Five bold predictions for Super Bowl LIX, plus ranking best active quarterbacks with zero Super Bowl wins

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

In just two days, the Chiefs and Eagles will be headed to New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX, and in equally big news, I’ll also be headed to New Orleans. And yes, I fully plan on spending 24 straight hours on Bourbon Street at some point during the week. 

Anyway, this means that the newsletter will be coming to you live from the Big Easy all next week, so you’re going to want to make sure to check your email inbox every day so you don’t miss a thing. If you want to follow my Super Bowl adventures, you can do that by following me on Twitter or Instagram. 

Let’s forget about next week, though, because this week isn’t quite over yet. We’ve got a huge Friday newsletter that includes bold predictions for Super Bowl LIX, plus we’ll be ranking the best quarterbacks who have never won a Super Bowl. 

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let’s get to the rundown. 

1. Bold predictions for Super Bowl LIX: Big day for tight ends

We gave you some early Super Bowl predictions on Monday, and now, we’re going to close out the week by giving you some bold predictions for the Big Game. 

Here are three predictions from Tyler Sullivan: 

1. Saquon Barkley tops 100 yards. “Kansas City has gone 18 straight playoff games without allowing an individual 100-yard rusher. They Chiefs have also NEVER allowed a 100-yard rusher in the playoffs with Steve Spagnuolo as the defensive coordinator. Expanding it even further, the last time they allowed a 100-yard rusher overall came back in Week 1 against Lamar Jackson. So, a player topping 100 yards on the ground is essentially unprecedented against these Chiefs in the playoffs, but Barkley likely breaks the mold in this matchup.”
2. Travis Kelce breaks his own Super Bowl record. “Kelce is going break his own record for the most receiving yards by a tight end in Super Bowl history. He set that mark in Super Bowl LV against the Buccaneers when he registered 133 yards receiving. Already this postseason, Kelce has a 117-yard game under his belt, so he’s showing he’s capable of taking over.”
3. Dallas Goedert leads the Eagles in receiving yards. “In an offense that boasts two star wide receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, this is arguably the boldest of predictions, but Dallas Goedert has an enticing matchup against the Chiefs. The Kansas City defense has been pretty susceptible to tight ends this season, allowing the most receiving yards per game to the position in the entire league.” 

Sullivan made a total of five bold predictions and you can check his full list of prognostications here. 

2. Pro Bowl highlights: NFC off to hot start thanks to Jared Goff

The Pro Bowl is a two-day event this year and after the first night of action, the NFC is absolutely dominating. 

The festivities kicked off on Thursday with the first day of the Pro Bowl Games and I’m not going to lie, it was actually pretty entertaining to watch. If you missed it, here’s a quick recap of what went down: 

• Jared Goff got the NFC off to a hot start. In an event called “passing the test,” Goff led all quarterbacks with 44 points. The scoring system was simple: Each quarterback had to throw a football at a target with each target worth one to five points. The twist here is that each QB had a partner who had to answer trivia questions before the QB took his turn. For each question that was answered correctly, the QB got more time to throw. Goff’s partner, Josh Jacobs, nailed every question he was asked, so Goff got 90 seconds to hit the targets. On the other hand, Joe Burrow’s partner, Nico Collins, only answered two questions correctly, so Burrow only got 60 seconds to hit each target (Burrow was not happy about this). You can see Goff’s winning performance here. Russell Wilson got the high score for the AFC team with 31 points. 
• NFC dominates the catching competition. Each conference had one tight end, one receiver and one defensive back go through a course where they had to do three things: Catch three passes with one hand, catch one pass while wearing mascot gloves and catch one pass while diving. Justin Jefferson (Vikings), Trey McBride (Cardinals), Jaylon Johnson (Bears) were able to finish the course in 1:57, which topped the AFC team of Ja’Marr Chase (Bengals), Brock Bowers (Raiders) and Derek Stingley Jr. (Texans). 
• AFC and NFC battle to a draw in dodgeball. The AFC and NFC played two matches against each other with each conference winning one of those matches. Although the dodgeball wasn’t as crazy as it has been in the past, we did see Joe Mixon drill Brian Branch right in the spot where no man wants to be drilled (You can check out the throw here).   

You can get a full recap of Thursday’s action by clicking here. After the first night of challenges, the NFC leads the AFC, 14-7. 

