Super Bowl LVIII kicks off Sunday with the San Francisco 49ers squaring off against the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The two teams are led by standout quarterbacks with second-year sensation Brock Purdy hoping to cap a breakout year by helping the 49ers to the NFL's most illustrious achievement, while Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes is going for a second straight Super Bowl win and third in the past six years.
Despite what some might expect, neither Purdy nor Mahomes were nationally-sought-after recruits when they were signing out of high school. Both ranked as three-star prospects as Purdy sat outside the top 800 recruits nationally while Mahomes reported offers from just three schools. But those two are emblematic of their teams. Of 22 listed offensive starters for the Super Bowl, 17 were either three-star prospects or lower out of high school. A handful were completely unranked.
Comparatively, the defense reads like a high school All-American team -- especially along the defensive line. Three of San Francisco's starting defensive linemen were five-star prospects. Three of Kansas City's starters in the trenches ranked inside the top 100 nationally in their respective classes.
With so much interesting data to dive into, it felt appropriate to break down how each expected starter ranked coming out of high school. Here's a look at the 49ers' starting offense based on the team's official depth chart (all are high school rankings courtesy of the 247Sports Composite):
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
QB Brock Purdy | 3 | No. 839 | No. 36 PRO QB |
RB Christian McCaffrey | 4 | No. 91 | No. 2 APB |
FB Kyle Juszczyk | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
WR Deebo Samuel | 3 | No. 842 | No. 112 WR |
WR Brandon Aiyuk | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
TE George Kittle | 3 | No. 1,519 | No. 199 WR |
LT Trent Williams | 3 | No. 385 | No. 26 OG |
LG Aaron Banks | 4 | No. 166 | No. 17 OT |
C Jake Brendel | 3 | No. 520 | No. 9 OC |
RG Spencer Burford | 3 | No. 921 | No. 76 OT |
RT Colton McKivitz | 3 | No. 1,594 | No. 164 OT |
Now for the 49ers' defense:
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
LDE Chase Young | 5 | No. 7 | No. 2 WDE |
LDT Arik Armstead | 5 | No. 14 | No. 1 ATH |
RDT Javon Hargrave | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
RDE Nick Bosa | 5 | No. 8 | No. 1 SDE |
SAM Oren Burks | 3 | No. 615 | No. 46 OLB |
MIKE Fred Warner | 4 | No. 307 | No. 27 OLB |
WILL Dre Greenlaw | 3 | No. 842 | No. 60 S |
LCB Charvarius Ward | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
RCB Deommodore Lenoir | 4 | No. 64 | No. 7 CB |
| NB Isaiah Oliver | 3 | No. 1,030 | No. 90 CB |
FS Tashaun Gipson Jr. | 3 | No. 1,019 | No. 85 CB |
SS Ji'Ayir Brown | N/A | Unranked | Unranked |
Let's pivot to Kansas City and see how its offense stacks up using the team's official depth chart:
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
QB Patrick Mahomes | 3 | No. 389 | No. 22 PRO QB |
RB Isiah Pacheco | 3 | No. 665 | No. 30 RB |
WR Marquez Valdes-Scantling | 3 | No. 1,536 | No. 217 WR |
WR Rashee Rice | 3 | No. 817 | No. 101 WR |
WR Kadarius Toney | 3 | No. 413 | No. 25 ATH |
TE Travis Kelce | 2 | No. 1,602 | No. 85 TE |
LT Donovan Smith | 4 | No. 162 | No. 16 OT |
LG Joe Thuney | 2 | No. 1,537 | No. 131 OT |
C Creed Humphrey | 4 | No. 290 | No. 3 OC |
RG Trey Smith | 5 | No. 14 | No. 4 OT |
RT Jawaan Taylor | 3 | No. 927 | No. 46 OG |
And here's a breakdown of the Chiefs' defense:
| Player | Stars | Overall rank | Position rank |
|---|---|---|---|
DE George Karlaftis | 4 | No. 59 | No. 4 SDE |
DT Derrick Nnadi | 4 | No. 97 | No. 7 DT |
DT Chris Jones | 5 | No. 18 | No. 2 SDE |
DE Mike Danna | 3 | No. 2,034 | No. 94 WDE |
LB Willie Gay | 4 | No. 70 | No. 3 OLB |
LB Nick Bolton | 3 | No. 1,114 | No. 39 ILB |
LB Leo Chenal | 3 | No. 635 | No. 35 ATH |
CB Trent McDuffie | 4 | No. 126 | No. 12 CB |
CB L'Jarius Sneed | 3 | No. 1,985 | No. 145 S |
S Justin Reid | 3 | No. 365 | No. 21 S |
S Mike Edwards | 4 | No. 333 | No. 24 S |
