Super Bowl 2024: Matchups Ranked From Worst to Best

And then there were four.

The NFL playoffs are down to four remaining teams and the Super Bowl is just a few weeks away. We're left with just the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC and the San Francisco 49ers and Detroit Lions in the NFC.

Four teams means only four possible remaining Super Bowl LVIII matchups, and truthfully, all four matchups look pretty fun. But which of the four Super Bowl possibilities is the most potential fun for us as fans?

That's the question I posed to my followers on Twitter — the NFC results were split pretty much 50-50, but the AFC had a clear preference, with about two-thirds of voters wanting to see the Ravens move on. Perhaps that's Chiefs (and Taylor Swift?) fatigue as much as anything else.

The voters prefer 49ers-Ravens and then Lions-Ravens, with 49ers-Chiefs the least favorable outcome.

I don't think the voters got it quite right. Let's rank Super Bowl 2024 matchups from worst to best from a fan perspective.

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4. Lions vs. Ravens

This was the voters' second choice, and it's easy to see why.

Any Super Bowl featuring the Lions would be a memorable one. The Lions are one of just four NFL franchises to never play in the Super Bowl — and the other three had franchise births or rebirths in the last few decades (Texans, Jaguars, Browns). Any Lions Super Bowl is fun by definition.

A Lions-Ravens Super Bowl would be great for fans of old-school, kneecap-biting football.

It would pit the league's No. 1 rushing defense (by DVOA) against the No. 1 rushing offense, with a battle in the trenches for the ages. It would also be an interesting analytics test for various defensive rush metrics since the Lions rank first against the run by DVOA but last in Run Stop Win Rate. Detroit is also terrific running the ball itself and built to do that with the league's best offensive line.

If analytics aren't nerdy enough for you, can I interest you in some awesome coordinator and play-caller matchups? Does Detroit offensive coordinator (OC) Ben Johnson come up with the most creative calls and answers, or will that honor go to Baltimore OC  Todd Monken? And what sort of nastiness will Ravens defensive coordinator (DC) Mike Macdonald scheme up against Johnson's offense? The return of Marlon Humphrey to defend Amon-Ra St. Brown would be fun, too.

Too nerdy for you? How about Martin versus The Wire with everything on the line. And if nothing else, it's a break from all the Swiftie madness.

Jared Goff gets a shot at Super Bowl redemption. Lest you forget, he's played in one before — and scored a measly three points.

Lamar Jackson gets a shot at a ring and an opportunity to silence all his critics at last after entering this postseason with as many career playoff wins (one) as questionable MVP trophies he's about to snag. Last season was the first this century where an MVP went on to win the Super Bowl. Jackson could replicate Patrick Mahomes' feat, and he might do silly things to the Lions' pass defense.

That's ultimately why this Super Bowl is the least fun for me — I just don't think it would be particularly competitive.

This would be my pick for most desirable betting matchup, and I already wrote up why I'd bet Ravens -3.5 on the lookahead line since these teams already played in October and Baltimore absolutely housed Detroit, totally dominating on both sides of the ball and going up 28-0 before halftime.

There's nothing worse than a deflating finale, nor a Super Bowl party where all the guests are bored by halftime. This is the one Super Bowl I don't think would be competitive, so it's an easy bottom choice for me.

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3. 49ers vs. Chiefs

San Francisco against Kansas City … "Full House" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" against "The Last of Us."

This is the only Super Bowl that wouldn't be a rematch from a regular season game, but it would be a rematch — of Super Bowl LIV from four years ago.

Don't forget, Kyle Shanahan's guys led by 10 entering the fourth quarter in that game and had Patrick Mahomes bamboozled before three Chiefs TDs in the final stanza stole the win, leaving Shanahan ringless. Now the 49ers get a chance to finish the job — but with Brock Purdy and Christian McCaffrey instead of Jimmy Garoppolo and Raheem Mostert, and with Kadarius Toney instead of Tyreek Hill for the Chiefs.

If you like gadget players and trick plays, this is the matchup for you. To Toney and McCaffrey, add Deebo Samuel, Mecole Hardman and others. Could we see McCaffrey throw a touchdown pass? The Chiefs running a ring-around-the-rosie triple WR reverse? Skyy's the limit.

Shanahan and Andy Reid square off again in a matchup of two of the best coaches in the NFL.

Of course, the major story line here would be the quarterbacks.

On one side, Mahomes ties Joe Montana for the third-most Super Bowl appearances all time in just his sixth season as the Chiefs start to look an awful lot like those old 49ers dynasties. On the other side, Mr. Irrelevant himself.

Do you want the MVP, the pedigree, the off-script genius who can do it all? Or do you want the guy with all the weapons at his disposal — available because he's so cheap the team can still afford them?

Don't forget, the 49ers have weapons on defense. What happens when Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw take away some of the short stuff over the middle where Travis Kelce and Rashee Rice like to eat?

Can Mahomes really do this all on his own? Montana and Steve Young might not be the only names he's chasing at that point.

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2. Lions vs. Chiefs

You want to see the Lions in the Super Bowl — I want to see them have a chance to actually win it.

We already know Detroit can beat Kansas City, because we literally saw it happen in the first game of the season. What a beautiful chiasm this season could be with Lions-Chiefs as the first and the last, bookending the season!

