Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl starting lineup projection has an obvious flaw

The Kansas City Chiefs have a certain air of invincibility about them as they enter a showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LIX. Two straight championships will do that for a franchise, as will a 2024 season in which seemingly no situation was too perilous for Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and Co. to pull out of the fire. Many, many teams appeared to have Kansas City beat, and yet here they are, just one win away from a historic threepeat.

And yet, every team has to lose eventually, and even the Death Star had its exhaust port. While the Chiefs could very well emerge triumphant one more time and hoist the Lombardi Trophy for a third straight year, the fact remains that an actual football game is going to be played in New Orleans on Sunday, one that Kansas City stands a chance of losing. And if you ignore all the context, all the aura, and simply look at the two teams set to take the field, how that might happen becomes very clear.

Chiefs starting offensive lineup for Super Bowl LIX vs. Eagles

Here's our best guess at how the Chiefs will lineup for their first offensive snap on Sunday.

If Kansas City opts for a second tight end or only two wide receivers, they could swap in Noah Gray for either Worthy or Smith-Schuster. Beyond that, though, this depth chart seems fairly set in stone, with Caliendo slotting in at left guard as Thuney continues to protect Mahomes' blind side at left tackle.

Chiefs starting defensive lineup for Super Bowl LIX vs. Eagles

Likewise, here's our best guess at how the Chiefs will lineup for their first defensive snap.

There's a bit more guesswork here than on the offensive side of the ball. Chenal played pretty sparingly in the AFC title game against the Buffalo Bills, with Steve Spagnuolo opting to play an extra defensive back — whether it was slot corner Chamarri Conner or Jaden Hicks as a third safety alongside Reid and Cook. Similarly, Watson rotated with Nazeeh Johnson as the other boundary corner opposite the stalwart McDuffie.

Overall, this is a rock-solid depth chart, as you'd expect for a team aiming for a third straight Super Bowl title. There's talent at all three levels of the defense, with Mahomes serving as the lynchpin at quarterback. But for as formidable as Kansas City is, and as invincible as Mahomes and Reid make them feel at times, it's also not hard to look at this group and see where Philly might exploit them a bit.

Chiefs Super Bowl lineups make one weakness glaringly clear

There are several ways you can imagine the Eagles taking advantage of the Chiefs on both sides of the ball. They've been able to run the ball on just about every team they've faced this year, for starters, and Cooper DeJean, Quinyon Mitchell and C.J. Gardner-Johnson represent a pretty massive upgrade over the Bills when it comes to mean, athletic corners who can chase and tackle in space. But if you're looking for the real fatal flaw here, the thing most likely to derail Kansas City's threepeat dreams, you have to look up front.

Specifically, to the interior of the defensive line, where the Eagles boast a couple of monsters in Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter. Those two would represent a problem for any team in the league, but they're especially dangerous for a Chiefs offense whose two biggest question marks right now come at the left and right guard spots. Trey Smith has been spotty all season long, while Caliendo has been a liability ever since being thrust into the starting lineup by Thuney's move out to left tackle. They were the weak links of Kansas City's offense in the win over Buffalo, and now they face an even sterner test in the Super Bowl.

Of course, no QB is better at navigating pressure and avoiding sacks than Mahomes. But as the loss to the Tampa Bay Bucs a few years ago showed, the best way to short-circuit this offense is to get in his face early and often. In a matchup between the two best teams in football, any edge could be crucial, and Philly might have the biggest one of all in the trenches.