There will be even more points up for grabs on Sunday. If you’re planning to watch, here’s what you need to know: 

Date: Feb. 2 | Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: ABC/ESPN | Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Location: Orlando, Florida

As you may or may not know, there is no actual football game this year. If you tune in on Sunday, here’s what you’ll see (event descriptions from the NFL)

• Punt Perfect: Two players (one punter, one non-punter) from each conference punt from the 35-yard line, attempting to place as many punts as possible in one minute (or 12 punts) into a set of six buckets in the end zone. Each bucket is worth one point, with every fourth punt worth three points. The two players with the highest combined score will be the winners.
• Madden NFL 25 Competition: Two AFC players and two NFC players meet in a high-stakes showdown in Madden NFL 25. The entire event, hosted by Charissa Thompson and Kurt Benkert, will be streamed live on EA Sports Madden’s Twitch channel on Saturday, Feb. 1, with a full replay available on the NFL’s YouTube channel. In addition to being streamed live on Saturday, ESPN will air a clip as part of Sunday’s Pro Bowl Games coverage.
• The Great Football Race: Six players from each conference will face off in a relay race consisting of five different challenges, culminating with a sled push. The team to cross the finish line first wins and earns three points for their conference.
• Tug-of-War: A five-on-five demonstration of teamwork, strength and strategy, and positioned above a foam pit, players are challenged to pull backwards on the rope, attempting to move the opposing team in their direction. The competition will be the best of three, and the winner who pulls the opposing team into the foam pit twice wins and earns three points for their conference.

The Pro Bowl Games will be capped off with a 7 vs. 7 flag football game between the AFC and NFC. 

3. Ranking active quarterbacks who have never won a Super Bowl 

If quarterbacks around the NFL have learned one thing over the past few years, it’s that winning a Super Bowl ring is almost impossible because Patrick Mahomes is winning all of them. With Jalen Hurts aiming to win his first Lombardi this year, we thought it would be a good time to rank the best active quarterbacks who have never won a Super Bowl. If the Eagles beat the Chiefs, Hurts won’t be eligible for this ranking next year, but for now, he’s on the list. 

Here’s our top-five ranking of best active quarterbacks to never win a Super Bowl (via Jeff Kerr): 

1. Lamar Jackson. “Jackson is set to become a three-time MVP this season, adding to the resume of being one of the best quarterbacks to never win the Super Bowl (much less appear in one). … Jackson is the only quarterback with multiple seasons of 3,000+ passing yards and 800+ receiving yards (three), and the only quarterback with 4,000 passing yards and 800 rushing yards in a season.”

2. Josh Allen. “Allen has the most total touchdowns ever for a player after his first seven seasons (262) and is on the verge of finishing top-two in MVP voting this year.”

3. Jalen Hurts. “The Eagles have made the playoffs every year with Hurts as the starting quarterback and have a 46-20 record with Hurts as the starter. The .697 win percentage is fifth-best by a starting quarterback since the 1970 merger.”

4. Joe Burrow. “The Bengals quarterback already has compiled a 5-2 postseason record and rallied to beat Mahomes at Arrowhead Stadium in an AFC Championship — but he also hasn’t been to the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.”

5. Jared Goff. “Goff has been to the Super Bowl with the Rams and reached a conference championship game with two different teams in his nine NFL seasons. He’s developed into one of the game’s top quarterbacks with the Lions, making two Pro Bowls in his four seasons there.”

Kerr ranked a total of 10 quarterbacks and you can see his full list here. 

4. Under-the-radar moves made by the Chiefs and Eagles that helped them get to the Super Bowl

Although the Chiefs make it look easy, getting to the Super Bowl is actually pretty difficult. Not only does it take a lot of luck, but teams usually need a few smaller moves to pay off during the season that eventually help them get to the Super Bowl. With that in mind, Jared Dubin took a look at several under-the-radar moves that each team made to help them get to New Orleans this year. 

CHIEFS

• Drafting CB Jaylen Watson. “The difference in Kansas City’s passing-game performance this season in the games where Watson has been healthy and those where he wasn’t is enormous. He was kind of an afterthought as a seventh-round pick in a draft where the Chiefs selected five defensive backs, but he’s become a terrific outside corner and figures to play a huge role in the Super Bowl against A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.”
• Bringing Kareem Hunt back to Kansas City. “Hunt was on the street when the Chiefs signed him earlier this season in the wake of Isiah Pacheco’s injury. At first, it didn’t seem like he would have all that much of a role. Kansas City liked Carson Steele and he played quite a bit in the game where Pacheco got injured. But then Steele fumbled on the first drive of Pacheco’s first game out, Hunt got a shot and he excelled in relief. He hasn’t broken hardly any big runs this season, but he’s done a good job of converting in short yardage and avoided negative runs, and that’s what the team needed with its starter out and then not fully healthy upon return.”

