Super Bowl 2024 rosters: How the 49ers, Chiefs starters rated as high school recruits before NFL

From all different eras, unranked to top of the class, here is each Super Bowl starter's star ranking out of high school

By Will Backus Feb 8, 2024 at 9:08 am ET• 2 min read

Super Bowl LVIII kicks off Sunday with the San Francisco 49ers squaring off against the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. The two teams are led by standout quarterbacks with second-year sensation Brock Purdy hoping to cap a breakout year by helping the 49ers to the NFL's most illustrious achievement, while Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes is going for a second straight Super Bowl win and third in the past six years. 

Despite what some might expect, neither Purdy nor Mahomes were nationally-sought-after recruits when they were signing out of high school. Both ranked as three-star prospects as Purdy sat outside the top 800 recruits nationally while Mahomes reported offers from just three schools. But those two are emblematic of their teams. Of 22 listed offensive starters for the Super Bowl, 17 were either three-star prospects or lower out of high school. A handful were completely unranked. 

Comparatively, the defense reads like a high school All-American team -- especially along the defensive line. Three of San Francisco's starting defensive linemen were five-star prospects. Three of Kansas City's starters in the trenches ranked inside the top 100 nationally in their respective classes. 

With so much interesting data to dive into, it felt appropriate to break down how each expected starter ranked coming out of high school. Here's a look at the 49ers' starting offense based on the team's official depth chart (all are high school rankings courtesy of the 247Sports Composite): 

Player	Stars	Overall rank	Position rank
QB Brock Purdy	3	No. 839	No. 36 PRO QB
RB Christian McCaffrey	4	No. 91	No. 2 APB
FB Kyle Juszczyk	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
WR Deebo Samuel	3	No. 842	No. 112 WR
WR Brandon Aiyuk	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
TE George Kittle	3	No. 1,519	No. 199 WR
LT Trent Williams	3	No. 385	No. 26 OG
LG Aaron Banks	4	No. 166	No. 17 OT
C Jake Brendel	3	No. 520	No. 9 OC
RG Spencer Burford	3	No. 921	No. 76 OT
RT Colton McKivitz	3	No. 1,594	No. 164 OT

Now for the 49ers' defense: 

Player	Stars	Overall rank	Position rank
LDE Chase Young	5	No. 7	No. 2 WDE
LDT Arik Armstead	5	No. 14	No. 1 ATH
RDT Javon Hargrave	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
RDE Nick Bosa	5	No. 8	No. 1 SDE
SAM Oren Burks	3	No. 615	No. 46 OLB
MIKE Fred Warner	4	No. 307	No. 27 OLB
WILL Dre Greenlaw	3	No. 842	No. 60 S
LCB Charvarius Ward	N/A	Unranked	Unranked
RCB Deommodore Lenoir	4	No. 64	No. 7 CB
NB Isaiah Oliver	3	No. 1,030	No. 90 CB
FS Tashaun Gipson Jr.	3	No. 1,019	No. 85 CB
SS Ji'Ayir Brown	N/A	Unranked	Unranked

Let's pivot to Kansas City and see how its offense stacks up using the team's official depth chart: