The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles have won their respective conferences and are headed to the Super Bowl, thanks in no small part to their quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are both MVP candidates for the 2022 NFL season fighting to bring home a championship. We couldn’t help but wonder what if these two talented quarterbacks were on the opposite side and turned to Madden 23 to find out. Why, you may ask? Well… why not.
The Weapons
The Eagles surpass the Chiefs with their wide receiver core. Jalen Hurts has DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, and Quez Watkins to throw to, while Mahomes is throwing to JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and Kadarius Toney. The Eagles have a stronger receiving core – minus the tight end position – but consider Patrick Mahomes hurling the ball to two talented wide receivers, one a 92 Madden rating overall and the other an 87.
Now the Eagles have Dallas Goedert, no Travis Kelce admittedly, but Goedert is talented and a force to reckon with at an 89 overall. Kelce, Mahomes’ main, is the best tight end in the NFL currently, with a 99 overall, but he’s throwing to above-average wide receivers.
The Chiefs receivers include Mecole Hardman (80) and Kadarius Toney (79), but it goes downhill after that. Imagine the talented Patrick Mahomes with his 98 overall rating throwing to two amazing wide receivers and a pretty decent tight end. It’s a pretty potent offensive setup.
On the offensive line, the Eagles have Lane Johnson (95), Jason Kelce (93), Jordan Mailata (85), Isaac Seumalo (79), and Landon Dickerson (78). The Chiefs have Creed Humphrey (89), Joe Thuney (89), Orlando Brown (82), Trey Smith (82), and, at right tackle, a slightly underwhelming Andrew Wylie (68) at right tackle. Hurts and Mahomes have great agility, but Hurts has 89 speed in comparison to Mahomes’ 84 speed. Mahomes does have 97 throw power, unlike Hurts, with his 86 throw power.
One of Mahomes’ biggest strengths is his awareness, his 96 play action, 98 throw on the run, and 97 throw under pressure. With the arm strength and his high football IQ, Mahomes throwing to two wide receivers with 91 speed against a Chiefs defense that has cornerbacks with 94 speed and 91 speed, would theoretically make for some good matchups.
However, the Chiefs have wide receivers with speed ratings of 87, 93, and 97. The Eagles have cornerbacks with speed of 92 and 90 speed, and both are zone-type cornerbacks. The receiving vs. defensive matchup leans more in favor of the Chiefs, though there’s another wrinkle.
The Eagles defensive playbook is Tampa 2 and the biggest weakness that Tampa 2 has is the deep balls and middle of the field – something the Chiefs offensive playbook can hurt the most.
The Playstyles
The Eagles style of offense is the West Coast Spread, which mainly targets the option for fast quarterbacks and fast tight ends, but the Chiefs offense is also West Coast Spread. Their offense is mainly focused on the pass first, though it does favor mobile quarterbacks and an elite tight end. The Chiefs offense favors Jalen Hurts’ 89 speed and 90 throw on the run, but the downside is his 86 throw power and 87 throw deep accuracy, which is why having a 99 overall tight end is beneficial if you put Hurts on the Chiefs offense.
The Eagles offensive playbook favors Mahomes’ 96 play action and 98 throw on the run, but the number of designed runs in the Eagles playbook bodes poorly for Mahomes’ 84 speed.
The Verdict
What this all boils down to is: If you switch the quarterbacks, both quarterbacks are getting upgrades, especially on the offensive line. Only Hurts would be benefiting for the tight ends, but inheriting a 79 overall team against an 85 overall team is still a big gap. The Chiefs have a better built defensive line that could be an even match against the Eagles offensive line, but the Eagles defensive line could struggle against the decent Chiefs offensive line.
Based on Patrick Mahomes’ X-factors and abilities, if the Eagles wide receivers find separation, then dashing deadeye, bazooka, and pass lead elite are more in favor than Jalen Hurts’ superstar abilities of juke box and fastbreak, especially since the Chiefs offensive playbook would lean more to the passing game. On designed quarterback runs, Jalen Hurts would be unstoppable with fastbreak. Switch the quarterbacks, and they would suffer from the different schemes in some way, but each will benefit with the different weapons they receive.
Written by GLHF