You can check out all of Kansas City’s under-the-radar moves here. 

EAGLES 

• Switching Zack Baun’s position. “Signing Baun is officially no longer an under-the-radar move. He’s a Defensive Player of the Year finalist. But the big key to that has gone undersold. They turned an edge rusher — an edge rusher who mostly played special teams because he wasn’t effective rushing off the edge — into a middle linebacker! That’s a transition that basically never happens, but Baun did it with relative ease and in such a way that he was one of the small handful of best defenders in the entire league.”
• Switching Mekhi Becton’s position. “Speaking of position switches … Becton was drafted to be a star left tackle for the Jets yet issues with injuries, weight and conditioning kept him off the field for most of his tenure in New York. The Eagles signed him for a cheap this past offseason and moved him to right guard, and the rest is history.”

Dubin listed a total of four under-the-radar moves for the Eagles and you can check out all of them here.

5. Eagles have to overcome a wild curse if they want to beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is the one game of the season where we have to cover every possible angle of the game and this angle might be the wildest: Kirk Cousins is going to take down the Eagles.

That might sound crazy, especially since Cousins isn’t even playing in the Super Bowl, but he could end up having a direct impact on the game thanks to the “Curse of Kirk Cousins.” 

Let’s take a look at the curse: 

• The curse of Cousins. If you’ve never heard about this curse, it’s pretty simple: Since Cousins entered the NFL in 2012, no team has ever won the Super Bowl in the same season where they lost to him. If Cousins was the starter for a game and he beat you, the curse then kept you from winning the Super Bowl that year. 
• Why this will impact the Eagles. Cousins started a total of 14 games in 2024 and one of those game came against the Eagles. Back in Week 2, Cousins threw for 241 yards and two touchdowns to lead Atlanta to a 22-21 upset win over the Eagles, who were favored by 5.5 points. The Eagles lost to Cousins, which immediately cursed them to not win the Super Bowl this season. 
• Teams that have fallen victim to the curse. A total of 15 teams have made the playoffs after losing to Cousins in the regular season and of the previous 14 before the Eagles, none of them won the Super Bowl and only ONE of them even made it to the big game (2023 49ers). The Packers were the TOP SEED in the NFC in both 2020 and 2021, but they lost to Cousins in both seasons, which cursed them to not win the Super Bowl. 

If you want to know more about the curse, you can check it out here. And of course, if you don’t read the full story, you will be cursed. 

6. Extra points: Justin Tucker accused of inappropriate behavior during massage sessions

It’s been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.

• Justin Tucker in hot water. The Ravens kicker has been accused of inappropriate behavior by several massage therapists in Baltimore. The alleged actions took place during a five-year span from 2012 to 2016. Tucker has denied all wrongdoing, but the NFL will still be looking into the claims. You can get the full details on this story here. 
• Chargers likely to host NFL’s Brazil game in 2025. A Brazilian media outlet has reported that the Chargers will be the home team for the NFL’s game in Brazil this year, which will once again be played in Sao Paulo. If you’re a Chargers fans, I wouldn’t go booking any flights yet, but if this game is going to happen, the NFL will likely make the announcement during Super Bowl week. Last year, the Eagles were announced as the home team in the Brazil game on the Tuesday before the Super Bowl, so don’t be surprised if we get the news around then. 
• Jaguars hire a defensive coordinator. Former Packers assistant coach Anthony Campanile is headed to Jacksonville to be the new defensive coordinator for the Jaguars. This will mark the first defensive coordinator job for the 42-year-old Campanile, who didn’t get his first NFL assistant job until 2020. You can read more about his hiring here. 
• Eagles open practice window for two players. Brandon Graham and C.J. Uzomah could both be returning for the Super Bowl. Graham racked up 3.5 sacks this year before tearing his triceps in Week 12. The injury was expected to end his season, but it now looks like there’s a chance he could play on Super Bowl Sunday. As for Uzomah, he’s a reserve tight end who’s played in seven games this year, but hasn’t caught any passes. 
• Chiefs could also be getting back a key player. Skyy Moore hasn’t played since Week 7 due to an abdominal injury, but he could be back in action for the Super Bowl. Moore has returned to practice and there’s a chance he could play against the Eagles. Moore caught a touchdown pass during Kansas City’s 38-35 win over the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII.