NEW ORLEANS — Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts are, for good reason, prominently featured all over the Crescent City this week. Banners. Billboards. Sidewalk art. They are omnipresent.
But if you look more closely at the Eagles’ and Chiefs’ rosters ahead of their Super Bowl rematch, there is a blueprint the Patriots can use as a guide to attack their rebuild this offseason. Steve Palazzolo of the 33rd Team, who consults with NFL and college clubs on the personnel side of things, pointed it out on the Next Pats Podcast this week.
“It is the trenches, man,” Palazzolo said. “The Eagles have a top-five pass-rush every single year. And they always reload, they get younger, they’re eight deep on the offensive line. And the years when they’re special is when the coverage unit tends to come together. But they always have that foundation of, ‘We can rush the passer.’
“Then Kansas City was fascinating because… I thought they might need to (invest heavily in receiver help), and they went the opposite. They said, ‘Mahomes got beaten up in the Super Bowl (by the Buccaneers) with a bad offensive line. Never again.’ And they went in and invested in the o-line and maybe sacrificed a little bit at receiver.
“I think it’s the trenches, man. I think it’s o-line and d-line. I am a shiny-object, No. 1-receiver type of guy at heart. But I might be changing a little bit more to say make sure that foundation is strong on both sides of the ball.”
