NEW ORLEANS -- LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S SUPER BOWL WEEK!
Normally, I wouldn't start with all caps, but it's the Super Bowl, and I thought you guys needed to know how excited I am to be in New Olreans for it. That's right, I'm in New Orleans. For the next seven days, our team here at CBS Sports will be covering anything and everything there is to know about the Super Bowl, and we'll be doing it from New Orleans.
That starts with today's newsletter where we'll be ranking EVERY single starter in the game, plus we'll be taking a look at why Taylor Swift might the Chiefs' secret weapon.
As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.
1. Ranking every starter in the Super Bowl: Mahomes on top, Hurts doesn't crack the top 10
I have to admit, I was under the impression that Pete Prisco was taking two weeks off between the conference title games and the Super Bowl, but apparently, I was wrong. The reason we haven't heard from Pete in a while is because Prisco has been busy ranking EVERY SINGLE STARTER on both teams for the Super Bowl.
There are 11 starters on offense for both teams and 11 starters on defense for both teams, which means there are 44 starters in the game and Pete ranked those starters from 1 to 44. Actually he ranked them from 1 to 46, because he also ranked the nickel corners for each team.
Here's a look at his top five and his bottom five:
1. Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs QB)
2. Saquon Barkley (Eagles RB)
3. Chris Jones (Chiefs DT)
4. Jalen Carter (Eagles DL)
5. Lane Johnson (Eagles OT)
...
42. Oren Burks (Eagles ILB)
43. Bryan Cook (Chiefs FS)
44. JuJu Smith-Schuster (Chiefs WR)
45. Jahan Dotson (Eagles WR)
46. Mike Caliendo (Chiefs OG)
Based on the top five, I feel like I already know who Prisco is going to pick to win the Super Bowl (Maybe the Eagles?! I actually have no idea, we'll have to wait until Wednesday to find out). If you're wondering where Jalen Hurts landed in these rankings, he's all the way down at 14th overall.
If you're wondering where anyone else landed, you'll have to check out Prisco's full story here. If you want to argue with Prisco about his list on Twitter, and who doesn't, be sure to click here.
2. Taylor Swift might be the Chiefs' secret weapon at the Super Bowl
If Taylor Swift ends up attending Super Bowl LIX, the Philadelphia Eagles might just want to forfeit and that's because the Kansas City Chiefs just do NOT lose when she's in attendance. At least during the 2024 season.
Swift attended a total of nine games this year, including the playoffs and here's how the Chiefs did:
- Week 1 (Sept. 5): Chiefs 27-20 over Ravens
- Week 2 (Sept. 15): Chiefs 26-25 over Bengals
- Week 5 (Oct. 7): Chiefs 26-13 over Saints
- Week 9 (Nov. 4): Chiefs 30-24 over Buccaneers
- Week 10 (Nov. 10): Chiefs 16-14 over Broncos
- Week 13 (Nov. 29): Chiefs 19-17 over Raiders
- Week 16 (Dec. 21): Chiefs 27-19 over Texans
- Divisional (Jan. 18): Chiefs 23-14 over Texans
- AFC title game (Jan. 26): Chiefs 32-29 over Bills
Not only have they gone 9-0, but dating to Dec. 31, 2023, the Chiefs have actually won FOURTEEN STRAIGHT games with Swift in attendance. I broke down how the Chiefs have done in every game that Taylor has attended and you can check that out here.
Not only did the Chiefs win every game this year with Taylor around, but Travis Kelce actually PLAYED BETTER. Let's break that down:
- With Swift in attendance in 2024: 6.2 catches, 56.3 yards, 0.2 touchdowns
- Without Swift in attendance: 5.0 catches, 45.2 yards, 0.2 touchdowns
So there you have it: with Swift in attendance, Kelce's averages have gone up by a full catch and more than 11 yards per game. Because I had nothing to do on my flight to New Orleans, I broke down the full numbers on how well Kelce plays when Swift is in attendance over the past two seasons and you can check those out there.
3. Why it's almost impossible to get face-value tickets to the Super Bowl
If you've ever tried to get a ticket to the Super Bowl, you may have noticed that it's almost impossible unless you're willing to fork over thousands of dollars.
The average ticket price for Super Bowl LIX is currently sitting at about $8,076, and that's just to get yourself into the game. If you want to go with a friend or a family member, you'll need to go ahead and tack on another $8,000 per person.
The cheapest way to get into the game is to get your hands on a ticket that costs face value, but that problem is that that's almost impossible due to the fact that every ticket is spoken for well in advance of the game.
Here's the full breakdown of where the tickets go:
- NFL: 25.2% of tickets
- Eagles: 17.5% to participating team
- Chiefs: 17.5% to participating team
- Saints: 5% to host team
- 29 other teams: 1.2% each (34.8%)
The participating teams are required to hand out at least 35% of their allotment to season-ticket holders, so being a season-ticket holder of a team in the Super Bowl is definitely your best chance of scoring a ticket a face value. However, that's still a long shot.
Although Eagles and Chiefs players can easily get tickets at face value, it's still expensive for them send their families to the game. Chiefs safety Justin Reid had to buy 30 tickets to this year's game and based on our estimation, he likely spent more than $150,000 (You can read more about that here).
