Home Sports NFL Power Rankings: The 10 figures whose legacies can change most with a Super Bowl LIX win

NFL Power Rankings: The 10 figures whose legacies can change most with a Super Bowl LIX win

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Jalen Hurts (1) and Saquon Barkley (26) give the Philadelphia Eagles one more victory since their Super Bowl appearance. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Being great in the regular season is praiseworthy, but the NFL playoffs carry all the weight when it comes to legacies. How different would the conversation around Lamar Jackson be if he were headed to his third or fourth Super Bowl this postseason?

Every playoff win helps build a resume. Andy Reid went from being a head coach who had a reputation for never being able to win big to being mentioned as perhaps the greatest coach of all time with a few Super Bowl wins in the last six seasons. He’s one of many examples of coaches and players whose legacies completely changed after some postseason success.

Which NFL figures have the most to gain, in terms of their legacy, in the next two games? Here are the top 10:

Wagner is likely on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has 13 consecutive 100-tackle seasons, tied with London Fletcher for the NFL record. He is a nine-time Pro Bowler, six-time All-Pro and a member of the All-Decade Team in the 2010s.

A Super Bowl would eliminate any doubt. Wagner has one ring with the Seattle Seahawks from 2013. A second would be different. Wagner has been given a lot of credit for helping change the Commanders’ culture in his first season with the team. A Super Bowl win with Washington would help boost Wagner’s standing among all-time linebackers.

A Super Bowl win wouldn’t elevate Hamlin in the Hall of Fame conversation like other players on this list. But it would add a chapter to his story that movies are made of.

Hamlin nearly died on the field due to cardiac arrest after a hit he received during a game in January 2023. He became a household name to non-football fans. Hamlin returned to play, but many may not know that he has become a full-time starter for the Bills this season and has had a good season with 89 tackles and two interceptions. His inspiring comeback story would be told countless times in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

Jalen Hurts (1) and Saquon Barkley (26) give the Philadelphia Eagles one more victory since their Super Bowl appearance. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Hurts was a hot name two seasons ago. He nearly won the NFL MVP and would have won the Super Bowl MVP if the Eagles could have pulled off a close game over the Chiefs. His stature has cooled since then. He would bounce back quickly with a Super Bowl. Saquon Barkley would probably get more credit, as the Eagles barely pass the ball this postseason, but Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks always get a boost. It hurts too.

Truth be told, it’s Daniel Snyder’s legacy that will (somewhat) get worse if the Commanders win a championship so soon after they were finally able to get rid of him. Snyder should already be considered the worst team owner in NFL history, so how much lower can he sink?

For Harris, a fan base that had begun to turn against their favorite team would consider him a hero when Snyder took him down. The decision to hire Adam Peters as general manager, Dan Quinn as head coach and draft Jayden Daniels in an offseason would be remembered in Washington for a long, long time.

With each Chiefs Super Bowl victory, Spagnuolo moves closer to history. There are no members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who have achieved this almost entirely thanks to their work as a coordinator. The coordinators in the room had a history of stellar play or accomplishments as a head coach. Spagnuolo did not play in the NFL and has an 11-41 record as a head coach.

But he is the only coordinator with four Super Bowl rings and the only one with a ring from two different franchises (he also won one with the 2007 Giants). Spagnuolo would need a solid argument to become coordinator. Five rings, including two in the last two seasons when the Chiefs’ defense has been a big part of their success, would be a good start.

Quinn deserved more credit for what he did with the Atlanta Falcons. But if you think back to his time as head coach of the Falcons, you probably only remember the infamous 28-3 collapse against the New England Patriots.

That would change with a Super Bowl victory, especially for a franchise that won four games a season ago and has a rookie quarterback. Quinn has a ring with the 2013 Seattle Seahawks as a defensive coordinator, but coordinators don’t get enough credit for titles. A ring with the Commanders would change his stature greatly.

We’ll package them because the stories are similar. Reid and Mahomes are already firmly among the greatest head coaches and quarterbacks of all time. Three Super Bowl titles and seven consecutive trips to the AFC championship game do that. But each Super Bowl moves them higher on the list. Mahomes needs all the rings he can get if he wants to pass Tom Brady on the GOAT list. Another ring could get more people talking about Reid as the best coach in NFL history. The legacies of both men are already secured. They can still get stronger.

Barkley would join two rosters if the Eagles win a Super Bowl. Assuming he plays well enough for two more games, Barkley could rise to the top of the list of greatest running back seasons ever. He has 2,638 total yards from scrimmage, including playoffs, and 17 touchdowns. He reached the magical 2,000 rushing yard mark during the regular season. A Super Bowl would give Barkley a good argument against the 1963 season of Jim Brown, OJ Simpson in 1973, Eric Dickerson in 1984, Marshall Faulk in 1999, LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, Chris Johnson in 2009 or any other great running back season. of all time.

Barkley would also enter the chat with Drew Brees, Reggie White and Peyton Manning as the biggest free agent signing in NFL history. For the sake of New York Giants fans, we’ll stop there.

Allen has fans who rate him as the best quarterback in football. He could win his first MVP in a couple of weeks. But it’s hard to top the list when Patrick Mahomes has multiple Super Bowls. For many, that is all that matters.

Allen could at least close the gap in the coming weeks. If he wins a Super Bowl, it would mean the Bills will beat Mahomes’ Chiefs this weekend. That would have some weight. Allen has played at an elite level for a while. A Super Bowl would validate everything he has done.

It would also be historic for Buffalo, considering their playoff heartbreak over the years and lack of a Super Bowl championship. A victory would erase all the pain and make Allen a legend in Buffalo forever.

You can argue that someone like Josh Allen should be number one. The conversation about him would change a lot with just one Super Bowl ring.

But Daniels could do something no one had done before.

No rookie quarterback has ever started a Super Bowl, much less won one. If Daniels takes a flawed Washington Commanders team, which finished 4-13 a season ago, and takes them to the Super Bowl, he would immediately move to the head of the line of greatest rookies ever, if he isn’t already there. already. This isn’t someone like Ben Roethlisberger starting for a good 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers team and not screwing things up. Daniels carries this Washington team. We are still at least a year or two away from seeing the Commanders in full force. And Daniels has led them to a conference championship game.

A Super Bowl as a rookie would be unprecedented and would shape the conversation about Daniels’ career for many years to come. Even with rookie quarterbacks more advanced than ever, it could be a long time before any other rookie quarterback wins a Super Bowl. If Daniels gets the job done, he could remain alone on that list for many years.

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