentially make those changes work better.''

Veach said his willingness to make such a franchise-defining call is attributed to his belief that the franchise can not waste any seasons with Mahomes at the helm.

"When you have Pat Mahomes, we're wired to go after it every year,'' he said.

Mahomes himself said it was no secret that he wanted to re-sign Hill and keep the band together after winning the Super Bowl in 2020, but he understood all the moving pieces.

"I wanted to keep him, for sure,'' he said. "They had a plan for it, though. 

"They told me the plan and we were going to get these draft picks. We were going to go out there and bring in some free agent receivers, and I think they executed on that.

"We know that to keep having success in this league we have to keep evolving, keep getting better. I always want to be successful this year, but at the same time, I'm here for the long haul. 

"If we're going to have a long time here, I want to have a chance to win Super Bowls every single year.''

The Chiefs' other offensive star, Travis Kelce, said he had concerns after the Hill trade, including how effective the Chiefs might be on offense and what it all might mean for him.

"Yes, that was a question,'' he said. "But once I saw how hard guys were working, paying attention to details, how Pat keeps progressing as a quarterback... Right now, we're in a good routine that we just keep getting better. 

"You could feel that from the day we started from May until now."

Mahomes is in his fifth year as a starter, and after another spectacular season he is the favourite to add a second MVP to his resume, as well as a fourth All-Pro selection, while he prepares for a chance at his second championship.

Philadelphia Eagles centre Jason Kelce says next week's Super Bowl will be more stressful for his parents than himself and brother Travis.

The pair will become the first brothers to face off in NFL's biggest match, with both aiming to land their second ring, when the Eagles take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Arizona.

Mother Donna and father Ed Kelce will be in attendance at State Farm Stadium for the family affair, and older brother Jason would rather be in his position than theirs. 

"I think it's always stressful for the people watching," he told reporters. "I think that's probably more [stressful]... not even just parents but also the coaches and fans. 

"When you don't have control on the field of what's happening, I think that's a stressful situation. 

"I feel like when you're playing, there's a sense of control in the outcome and you can have a difference in it yourself. So it's a little bit less stressful. 

"I would imagine my parents would probably be a little stressed out. I think they are every time they're watching a game."

Jason won the Super Bowl with the Eagles in 2017, while Travis – two years younger than his brother – did so with the Chiefs in 2019.

While rivals on the field, however, Jason explained the pair remain as strong as ever off it, even if the dynamic of their relationship has changed over the years.

"I grew up the older brother, so I was then much more mature, which I don't know if that's a good word to describe me, but I was more mature than him," he said.

"I think when you get to a certain point being brothers, it becomes more of a peer relationship. 

"I'm no longer telling him what to do or showing them the ropes or trying to offer guidance as an older brother. 

"Now it's more just a friend and a different type of brother, right? He does the same for me. I get advice from him now, which growing up didn't happen too often. 

"I think the dynamic has changed a little bit in that regard. We get to genuinely just enjoy each other's personalities and who we are as individuals, and I think that makes it fun."

The trophy every player in the NFL wants to lift will be hoisted in Arizona a week on Sunday, when the Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.

On the preceding Thursday, a host of players and coaches will receive recognition for their individual efforts at the annual NFL Honors ceremony.

The candidates for the awards are furiously debated throughout each season, though this year the field has been trimmed for each prize with the NFL releasing list of finalists for the first time.

In the case of MVP, the top two candidates are the quarterbacks facing off in the Super Bowl, with Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts also going head to head for the game's most illustrious award.

But who does Stats Perform's advanced data say should be the recipients of the prizes on offer at Symphony Hall in Phoenix? Here we name our award winners for 2022, including one not among the finalists who'll be on the red carpet next week.

MVP: Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs

Though these are regular-season awards, Mahomes' heroics on one leg in the AFC Championship Game were the perfect illustration of why he is the most valuable player in the league.

Even when physically impaired by a sprained ankle, Mahomes can produce magical plays through the air and on the ground in the biggest moments, and this season he has elevated a supporting cast shorn of the downfield threat of Tyreek Hill.

Only Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills averaged more yards over expected in true passing situations than Mahomes' 1.66 (minimum 100 such plays). Mahomes, though, had the edge in terms of accuracy, delivering a well-thrown ball on 82.1 per cent of his pass attempts, outperforming both Allen (79.7%) and Hurts (81).

