The Los Angeles Rams and the New England Patriots will square off Sunday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in Super Bowl LIII with some of the game's biggest stars littering both rosters. But has it always been this way?
Many of the starters on Sunday will have dealt with hype and expectations throughout their careers, while others have been underdogs their entire careers. Let's take a look at the starters in the game, and how the 247Sports Composite viewed them as prospects coming out of high school.
Before we get there, a quick reminder that you can stream Super Bowl LIII live here on CBSSports.com, via the CBS Sports app or on CBS All Access. Of course, you can also watch it on your local CBS station.
Let's start with the star-studded Rams offense.
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
QB Jared Goff | 4 | No. 213 | No. 15 Pro-style QB |
RB Todd Gurley | 4 | No. 73 | No. 6 RB |
WR Brandin Cooks | 3 | No. 371 | No. 47 WR |
WR Robert Woods | 5 | No. 3 | No. 1 ATH |
| WR Josh Reynolds | 3 | No. 1,087 | No. 153 WR |
TE Tyler Higbee | 2 | No. 2,162 | No. 91 TE |
LT Andrew Whitworth | 5 | No. 38 | No. 1 OG |
LG Rodger Saffold | 2 | No. 1,690 | No. 126 OT |
C John Sullivan | 4 | No. 75 | No. 2 C |
RG Austin Blythe | 4 | No. 248 | No. 10 OG |
RT Rob Havenstein | 3 | No. 649 | No. 30 OG |
Six of the 11 starters had four or more stars coming out of high school, but Saffold and Higbee came a long way after being counted out during high school. The average star rating of the Rams offense is 3.55, which suggests that the recruiting services pegged most of the players right.
Now, let's check out the other side of the ball for the NFC champion Rams.
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
DE Michael Brockers | 4 | No. 191 | No. 10 DE |
DT Ndamukong Suh | 4 | No. 48 | No. 6 DT |
DE Aaron Donald | 3 | No. 353 | No. 30 DT |
LB Samson Ebukam | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
LB Mark Barron | 4 | No. 71 | No. 3 S |
LB Cory Littleton | 3 | No. 1,517 | No. 74 DE |
LB Dante Fowler | 5 | No. 36 | No. 3 DE |
CB Aqib Talib | 2 | No. 1,461 | No. 120 CB |
CB Marcus Peters | 3 | No. 489 | No. 34 CB |
S John Johnson III | 2 | No. 1,981 | No. 146 S |
S Lamarcus Joyner | 5 | No. 12 | No. 2 ATH |
With four players with either quadruple-digit rankings or no ranking at all, it's nice to see so many underdogs find success at the game's highest level. When you combine them with stars like Fowler and Joyner, you find a deep and versatile defense that averages a 3.18 star ranking and is a big reason why the Rams are playing on Sunday.
Now let's take a peek at the Patriots offense.
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
QB Tom Brady | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
RB Sony Michel | 5 | No. 20 | No. 3 RB |
| RB James White | 3 | No. 511 | No. 42 RB |
WR Julian Edelman | 3 | No. 103 | No. 4 Dual-threat QB |
WR Chris Hogan | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
TE Rob Gronkowski | 4 | No 101 | No. 4 TE |
LT Trent Brown | 3 | No. 22 | No. 2 OT |
LG Joe Thuney | 2 | No. 1,498 | No. 129 OT |
C David Andrews | 3 | No. 495 | No. 8 C |
RG Shaq Mason | 3 | No. 1,172 | No. 75 OG |
RT Marcus Cannon | 3 | No. 774 | No. 49 OG |
It's pretty remarkable to see what the Patriots offense has done with the ultimate underdog Brady at quarterback, a starting wide receiver who was a quarterback in high school and college, and the other wide receiver not having a single star to his name. The average star rating of the Patriots offense is 2.64, which makes it a team full of players who had chips on their shoulders coming out of high school.
What about the Pats defense? Let's take a look.
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
DE Trey Flowers | 3 | No. 1,369 | No. 62 DE |
DT Lawrence Guy | 4 | No. 171 | No. 11 DT |
DT Malcom Brown | 5 | No. 9 | No. 2 DT |
DE Deatrich Wise, Jr. | 3 | No. 381 | No. 25 DE |
LB Kyle Van Noy | 4 | No. 266 | No. 13 ATH |
LB Elandon Roberts | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
LB Dont'a Hightower | 4 | No. 303 | No. 25 LB |
CB Stephon Gilmore | 4 | No. 34 | No. 6 CB |
CB Jason McCourty | 0 | Unranked | Unranked |
S Devin McCourty | 2 | No. 1,304 | No. 84 S |
S Patrick Chung | 2 | No. 1,008 | No. 67 S |
Coach Bill Belichick is doing less with more with this defense. With two players unranked, three ranked outside of the top 1,000 and an average star ranking of 2.82, the respective colleges of the Patriots defensive starters and their coaches at the pro level deserve a ton of credit for building this unit into one of the league's best.
Overall, the Rams hold the edge over the Patriots in star rating among starters at 3.36-2.73. Will it matter come Sunday? That remains to be seen. Either way, it's interesting to see the differences in the two rosters as these players progressed through the ranks.
