When the Kansas City Chiefs take to the field for their third Super Bowl Sunday in four years, their starting lineup will include two wide receivers, both in their first year with the team. JuJu Smith-Schuster, a wide All-Pro who left Pittsburgh as a free agent, and Marquez Valdez-Scantling, also signed from Green Bay, accounted for 120 catches, 1,620 receiving yards and five touchdowns during the season. 2022. And to hear Smith-Schuster tell it, the quick bond he and Valdez-Scantling formed with quarterback Patrick Mahomes came from Call of Duty.
“I put in a lot of work, man; I spent many, many, many Call of Duty hours with Patrick Mahomes, [tight end] Travis Kelce and Marquez, baby,” Smith-Schuster said during Tuesday’s Super Bowl media day, a notoriously all-goes event where all kinds of questions are asked and answered.
But, taken at face value, playing a multiplayer first-person shooter with his new quarterback and Mahomes’ No. 1 target Kelce helped establish the kind of communication that top tandems in NFL reception lead to a championship.
“Lots of COD hours, man. We’re going down, communication is on point, we’ve been working, man, day in and day out,” Smith-Schuster said.
Additionally, in October, Smith-Schuster said he, Valdez-Scantling, Kelce and Mahomes had won three consecutive games of Call of Duty: Warzone (played on the Rebirth Island map) the day before a 44-23 road win over the San Francisco 49ers.
“That kind of led to this game and it showed on the field,” Smith-Schuster said then. “We all land, once we have our guns we work together […] the communication is like, ‘Let’s go upstairs, let’s go here,’ That’s where it all started.
Both Smith-Schuster and Valdez-Scantling were signed after the Chiefs traded four-time All-Pro Tyreek Hill, formerly their top wide receiver threat, to Miami for five draft picks in March 2022. Hill had 111 catches, 1,239 yards and nine touchdowns for Kansas City in 2021. The volume approach to replacing Hill’s contributions apparently worked; the Chiefs once again led the league in passing yards, passing touchdowns and total points.
Kansas City is Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII underdog, but not by much. The sportsbooks have the Philadelphia Eagles as favorites by 1.5 points. EA Sports’ annual big-game simulation featuring Madden NFL 23 called for a big Eagles win, 31-17.
Madden’s Super Bowl selection record has been hit or miss lately, mostly missing, and Kansas City is in something of a dynasty, playing the last five AFC Championship games, winning three and winning also Super Bowl LIV in February 2020. .
