AFC, NFC Championship Video games protection X-factors for Chiefs, Payments, Eagles, Commanders

Convention championship video games are performed in rarefied (and typically skinny) air. The stakes are clearly greater, particular person performs imply extra, and the sport script can veer in extremely unpredictable methods that may resolve issues fairly shortly.

For the 4 groups left within the 2024 season as we flip our consideration to the NFC and AFC Championship video games, it’s additionally about maximizing the efforts of an important gamers on each side of the ball. Some key gamers are key gamers due to place, some due to expertise, and a few due to particular situations which will require them to play the video games of their lives if their groups are to fulfill their objectives of a Tremendous Bowl look.

Given the significance of those X-Elements, we’ve expanded the dialogue to incorporate one participant from every group on each offense and protection. Right here’s one defensive X-Issue for every of the 4 groups that can face off on Sunday for the dignity of collaborating in Tremendous Bowl LIX.

Washington Commanders at Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday, January 26, at 3:00 p.m. EST

Philadelphia Eagles: EDGE Nolan Smith

When the Eagles chosen Georgia edge-rusher Nolan Smith with the thirty first total choose within the 2023 draft, it was a little bit of a calculated danger. Not simply because there have been questions in regards to the 6’2, 238-pound Smith’s skill to carry as much as the trials of the NFL at his dimension, but additionally as a result of he missed a number of video games in his final season at Georgia with a torn pectoral muscle. Nevertheless, Smith’s standing as principally a coach within the Bulldogs’ second straight Nationwide Championship season, and the good scouting mix he had, allayed a few of these fears.

Smith was a reserve in Philly’s loaded EDGE rotation in his rookie season, totaling two sacks and 9 whole pressures in 95 pass-rushing snaps. And whereas he was gentle with manufacturing within the first 4 video games of the 2024 season (no sacks and three whole pressures), the sunshine began to come back on in Vic Fangio’s first season because the group’s defensive coordinator. From Week 11 by way of the Divisional playoffs, Smith has led the group in sacks with 5, and he ranks third behind Milton Williams and Jalen Carter in whole pressures with 26. To not point out the truth that in two video games in opposition to Jayden Daniels and the Commanders, Smith was in a position to maintain enterprise with two sacks and a number of other different spectacular pressures.

“He’s finished an amazing job working, and he’s continually improved,” Fangio stated this week of Smith’s growth. “The extra you play, the extra you apply, and he’s getting extra snaps now, too, since BG went down. Will get extra apply performs, sport performs. You get higher. That’s the one method you get higher is to apply and play. He was enhancing in these first 4 weeks, too. Such as you’ve made notice, it’s come to fruition right here since.”

Smith nonetheless has all that velocity and athleticism, and he’s realized to drop the hammer bodily on the NFL stage. Now, there aren’t any worries.

Washington Commanders: LB Frankie Luvu

Luvu was certainly one of my favourite defensive gamers to observe within the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the Carolina Panthers, as a result of there have been only a few issues he couldn’t do nicely – from off-ball run and protection stops to authentic edge rushes. The Commanders had been simply as constructive about Luvu’s potential, as they signed him to a three-year, $31 million contract this offseason. Luvu has finished every thing doable to reside as much as it – and extra. This season, he’s amassed eight sacks, 38 whole pressures, 73 tackles, 45 stops, and he’s excelled in all places from the sting to the field to the slot. The Commanders have an impressive linebacker duo in Luvu and Bobby Wagner, but it surely’s Luvu who permits the protection to be as versatile as it’s.

In two video games in opposition to the Eagles this season, Luvu has been a guided missile everywhere. Two sacks, two tackles for loss, an interception, and tackles, pressures, and stops from in all places.

“That is my first going run for it, for the playoffs,” Luvu stated Tuesday. “And I’m simply attempting to maintain my feelings right here, preserve it impartial, and simply I do know all the fellows are the identical method.”

Frankie Luvu with much more motivation? That might be a scary thought for any opponent.

Buffalo Payments at Kansas Metropolis Chiefs
Sunday, January 26, at 6:30 p.m. EST

Kansas Metropolis Chiefs: LB Drue Tranquill

More often than not, gamers are X-Elements in video games due to their constructive performs and memorable exploits. Within the case of Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill, the story goes a distinct method. Within the Buffalo Payments’ 30-21 Week 11 win over the Chiefs, Tranquill – who is often an excellent participant and a key cog in Steve Spagnuolo’s protection – had a sport he would possible slightly neglect. Buffalo ran the ball 31 instances for 104 yards and three touchdowns.

It was a nightmare for Tranquill. He missed tackles on every of James Cook dinner’s two landing runs, and he was out of place on Josh Allen’s 26-yard scramble landing that salted the sport away with 2:27 left within the fourth quarter.

General, Tranquill has loved an excellent season, with three sacks, 18 whole pressures, 61 solo tackles, 30 stops, and usually strong protection. But when Tranquill doesn’t sq. up in these conditions in opposition to Buffalo’s run sport this time round – and make no mistake, Buffalo’s run sport will probably be a really large deal – that might be a critical obstacle to Kansas Metropolis’s run at a three-peat.

Buffalo Payments: Each security not named Taylor Rapp

For years, when the Payments put their rosters collectively, they might rely on one factor: The NFL’s finest security duo in Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. However as is the case with every thing within the NFL, issues change. Within the 2024 season, Buffalo’s security tasks have been coated by Damar Hamlin (whose personal story is unimaginable), 2024 second-round choose Cole Bishop, veteran Cam Lewis, and Taylor Rapp, the previous Los Angeles Rams defender who signed a backup take care of the Payments in 2023, and did sufficient to benefit a three-year, $10,625 million contract this offseason.

With the Friday information that Rapp will probably be out of the AFC Championship Recreation in opposition to the Chiefs as a result of hip harm he suffered within the Payments’ divisional spherical win over the Ravens, that current stability is thrown into anarchy. Rapp has been off the sector for 301 snaps this season, and his excellence has proven up each in his presence and in his absence. The Payments allowed a Defensive EPA Per Play of +0.07 with Rapp off the sector, and -0.02 when he was on the market. There are all the time different elements in on/off splits, however there’s little doubt that Rapp has been the group’s finest security this season.

Now, it’s on the Different Guys – Bishop, Hamlin, and Lewis – to choose up the slack in opposition to Patrick Mahomes. No large deal, proper?

Lewis is extra of a field security, however he can line up within the deep third when the Payments go two-high. Hamlin is primarily a deep security, and he’s been higher in protection than some might imagine. And Bishop, who didn’t play within the Week 11 video games between these two groups, can lime up nearly in all places, as was the case when he excelled at Utah.

One factor we do know is that in opposition to two-deep protection this season, Mahomes has accomplished 118 of 177 passes for 1,232 yards, 661 air yards, three touchdowns, 5 interceptions, and a passer ranking of 80.5. And when Mahomes confronted two-deep protection in opposition to the Payments, he accomplished 9 of 14 passes for 71 yards, 39 air yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a passer ranking of 47.0.

So, nevertheless the Payments get to two-deep within the rematch, it’ll be as much as everybody else to make it work. Which might finally show the distinction between the Josh Allen-era Payments lastly attending to the Tremendous Bowl, or not.