If you want to read more about how Super Bowl tickets are divvied up, you can check out our full story here.
4. Super Bowl Opening Night -- aka media day -- is today
The first night of Super Bowl week usually gets a little wild, thanks to the media frenzy known as Super Bowl Opening Night. Although things have been kind of tame over the past few years, I won't be surprised at all if things get crazier than usual this year and that's mainly due to the fact that we're in the crazy capital of the country: New Orleans.
Here's a look at when each team will be available for the event, which will be held at the Caesars Superdome:
- The Eagles coaches and players will be front and center from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. There will be 11 podiums set up for the biggest players while the rest of the team will be scattered around the field at the Superdome answering questions from media around the world. Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown are among the group of players who will be getting a podium.
- The Chiefs coaches and players will meet with the media from 10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET. Every player will be at media night, but only a select few will be getting a podium, and for the Chiefs, that list will include Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones and Harrison Butker.
- NFL Network will have full coverage of Opening Night starting at 8 p.m. ET. I feel like the Chiefs' hour of interviews could get interesting. For one, Kelce is likely going to get nonstop questions about Taylor Swift. Also, Butker will be getting his own podium and with media from around the world in attendance, it won't be surprising if he gets a question or two about his controversial commencement speech from May.
For more information on Super Bowl Opening Night, be sure to click here.
5. Pro Bowl recap: NFC dominates for third straight year
After two days of action, the Pro Bowl Games came to an end on Sunday with multiple events, including a flag football game. I'm still not sure how the scoring works, but I can tell you that the NFC ended up winning the entire thing 76-63. This marks the third year in a row that the NFC has won, so at this point, I think the AFC obviously has to start thinking about firing Peyton Manning as the head coach. I will be glad to take his place.
Here's a brief synopsis of everything that happened on Sunday:
- Jared Goff shines. During the flag football game on Sunday, the Lions QB came home with the MVP after going 10 of 11 for 126 yards and three touchdowns. Goff's total included throwing a 46-yard TD to Jaxson Smith-Njigba, who somehow scored after catching a pass just 5 yards past the line of scrimmage (You can see the play here).
- AFC receivers come up big. The AFC didn't win the flag football game, but Ja'Marr Chase and Brian Thomas Jr. helped to keep things close with two impressive performances. On Chase's end, he caught five passes for 101 yards and three touchdowns (You can see one of his three scores here). As for Thomas, he caught six passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns.
- Punt perfect drama. The NFL unveiled a new game this year called "Punt Perfect" and there was serious drama in the competition between Jaguars punter Logan Cooke and Lions punter Jack Fox. The match went to double overtime before Cooke was able to pull out the win (They were essentially trying to punt the ball into trash cans from about 20 yards away). If you want to see the end of this riveting competition, you can do that here.
- To the victor go the spoils. The one upside of coming out on top in the Pro Bowl is that each player on the winning team will be getting some serious money. The NFC players will be getting a pay check for $92,000 while the AFC players will be going home with $46,000. For a rookie like New York's Malik Nabers, that's a huge day: He'll be getting a bigger check from the Pro Bowl win than he did from any single regular-season game this year.
If you want all the details from the NFC's win, be sure to click here so you can check out our full recap from Tyler Sullivan.
6. Extra points: Myles Garrett requests trade
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Garrett wants out of Cleveland. The Browns star made it very clear on Monday that he wants out of Cleveland. In a statement to NFL media, Garrett said that his goal has always been to win a Super Bowl and he clearly doesn't think that can be done in Cleveland. Last week, the Browns made it clear that they weren't interested in trading Garrett, so this definitely sets the stage for an offseason showdown. You can read more about Garrett's trade demands here.
- Raiders hire Chip Kelly. The Raiders have hired Kelly to serve as their new offensive coordinator. This will mark Kelly's first time back in the NFL since 2016 when he was fired by the 49ers. He's coming off a season where he was the offensive coordinator for an Ohio State team that ended up winning the college football national championship. The Raiders like Kelly so much that they reportedly just made him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history with a deal that pays him $6 million per year. You can read more about Kelly's hiring here.
- Rams likely headed to Australia. Back in November, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported that the NFL would likely be putting a game in Australia in 2026, and now, it looks like that's going to happen. According to the Herald Sun in Melbourne, Australia, the Rams will be playing a game in Melbourne in 2026 and their opponent is "likely" going to be the Eagles. Between this report and the report from last week that the Chargers will be the home team in Brazil in 2025, it won't be surprising if we get some major announcements regarding the NFL's international games this week.
- Jets hire an offensive coordinator. The Jets coaching staff is slowly coming together. Not only did they hire former Lions assistant Tanner Engstrand as their new offensive coordinator, but they also hired Scott Turner to serve as the passing game coordinator. Turner is the son of Norv Turner, who spent a total of 15 years as an NFL head coach.
- Justin Tucker facing even more accusations. Just days after six massage therapists accused Tucker of inappropriate behavior, three more have now come forward, which means Tucker is now facing accusations from nine different people. You can read more about Tucker's troubles here.