Surpassing 5,000 passing yards and 40 passing touchdowns in a single season for the second time in his career, Mahomes was the best regular-season player in the NFL in 2022, and the reality is it wasn't especially close.

Offensive Player of the Year: Davante Adams, Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders' acquisition of Adams in a blockbuster trade with the Packers did not produce the team results they desired in 2022, but individually his debut season with Las Vegas ranked as one of the finest of his career.

Adams' 14 receiving touchdowns led the NFL and, though his 1,516 receiving yards trailed Justin Jefferson and Tyreek Hill, his combined open percentage across man and zone coverage of 52.18 was superior to both Jefferson and Hill.

With 10 touchdown receptions of 20 yards or more in 2022, Adams was the NFL's most explosive receiving threat in a season where he once again reaffirmed his status as one of the finest route-runners of his generation. The Raiders may want to forget this season in a hurry, but Adams' campaign was one well worth remembering.

Defensive Player of the Year: Chris Jones, Kansas City Chiefs

This award will almost certainly go to Nick Bosa of the San Francisco 49ers next week, but there's a strong case for Jones as a more impactful defender on a down-to-down basis in 2022.

Indeed, Jones' pass rush win rate of 58 per cent and his run defense win rate of 72.7 per cent outstrip those of Bosa, who finished a season in which he led the NFL in sacks (18.5) with a pass rush win rate of 51.4 per cent and 63.6 per cent run block win rate.

Like his quarterback, Jones shines when the situation is at its most pressurised, with his ability to create pass rush working on the interior and off the edge making him a ceaseless nightmare for opposing offensive lines. If the Chiefs are celebrating under confetti in Arizona next Sunday, Jones will likely have been a big reason why.

Offensive Rookie of the Year: Brock Purdy, San Francisco 49ers

Sample size be damned! Purdy not only kept the 49ers afloat after Jimmy Garoppolo joined Trey Lance in heading to the sideline with a serious injury, but helped the offense improve as San Francisco won all five of his regular-season starts as part of a 10-game winning streak to end the 17-game campaign.

Albeit undoubtedly aided by the cavalcade of offensive talent at San Francisco's disposal and the play-calling of head coach Kyle Shanahan — Purdy threw to an open target on 84.7 per cent of his attempts — the last pick in the 2022 draft piloted at an offense that was remarkably efficient in expected passing situations.

Purdy averaged 1.2 yards over expected in true passing situations, fifth among quarterbacks with at least 100 such plays.

Other rookies may have played well for a longer period, but in terms of level of influence on his team's performance, no first year offensive player matches Purdy, who unfortunately now faces a long recovery after tearing an elbow ligament on the first offensive series of the Niners' NFC Championship Game loss in Philadelphia.

Defensive Rookie of the Year: Sauce Gardner, New York Jets

Ahmad 'Sauce' Gardner backed up his ostentatious nickname by quickly establishing himself as one of the league's premier defenders and a lockdown corner at the highest level.

Gardner lost just 19 of his 92 matchups in man coverage and 24 of his 92 in zone. His combined open percentage allowed of 18.8 was bettered by only four defenders across the  entire NFL.

In addition to his remarkably impressive coverage skills, Gardner showed a knack for finding the football in the air, registering a league-leading 20 pass breakups.

If he can improve on his interception tally of two, Gardner will be in the Defensive Player of the Year discussion in the coming years.

Comeback Player of the Year: Geno Smith, Seattle Seahawks

From the forgotten man whose hopes of becoming a starter in the NFL looked to be over, to the most accurate quarterback in pro football.

Smith led all quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts with a well-thrown rate of 87.1 per cent, improbably guiding a Seahawks team that appeared to be rebuilding to a playoff berth.

The former New York Jet also had the best passer rating (125.8) on throws of at least 21 air yards among all signal-callers with at least 10 such attempts. Smith threw for 13 touchdowns and one interception on his 52 attempts of that distance.

Smith unexpectedly emerged as the answer at quarterback for the Seahawks in the wake of the Russell Wilson trade. With a better ecosystem around him in 2023, he could be the leading man for a true contender.

Coach of the Year: Kyle Shanahan, San Francisco 49ers

Brian Daboll and Doug Pederson deserve a great deal of credit for transforming also-rans into playoff teams in short order, while Nick Sirianni's case is an extremely compelling one after turning the Eagles into the favourite to win the Super Bowl next week.

But for a combination of overcoming adversity and leading a Super Bowl-contending team, no coach can compete with Shanahan.

