Which Chiefs Super Bowl Team Was The Best?
10 repliesRules
The rules are simple. I’m going to rank the starters for each position group for the Chiefs’ three Super Bowl winning teams. For the 2019 and 2022 teams, I will be using the Pro-Football-Reference list for the Super Bowl game itself. Unfortunately Super Bowl 4 is too old, so they don’t have the complete starters for the game, so I’ll be using their list for the 1969 team for the season as a whole.
Quarterback
1969: Len Dawson
2019: Patrick Mahomes
2022: Patrick Mahomes
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Len Dawson is a Hall of Famer and Chiefs legend, but I think even he would have admitted that even he’s not on Mahomes’ level. The real question is which version of Mahomes to put higher.
You could argue the 2019 version since he was injured in Super Bowl 57. But Mahomes improved so much the last couple of seasons that I can’t put his younger version higher.
Ranking:
2022 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
1969 Chiefs
Runningbacks
1969: Robert Holmes, Mike Garrett
2019: Damien Williams
2022: Isiah Pacheco
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The Mahomes era teams have invested the absolute bare minimum into the runningback position outside of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who didn’t even play in the Super Bowl, so the 1969 team gets the easy win. Interestingly Garrett is more famous for the 65 Toss Power Trap run, but it was Holmes who made the Pro Bowl that year.
As for the modern Chiefs, I think Williams was underrated, but Pacheco has been a revelation as a 7th round pick, so he’s the choice.
Ranking:
1969 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
Wide Receivers
1969: Otis Taylor, Frank Pitts
2019: Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, Mecole Hardman
2022: JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling
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Otis Taylor is perhaps the best eligible Chiefs player to not be in the Hall of Fame, but even then he’s no match for Tyreek Hill who will be walking into the Hall of Fame the second he’s eligible. The 2022 team, in contrast, was famously mediocre at the position.
Ranking:
2019 Chiefs
1969 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
Tight End
1969: Fred Arbanas
2019: Travis Kelce
2022: Travis Kelce
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This is similar to the quarterback competition. Fred Arbanas is another guy who is a borderline Hall of Famer, and he’s particularly close to my heart as he was a good friend of my grandpa and I got to see his Super Bowl ring once as a kid.
But, like with Dawson, he’s not in the same league as Kelce who is arguably the best tight end ever. So like Mahomes, the only question is which version of Kelce to rank higher. I’m going to go with the younger one since he was presumably faster and more athletic.
Ranking:
2019 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
1969 Chiefs
Offensive Line
1969: Jim Tyrer, Ed Budde, E.J. Holub, Mo Moorman, Dave Hill
2019: Eric Fisher, Mitchell Schwartz, Stefen Wisniewski, Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, Austin Reiter
2022: Orlando Brown Jr., Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, Andrew Wylie
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I have thoroughly analyzed the film of the 1969 Chiefs offensive line (and nobody can prove otherwise), and have determined that this is by far the closest position group. All three teams had some good players up front, with Jim Tyrer being yet another borderline Hall of Famer (He’s actually 3rd on Pro-Football-Reference’s AV leaderboard for the Chiefs) and may have gotten in if he hadn’t murdered his wife. Ed Budde was also very good.
I will put the 2022 team ahead though because I feel like the depth is better. Brown and Wylie were the weakest parts of the line, yet still managed big contracts in free agency.
On the flip side, outside the outstanding tackles the 2019 line was questionable. Those guys in the interior were arguably more like quality depth than actually starting level players.
Ranking:
2022 Chiefs
1969 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
Defensive Line
1969: Jerry Mays, Curley Culp, Buck Buchanan, Aaron Brown
2019: Frank Clark, Derrick Nnadi, Chris Jones, Tanoh Kpassagnon
2022: Frank Clark, Derrick Nnadi, Chris Jones, George Karlaftis
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Spoiler alert, the 1969 team is going to dominate the defensive rankings. They had multiple Hall of Famers at every level of the defense, with several of them being elite even for the Hall of Fame.
On the defensive line, both Curly Culp and Buck Buchanan are in the Hall of Fame. Buchanan was particularly good as he made the NFL’s Top 100 team. The only guy on the modern teams who can match them is Chris Jones, who will likely be a Hall of Famer himself someday.
Speaking of the modern teams, this comparison is super easy since the only difference is Tanoh Kpassagnon being replaced by George Karlaftis. We’ll see how Karlaftis develops, but right now he seems clearly better than K-Pass, so the 2022 team will get 2nd place.
Ranking:
1969 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
Linebackers
1969: Bobby Bell, Willie Lanier, Jim Lynch
2019: Reggie Ragland, Anthony Hitchens, Damien Wilson
2022: Willie Gay, Nick Bolton
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The gap between the 1969 and 2019 linebackers is the biggest gap on the list. Both Bobby Bell and Willie Lanier are not just in the Hall of Fame, but are in the Top 100 as well. Jim Lynch wasn’t too shabby himself.
