Super Bowl Brain Dump

I may be in the minority, but I actually really enjoyed this year's Super Bowl, the last football game of the season. Last night, I had a bunch of different half-baked takes that raced through my mind and since I have a blog I figured I would share. Here's how I saw things after last night.

1. The Super Bowl Winner and National Champion Played Similar Ball

Most people watching the game last night did not think about the Michigan team that won the national championship. They probably thought more about a team like the 2009 Indianapolis Colts who barely had 1,000 yards rushing as a team and relied on Peyton Manning to carry an offense with a diminishing skill group. I kept thinking about how Michigan decided that they were going to be a ball control offense to limit opponents' (mainly Ohio State) offensive possessions. With a lot of modern offenses, the scoring is inevitable. But if you only give a team 8 possessions instead of 12, 1 or 2 stops means a lot more. Michigan did ball control through pounding the ball, Kansas City did it by creating an environment that minimized negative plays and allowed Mahomes to shine.

Kansas City used to have a terrible defense and relied on Mahomes, Hill, and Kelce to win shootouts. It was incredibly effective. But then they traded Hill in favor of signing defensive players. They created an amazing secondary and defensive line. They created a good enough offensive line and rushing attack to stay on schedule and then trusted that the quarterback Michael Jordan (more on that later) could carry them. It does not matter how many possessions you have when you play Mahomes, you better score on almost every one. The Chiefs slowed the game down this year and magnified opponents' offensive mistakes and then trusted Mahomes to score when they needed to.

2. Mahomes Should be Compared to Jordan and Not Brady

Tom Brady created a record book story career that is so long and complex and deep that it will be hard to surpass. So I say we pump the breaks on that conversation, but I think the Jordan career arc is more interesting to consider.

Michael Jordan entered the league as a high flying acrobat who could score at the rim. By the time he won his sixth ring, he was one of the best wing defenders of all time and most of his offense came from the midrange. It was not as pretty as his gravity-defying dunks of the 80's, but my goodness was it backbreaking to his opponents.

Mahomes still had his big shot deep last night, the bomb on the deep post that preceded the Kelce-Reid blowup. He made scrambles and throws that only he can make, he is a one of one in terms of arm talent ever. But gone are the days of him forcing deep throw after deep throw because he got bored. This year he was much more comfortable taking what the defense gave him and then being the god-like figure when the time came. This growth and maturity of his game reminded me of how Jordan grew with his one of one gifts.

The other part that reminds me of Jordan is how they both ruined their peers' careers. Patrick Ewing, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone all never got rings, not because they were not worthy but because they happened to play basketball when Jordan did. Watching Mahomes continue to beat Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson reminds me so much of this. Everyone wonders what they should do, it's probably be born 10 years later than they were. I know Brady and Burrow have both beaten Mahomes in playoff games, but there is no doubt he owns this era unlike anyone else in the sport. Which brings me to the last thought.

Michael Jordan was supposed to face Len Bias through his prime before Bias' tragic passing. This led to Jordan being bored, trying baseball, and walking away after the 1998 season before coming back to the Wizards. Brady had Manning to always battle with, you need a rival to keep you motivated at the top. Who is going to be Mahomes' rival to keep him interested? He has a huge contract, but would he play into his 40's like Brady with his kids getting older? The effort requires sacrifice and you need something to drive you. Maybe Allen or Jackson break through, maybe Caleb Williams lives up to the hype, maybe Shedeur comes in next year. Something I will be watching as Mahomes nears the other side of 30.

3. The Evolution of Offense and the Signal Caller

In the 2000's it was a common thought that Peyton Manning lost because he was a player trying to battle scheming wits with a coach (Bill Belichick) while Tom Brady was focused on maximizing the play call that he received from the sideline. But as the game became more free flowing, it became advantageous to have a quarterback who could run the whole show on the field. Manning stayed with it, but Brady evolved to the mastermind he became and other quarterbacks of the era (Brees, Rodgers, Rothlisberger, Eli, etc.) also became full-on co-offensive coordinators on the field, to much success.

At the same time this happened, Kyle Shanahan built on his father's system to create a scheme that could be run with a quarterback who could just follow his instructions and point and shoot. Sean McVay to his flavor and soon everyone was a disciple. But what did we see with those disciples? McVay traded Goff for Stafford and in came the shotgun and west coast schemes that allowed Stafford to take the offense to the next level. Burrow is hardly ever under center in Cincinnati even though Zach Taylor was an offshoot. Everyone ran the system until they could get a quarterback who did not need training wheels and off they went. Everyone except Kyle Shanahan.

Building a team around a coach is great, because the coach does not fit in the salary cap. You can save at quarterback and sign the Monstars at other positions. But at 15 seconds on the play clock, the coach's influence on the game is done. Being able to run the clock down to make the safeties move, to get a linebacker to take a half step and reveal his plan has real value as well. It is interesting to think in 20 years how we have completely flipped from seeing the coach make decisions to the quarterback as the advantage.

4. The ESPN Feature on Dad's and Daughters Was Great

This year has been a lot of Taylor Swift, I get why the backlash has occurred. But the reason they kept showing her is that there was an audience for it, and the NFL is loyal only to money. I did however, love this feature ESPN showed on Sunday and wanted to spotlight it. I think sports are something we all bond over, that's the only reason watching a group of strangers wear the same color of spandex and run around for four hours getting CTE in between beer and boner pill commercials in hopes that they win once every fifty years makes any sense. I think it is great that some dads got to bond with their daughters over the insanity of this season. That's all.

5. The Offensive Change is Coming

This year was a low scoring season and everyone wanted the blame terrible offense. But what if the defense just caught up? I think you could see offenses already start to adjust this season. There was more gap blocking than any offense I had seen in a long time. The ability of corners to jam even Tyreek Hill and disrupt all the cool timing routes was incredible. So what comes next? Is it more moving your top receivers inside, ala CeeDee Lamb? Is it the three tight end sets we saw the Chiefs win the Super Bowl with the past two years? Are running backs cool again? I think the rebuttal to the Bear fronts and defensive linemen flying up field is coming, and I have 205 days to dream about what comes next on September 7th.