Of course, we didn't get Travis Kelce or Chris Jones in that first matchup, so this time both teams play at full strength. But the Lions aren't what they were at the start of this season either, with an incredible rookie class blossoming and young players like Aidan Hutchinson and Ifeatu Melifonwu growing up right before our eyes.

Do the Chiefs get revenge from Week 1? Do the Lions complete the sweep and finally win the big one? Would Kadarius Toney even see Kansas City's locker room after his Week 1 disaster? Would he make the big play in the ultimate redemption story?

I far prefer Lions-Chiefs to Lions-Ravens because I think Detroit would have a real chance to win this thing. The Lions offense would be the best unit on the field, and they would have a significant advantage running the football and potentially controlling the game.

You want speed? We got speed. Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, Mecole Hardman, maybe Kalif Raymond or Jerick McKinnon. You want beefy blockers? We got two of the best lines in the league.

Can I interest you in a fun Super Bowl party? You're not going to find a better food pairing than Kansas City barbecue and Detroit-style pizza. And how about a little TayTay vs. Eminem battle while we're at it?

It's the emerging GOAT against a supremely likable underdog "villain" in the Lions, with a genuine chance to win their first championship since 1957.

What's not to like?!

1. 49ers vs. Ravens

All of these Super Bowls sound like an absolute blast, but if I'm being honest, 49ers-Ravens is No. 1 with a bullet.

It's a Super Bowl rematch, of course, with one less Harbaugh and hopefully one less blackout, and two very different teams. All those Niners weapons, all the Ravens' defensive weapons, 1-seed versus 1-seed.

At the end of the day, pop culture references and good eats are great, but I just want to see an awesome football game more than anything else, and this is the matchup we've wanted all year.

The 49ers and Ravens ranked top three in my weekly Power Rankings column from Week 12 all the way through the end of the season. For two straight months, I begged readers to invest in San Francisco and Baltimore futures. These weren't just the two best teams all season; they were the two best by margin.

They're first (Ravens) and second (49ers) by DVOA, each ranking in the top four on both offense and defense. Baltimore's defense is historically great, so good it finished the season ranked ahead of a Cleveland defense we called historic all season long. San Francisco's offense is historically elite, best in the league both rushing and passing, the latter by a mile, with all its stars healthy.

Since getting Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy into the lineup, the 49ers have been an absolute juggernaut, mowing down everyone and everything in their path. The Niners are literally unbeaten in games with those two, Deebo Samuel and Trent Williams healthy together, in all but one game — that Ravens loss on Christmas night.

You remember that game, I'm sure. It was billed as the big MVP battle, with Purdy entering as the odds-on favorite and Lamar Jackson the trendy sleeper everyone was dying to replace Purdy with.

The game was a bit goofy and sloppy from the start, with rainy weather and a weird Jackson safety in the opening minutes, and it was a good one at the half at 16-12 before Purdy melted down in the third quarter as the Ravens blew the game open.

We need the rematch. Both teams were short key players in that one – plus there were injuries suffered midgame, too (Williams exited with a groin injury). We need the healthy version of this game in clean Vegas weather.

Give us a healthy Mark Andrews against George Kittle in a matchup of great tight ends.

Give us the return of the linebacker, a position the league has largely cast aside as the replaceable defensive version of a running back. No two teams have invested more and gotten more out of their linebackers. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are incredible weapons for the 49ers. The Ravens traded for and paid Roquan Smith and saw him and Patrick Queen blossom together.

Give us all those defensive weapons fighting for control of the middle of the field, where both teams covet control so much. Give us Kyle Shanahan, master of the middle of the field, against all of Mike Macdonald's defensive tomfoolery and shenanigans.

Most importantly, give us Purdy against Macdonald's defense.

It's the ultimate test and the end of Purdy's Disney movie.

Here's Mr. Irrelevant, the last pick of the draft, forgotten and unknown. He steps in at quarterback for a franchise with Joe Montana and Steve Young retired in the rafters and takes the offense to heights neither of those guys ever reached, not losing once as a rookie seventh-round pick.

And then the tragic downfall — a playoff loss to the Eagles when Purdy was injured on his first drive of the game but returned later to hand the ball off and loft a few underhand throws when San Francisco was literally out of quarterbacks.

Oh, you forgot about that injury, didn't you? Purdy wasn't even supposed to be healthy to start the new season, and instead, he wrested control of the job so quickly and so thoroughly that the 49ers traded away Trey Lance, a guy they'd mortgaged their entire future for.

And then Purdy picked up right where he left off, unleashing an MVP campaign in which he comfortably led the league in most advanced metrics and was near the top in the counting stats, top five in both passing yards and touchdowns, far ahead of guys like Jackson.

And still, Purdy has his doubters and naysayers, and they came out in droves after that Christmas night failure, ready to bury Purdy for good.

Fast-forward six weeks.

Jackson wins MVP three nights before the Super Bowl. Purdy is the forgotten underdog once again, exposed by Baltimore's real MVP, Macdonald's defense, in that Christmas nightmare.

There's only one scene left at the end of the underdog movie.

Will it end with redemption?

Or will it turn out this was Jackson's hero movie all along?