National Football League

Super Bowl LV's top 10 players, according to Colin Cowherd

Updated Feb. 7, 2021 11:44 a.m. ET

The NFL's two best teams will duke it out for the right to be crowned Super Bowl champion of the 2020 season on Sunday.

While the coaching matchup between Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs and Bruce Arians' Tampa Bay Buccaneers has plenty of juice, it's the guys between the painted lines who really move the needle.

Which players could be the biggest difference-makers on Super Bowl Sunday? Colin Cowherd broke out his measuring stick and laid out his list of impact players heading into the showdown.

Take a look at his list, along with his commentary, pertinent statistics from this year and each player's Super Bowl MVP odds, via FOX Bet.

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10. Shaq Barrett, LB, Buccaneers

Season stats: Eight sacks, 57 tackles, 16 QB hits, two forced fumbles (15 games)
Playoff stats: Three sacks, eight tackles, four QB hits (three games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +6000

Cowherd's thoughts: "Barrett is what everybody is trying to get in the draft."

9. Vita Vea, DT, Buccaneers

Season stats: Two sacks, 10 tackles, three QB hits (five games)
Playoff stats: 33 defensive snaps, no applicable stats (one game)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +10000

Cowherd's thoughts: "In the six games Vea played for Tampa, they allowed 60 yards rushing. ... He's impossible to move."

8. Lavonte David, LB, Buccaneers

Season stats: 117 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, three forced fumbles, one interception (16 games)
Playoff stats: 20 tackles, one tackle for loss, one sack (three games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +7000

Cowherd's thoughts: "David is essentially a tackle machine. ... His number will be called as much as anybody's number playing defense Sunday."

7. Chris Jones, DT, Chiefs

Season stats: 7.5 sacks, 36 tackles, 28 QB hits (15 games)
Playoff stats: Four tackles, two QBs (two games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +12000

Cowherd's thoughts: "Jones is just very hard to singularly block. ... You saw it in Buffalo – they just struggled to block him."

6. Tyrann Mathieu, DB, Chiefs

Season stats: 62 tackles, six interceptions, one touchdown (15 games)
Playoff stats: 13 tackles, one interception (two games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +5000

Cowherd's thoughts: "The only player that I can think of in my lifetime that is as instinctive – literally is always around the ball – as Ed Reed for the Ravens. ... Mathieu is just a great football player."

5. Mike Evans, WR, Buccaneers

Season stats: 70 receptions, 1,006 receiving yards, 13 receiving touchdowns (16 games)
Playoff stats: 10 receptions, 173 yards, two touchdowns (three games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +3300

Cowherd's thoughts: "Only player in NFL history ... to have 1,000-plus receiving yards in each of his first seven seasons. ... Evans looks like an NBA guy out there. He's just a problem."

4. Tyreek Hill, WR, Chiefs

Season stats: 87 receptions, 1,276 receiving yards, 15 receiving touchdowns (15 games)
Playoff stats: 17 receptions, 282 receiving yards (two games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +1400

Cowherd's thoughts: "Fastest player in the league, you have to bracket him. ... And if he gets rolling on the outside, Hill makes corners look slow."

3. Travis Kelce, TE, Chiefs

Season stats: 105 receptions, 1,416 receiving yards, 11 receiving touchdowns (15 games)
Playoff stats: 21 receptions, 227 receiving yards, three touchdowns (two games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +1400

Cowherd's thoughts: "I think he's the best tight end, potentially, in five or six more years, we've ever seen. ... Kelce is the toughest matchup in the NFL."

2. Tom Brady, QB, Buccaneers

Season stats: 40 passing touchdowns, 12 interceptions, 4,633 passing yards, 65.7% completion, 102.2 average passer rating (16 games)
Playoff stats: Seven passing touchdowns, three interceptions, 860 passing yards, 55.1% completion, 90.8 average passer rating (three games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: +187

Cowherd's thoughts: "Let's just stop the nonsense. You didn't think he was going to be here. ... Since Week 14, Brady is absolutely on fire."

1. Patrick Mahomes, QB, Chiefs

Season stats: 38 passing touchdowns, six interceptions, 4,740 passing yards, 66.3% completion, 108.2 average passer rating (15 games)
Playoff stats: Four passing touchdowns, zero interceptions, 580 passing yards, 73.5% completion, 118.5 average passer rating (two games)
Super Bowl MVP odds: -118

Cowherd's thoughts: "Mahomes has the best winning percentage — 83% — of any quarterback in the Super Bowl era. So he would be the best player in this game."

To see Nos. 15 through 11 and hear Cowherd's full breakdown, check out the video below!

Colin Cowherd ranks the Top 10 players of Super Bowl LV | THE HERD

Colin Cowherd ranks the Top 10 players from Super Bowl LV. Hear whether the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Kansas City Chiefs have more players on the list, and where Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, and Travis Kelce fall in line.