NFC, AFC Championship Games: Brock Purdy, Lamar Jackson and others with most at stake

The Athletic has live coverage of Ravens vs. Chiefs in the AFC Championship game.

We’re down to the final four.

The NFL conference championship games get underway at 3 p.m. ET Sunday in Baltimore, where the Ravens host the Kansas City Chiefs with the AFC title on the line. Then, at 6:30 p.m. ET, the San Francisco 49ers welcome the Detroit Lions for the NFC Championship Game.

The mission is simple: Win, and you’re in — the Super Bowl, that is. Baltimore is a 3 1/2-point favorite while San Francisco is favored by a touchdown.

The Ravens and 49ers are No. 1 seeds; the Chiefs and Lions are both No. 3 seeds. Will the top seeds reach the Super Bowl, or will one or both underdogs prevail? Kansas City and Philadelphia reached the big game last year as No. 1 seeds. But that was only the 14th time since the NFL instituted seeding in 1975 that both No. 1s advanced to the Super Bowl.

Here’s a look at some of the key figures with the most at stake Sunday.

Kansas City Chiefs at Baltimore Ravens

For the Chiefs, who are seeking their fourth Super Bowl appearance in the last five seasons …

• Andy Reid already placed himself in elite company last season when he became only the 14th coach in NFL history to win multiple Lombardi Trophies. But with a win Sunday, he would become only the fifth head coach in history with five Super Bowl appearances. He would also position himself for a shot at an even more exclusive club, because only four coaches — Bill Belichick (six), Chuck Noll (four), Bill Walsh and Joe Gibbs (three) — have won at least three Super Bowls. Reid also would have a shot at becoming only the seventh coach in league history to win back-to-back Super Bowls.

• Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is chasing greatness while playing in his sixth consecutive conference championship. A sixth-year starter, he doesn’t even know what it’s like to not play in this game. He’s trying to reach his fourth Super Bowl and join Bart Starr, Bob Griese, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, Troy Aikman, John Elway and Tom Brady as the only quarterbacks to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Only Aikman (three), Montana and Bradshaw (four) and Brady (seven) have at least three Super Bowl rings, and Mahomes badly wants to join that club before he even turns 29.

• Tight end Travis Kelce and Mahomes just broke Brady and Rob Gronkowski’s record for the most playoff touchdown connections in league history, and now Kelce needs just seven catches to surpass Jerry Rice (151) for the most postseason receptions in history. Kelce has recorded at least six catches and 70 yards in each of his five career games against Baltimore.

GO DEEPER

NFL playoffs: Key matchups to watch in the Ravens-Chiefs AFC Championship Game

For the Ravens, who are hosting the AFC Championship Game for the first time and seeking their third Super Bowl appearance …

• Coach John Harbaugh is coaching in his second AFC Championship Game and seeking his second Super Bowl appearance and victory since winning it all in the 2012 season.

• Quarterback Lamar Jackson is playing in his first AFC title game and wants to cap what is expected to be his second career MVP season with his first Super Bowl victory. A win Sunday also would help Jackson further silence his critics. Despite his elite physical gifts and growing list of accolades, he never receives the same level of respect as quarterback peers like Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. A victory over Mahomes and a trip to the Super Bowl can help him in this regard, and a Lombardi Trophy would remove all doubt about his standing as one of the best quarterbacks and playmakers in the history of the league.

• Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.’s comeback tour continues with a chance to return to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2022, when he helped the Rams defeat the Bengals. Beckham’s Super Bowl experience was incomplete, though, because he suffered a torn ACL in the first half after recording two catches for 52 yards and a touchdown. Beckham was out of football all of last season while rehabbing, and the Ravens gave him his long-awaited opportunity to resume his career this fall. The 31-year-old isn’t as explosive as he once was, but his 35 catches for 565 yards and three touchdowns have helped make a revamped Ravens receiving unit more complete. Beckham would love to return to the Super Bowl and contribute from start to finish, but first, he must help the Ravens get past a tough Chiefs defense.

Detroit Lions at San Francisco 49ers

For the Lions, who are playing in only their second NFC Championship Game in franchise history … 

• Dan Campbell is trying to get to the Super Bowl for the first time as a coach, after transforming the Lions from a laughingstock that opened the 2021 season 0-10-1 to one of the best teams in the league. Campbell was a tight end on the New York Giants team that lost to Baltimore in Super Bowl XXXV in January 2001.

• Lions quarterback Jared Goff remains on a mission to prove the L.A. Rams got it wrong when they deemed him incapable of leading a championship team and traded him to Detroit for Matthew Stafford in 2021. In the 2018 season, Goff helped the Rams reach the Super Bowl, but he (like the rest of the Rams) struggled against the Patriots. Goff passed for only 229 yards, with just a 50 percent completion rate, and an interception. He also was sacked four times. Since being traded to Detroit, Goff has helped spearhead the Lions’ culture change and rise to respectability. He gained a large degree of vindication by beating Sean McVay and the Rams two weeks ago in the wild-card round, and he shined again in the divisional round against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Defeating the 49ers would be huge for Goff.

• Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, who was raised in suburban Detroit and played at the University of Michigan, grew up cheering for the Lions. He wants nothing more than to continue to elevate his hometown team and give its fans their first Super Bowl victory. Hutchinson has been on a tear, recording eight sacks in the past four games, including three in the playoffs. In the regular season, he tallied a career-high 11 1/2 sacks and 14 tackles for a loss along with three forced fumbles and seven pass breakups.

GO DEEPER

NFL playoffs: Key matchups to watch in the 49ers-Lions NFC Championship Game

For the 49ers, who have made the NFC Championship Game the past three years and four times in the past five seasons …

• Coach Kyle Shanahan is trying to get his team back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 2019 season, when the 49ers lost to the Chiefs. Quarterback injuries derailed San Francisco in last year’s conference title game, but with a healthy Brock Purdy, Shanahan now hopes to finally get his team over the hump. The seventh-year head coach also is trying to join his father, Mike Shanahan, as the first father-son duo to ever win Super Bowls. The elder Shanahan won Super Bowls XXXII and XXXIII as the Denver Broncos coach.

• Purdy is trying to join Kurt Warner, Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Russell Wilson as the only quarterbacks to lead their teams to Super Bowl victories in their second seasons in the league. Purdy had a shaky showing for the bulk of last week’s divisional playoff game against Green Bay before finally hitting his stride and directing the winning drive in the fourth quarter. Purdy has tried to shrug off criticism that he is merely a game manager, but a strong showing in a win Sunday would provide some vindication.

• Running back Christian McCaffrey recorded 128 total yards (98 rushing, 30 receiving) and two touchdowns in last week’s playoff opener. With that performance, he recorded at least 50 scrimmage yards and a touchdown in each of the first five playoff games of his career. With another such performance, McCaffrey can become only the third player in NFL history (joining Marcus Allen and Terrell Davis) to extend his streak to six games. McCaffrey delivered an MVP-caliber season, with 1,459 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns, and 564 receiving yards and seven touchdown catches. But he wants a Super Bowl ring so he can be like his father, Ed, a wide receiver who won three (one with San Francisco, and two with Mike Shanahan’s Broncos).

(Top photos of Purdy and Jackson: Lachlan Cunningham and Todd Olszewski / Getty Images)