On the flip side, that 2019 linebacking core is shockingly bad. Those guys are all backup-level at best. Ragland and Wilson combined to start 7 games last season, while Hitchens couldn’t find another job after being released and watched the 2022 season from his couch.
The 2022 group fits nicely in between. Gay and Bolton don’t seem destined for the Hall of Fame, but are still very solid starters and borderline Pro Bowlers.
Ranking:
1969 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
Secondary
1969: Jim Marsalis, Emmitt Thomas, Jim Kearney, Johnny Robinson
2019: Charvarius Ward, Bashaud Breeland, Tyrann Mathieu, Daniel Sorenson
2022: Trent McDuffie, L’Jarius Sneed, Jaylen Watson, Justin Reid, Juan Thornhill
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The 1969 Chiefs had multiple Hall of Famers in the secondary (Emmitt Thomas and Johnny Robinson), yet it is by far their weakest positional group. The modern teams still can’t compete though.
The 2019 and 2022 secondaries are close, and which one is higher depends on what you value. Tyrann Mathieu will be a Hall of Famer eventually, and Ward managed to get a big contract in free agency. But Breeland and Sorenson wouldn’t start on the 2022 team.
To me, I value depths in the secondary, so I’m going with 2022.
Ranking:
1969 Chiefs
2022 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
Overall
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Compiling this list I was surprised to see how weak the 2019 team was. Outside of receiver, they were weaker than the 2022 squad at every position where they had different players. In my opinion it is no contest that the 2022 team was the better of the Mahomes squads.
But is the 2022 team better than the 1969 squad? That ’69 defense is an absolute monster, and combining that with a Hall of Fame quarterback is deadly. On the other hand, the 2022 team actually had a somewhat solid defense, and the Mahomes to Kelce combo would put one of the league’s best ever linebacking cores to the ultimate test.
It’s close, and you can make a good argument either way, but I am a firm believer that quarterback is king, and Mahomes is on pace to be the greatest quarterback ever. So I’ll give the edge to the 2022 team.
Ranking:
2022 Chiefs
1969 Chiefs
2019 Chiefs
About Author
nice read thank you
One thing about the 2022 Super Bowl as well.
That offensive line was like a movie theater: no sacks allowed.
2019 was Mahomes playing in God mode. Definitely would have lost all 3 playoff games without him. I’m a firm believer in andy reid being able to take pretty much any team with an average qb and win 10 games a year. That 2019 would have been close.
I find it really hard to compare different eras of football. Also you are comparing a defensive minded team to an offensive minded team. Of course offense was more difficult to come by back then. Olineman couldn’t use their hands. No such thing as illegal contact for dbs.
In the end I see there being 3 sure fire HOFers on the 2020 team. Mahomes, kelce, and Jones, plus some young guys who could push to get in the conversation like Creed and Sneed. On the otherhand the 69 team was littered with hofers. I’m giving the edge to 69.
Nice write up, even if you did come to the wrong conclusion.
1969. Not really close. Outside of TE, they had no arguable deficiencies. A HOF QB is a good argument, although I agree with that ranking.
No, as a TEAM, the sum of those positions, 1969 was much better
I’m inclined to lean this way as well. As fun as it’s been to actually live these SBs, instead of just hearing about them, the 69 team was easily the best team that year. No questions asked. 19, we were the weaker team, but our QB was essentially unstoppable in his will to drag the team across the finish line. And 22 we were the better team, but we weren’t the clear cut better team. Look at the number of HoFers 69 had, and I don’t think we get that many out of 19 and 22 combined. That should tell you everything
I will check
the Chiefs were a wild card as the Raiders won the division that year
i agree the 69 Chiefs were the best of our three SB winning teams
Which means the Chiefs were the FIRST WILDCARD to win the SB, not the the fucking raiders, like everyone thinks.
A rose by any other name…
Seems Solid … )
most excellent analysis and ensuing article …
… sadly, your final analytical scores and rankings simply don’t add up with reality: you “punish” the 1969 team basically because it was a different era of football and a different game from the current (don’t touch the QB!) game of today, and that’s wrong
Len Dawson and the teams of the 60’s were amazing doing what they did at the time they did it … and while you most definitely got it right on the 69 team’s defense (which was basically second to none back in the day) I think you overrate the modern team (especially on offense)
I chalk it up to “recency bias” and an irrational, deep-seated, psychological “need” to make Mahomes “more godlike” than he already is (and mind you he IS amazing) but it’s still football (just like back in the day) and Mahomes has the benefit of a million ridiculous rule changes, all designed to appease the “modern NFL fan” who wants MOAR TOUCHDOWNS and thus allows QBs like Mahomes and Burrow and Allen to “appear” as if they’re somehow “better” than the QB’s of the past
1) 1969
2) 2022
3) 2019
Personally, outside of Pat and Travis, the 69 team is simply superior at every other position