Shanahan calmly navigated his team through the stormy waters of losing not one by two starting quarterbacks during the regular season, putting Purdy in a position to succeed, with the rookie's readiness and the support he received from the NFL's best defense a testament to the 49er head coach's ability to assemble a top-tier staff.

Winning 13 games, 15 when counting the pair of playoff victories, in the circumstances the 49ers faced on offense is a remarkable achievement. San Francisco finished the season first in overall Efficiency Versus Expected, doing so after being forced to turn to Purdy is a feat worthy of Coach of the Year recognition.

Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs plan to "blank out the hype" ahead of Super Bowl LVII, as the coach prepares to face former team the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Chiefs booked their place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale with a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

With their third conference title in four seasons, they will face their head coach's former employers in Arizona, with Reid having led the Eagles between 1999 and 2012.

Asked whether the emotional connection to his former team makes his work more challenging, Reid insisted his focus is squarely on the task at hand.

"When you really cut to the chase, they're a really good football team," he said. "So I think that's where [my] energy goes.

"That's where the major focus goes. It doesn't matter who you're playing, you try to blank out all the hype that goes with the game. It's a pretty big game for everybody.

"It's a big, big deal. It's the Super Bowl. But you try to blank that out and make sure that you're getting the game plan, [and] what really matters, together."

Reid reached one Super Bowl during his time in charge of the Eagles, though did not get his hands on the Vince Lombardi trophy until 2020 with the Chiefs.

Still, he remains an admirer of the Pennsylvania outfit while stressing he shares the love for his current home as well.

"I love Philadelphia, love the city," he added. "I've been blessed, blessed to be in [these] phenomenal places in the NFL. I'm loving every minute in Kansas City [too]."

Patrick Mahomes "definitely didn't feel good" in the Kansas City Chiefs' AFC Championship Game win, but his performance added to "an already great legacy", according to general manager Brett Veach.

Superstar quarterback Mahomes sustained a high ankle sprain in the Divisional round victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That sort of injury would generally bring about a spell on the sidelines, but Mahomes was determined he would not miss Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Bengals, who had won at Arrowhead Stadium last year to reach the Super Bowl.

While clearly limping in the second half, Mahomes battled through to finish with 29-of-43 passing for 326 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-20 Chiefs success.

Most notably, a painful five-yard run in the final seconds of the game was followed by a shove from Joseph Ossai that prompted a 15-yard penalty to put Harrison Butker in field-goal range to snatch victory.

Mahomes' fellow Chiefs were in awe of his commitment, including GM Veach, who said: "People don't realise how hurt he was.

"We all saw the injury. High ankles are terrible injuries, and sometimes guys miss two, three weeks, and he was out there and running for a first down and a big play in the game that got us in field-goal range.

"But it just adds to an already great legacy."

Mahomes' pain was not in doubt for those watching, but he emphasised afterwards: "I definitely didn't feel good.

"I think the worst one was when I fumbled. I tried to pick it up, and that was probably the worst I tweaked it during the game.

"[The team] got me as close as they could to 100 per cent. Then I just battled through, and I'll have a few more weeks to get it ready [for the Super Bowl]."

Joseph Ossai knows he must learn from a painful experience after he gifted the Kansas City Chiefs the chance to seal their place in Super Bowl LVII.

Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Ossai was hit with a roughing-the-passer penalty for a shove on Patrick Mahomes after the quarterback had run out of bounds right at the end of the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

A 15-yard penalty allowed Harrison Butker to convert a decisive 45-yard game-goal to snatch a 23-20 win and set up a showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles at State Farm Stadium, Arizona on February 12.

The 22-year-old Ossai was emotional after such a costly late penalty in a rematch of last year's AFC Championship Game and knows he must be more disciplined going forward.

"I gotta learn from experience," Ossai said. "I gotta know not to get close to that quarterback when he's close to that sideline if it's anything that could possibly cause a penalty in a dire situation like that. I gotta do better."

He added: "I was just in full chase mode. I was trying to push him, maybe get him going backwards because I knew he was going for that sideline.

"I was trying to make him go backwards, get that clock running. I haven't seen it yet. I don't know how far out of bounds we were."

DJ Reader backed Ossai to use the hurt he is feeling now to drive him on to better things.

Reader said: "That play is going to find him again. Those roles are going to find him again as a player, and just be ready for it."

He added: "This pain is going to drive him to be great. He'll get there."