• No one better than Patrick Mahomes: Brock Purdy has surpassed everyone’s expectations this season, but Mahomes is the best in the league.
• San Francisco 49ers dominate skill positions: The sheer wealth of talent at San Francisco’s disposal on offense makes them tough to stop.
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Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes
It would have been impossible to avoid an entertaining matchup, on paper at least, from the four teams in the conference championship games and, while it’s a repeat of Super Bowl 54, which may not excite everyone, we are getting two teams — the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs — that match up well against each other to end the season.
Here, we’ll take a look at the battle of the quarterbacks, and highlight the best unit and biggest weakness in the game.
Quarterback comparison
Patrick Mahomes‘ play this postseason should not be understated, as his 88.0, 90.2 and 86.0 PFF grades in each of the past three weeks make up his third, fourth and fifth highest-graded games of the season.
He’s made the plays when he’s needed to, posting five big-time throws across those three games, but even more importantly, he just hasn’t made mistakes. He has yet to commit a turnover-worthy throw in the playoffs this season, and you have to go back to the Week 16 game against the Las Vegas Raiders to find such a play from him.
On the opposite sideline, the Brock Purdy discourse has been a rollercoaster this season. We’ve ranged from him being the MVP front runner, to questioning whether or not he is anything more than a game manager. The reality, unsurprisingly, lies somewhere in the middle.
Purdy’s 87.0 PFF grade this season ranks sixth among all quarterbacks while his 81.1 PFF passing grade ranks 12th at the position. Purdy produced 32 big-time throws to 21 turnover-worthy plays, including the playoffs, so far. Purdy proved this past weekend that he the athleticism to make plays with his legs at times too, picking up 48 rushing yards in the win over the Detroit Lions.
Best unit: San Francisco 49ers’ skill positions
Part of the reason why the Brock Purdy discussion has been so charged is because the 49ers offense can put up a lot of points even if he doesn’t play particularly well. We saw that this past week, as Purdy earned a 72.4 PFF grade in the win over the Detroit Lions despite the 49ers scoring at will in the second half.
That’s because you can make the case that they have the best set of skill-position players in the NFL. Starting at wide receiver, they have a player in Deebo Samuel, who leads all players at the position with 31 missed tackles forced after the catch (including the playoffs), and another in Brandon Aiyuk, whose 2.76 yards per route run average ranks fourth at the position.
At tight end George Kittle has been the most productive receiver at the position, averaging 2.12 yards per route run. He’s not just a pass catcher though, and his 80.1 PFF run-blocking grade is also the best among tight ends.
Then there’s the small matter of running back Christian McCaffrey, who ranks third among all running backs with a 90.6 PFF rushing grade and second at the position with an 86.3 PFF receiving grade. From 387 touches in the regular season and playoffs, he has forced 82 missed tackles.
Biggest weakness: Kansas City Chiefs’ run defense
That’s bad news for a Chiefs team that allowed the Buffalo Bills to average 5.5 yards per carry against them in the divisional round of the playoffs and rank 16th overall with a 63.1 PFF run-defense grade through the regular season and playoffs so far.
Willie Gay, Nick Bolton and Leo Chenal at linebacker have all earned 72.0-plus PFF grades against the run, but Chris Jones’ 61.9 PFF run defense grade is the highest among all of their interior defensive linemen and edge defenders who have been on the field for at least 100 snaps against the run.
If the 49ers are able to run the ball as well as it looks like they should be on paper, they will be able to control the clock and take the ball out of Patrick Mahomes’ hands for as long as possible.
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