The world will find out this NFL season’s Super Bowl matchup in a matter of days after exciting conference championship action on Sunday.

Josh Allen’s second-seeded Buffalo Bills facing Patrick Mahomes‘ top-seeded Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game makes them the first pair of quarterbacks to meet four times in the playoffs before the age of 30. The Bills were the only team to defeat the Chiefs in the 2024 regular season when Kansas City’s starters played. The NFC Championship game features a pair of NFC East division rivals that split their regular season meetings in the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders and the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles.

Which Super Bowl LIX matchups down in New Orleans would be most compelling after a pair of rivals duke it out on Sunday? Let’s break it down and rank the four possible matchups based on excitement level and intrigue. 

4. Chiefs vs. Eagles

This would be a rematch of Super Bowl LVII that concluded the 2022 season, a game the Chiefs prevailed 38-35. Kansas City narrowly defeated Philadelphia after a controversial third-and-8 defensive holding penalty allowed the Chiefs to wind the clock down to 11 seconds before kicking the go-ahead, 27-yard field goal. 

The Chiefs remain as similar a team as one can be two seasons later in the NFL while the Eagles added 2024 NFL rushing champion running back Saquon Barkley this past offseason. A fun battle between these teams would certainly be trench warfare between the Philadelphia defensive line — led by defensive tackle Jalen Carter and edge rusher Nolan Smith — versus Kansas City’s offensive line led by offensive tackle Joe Thuney and center Creed Humphrey. However, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who arguably outperformed Mahomes the first go-around, hasn’t been nearly as explosive as a passer this season as he was in 2022. 

Yes, the Chiefs-49ers rematch from last season was an overtime epic, but that San Francisco team was firing on all cylinders on the ground and in the air. The Eagles simply aren’t playing at that level right now. 

3. Chiefs vs. Commanders

This matchup would be a fun glimpse of the present (three-time Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes) vs. the future (likely 2024 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels) at the NFL’s quarterback position. 

There’s a case to be made that Daniels is having the best rookie season ever after breaking the NFL’s rookie quarterback records for completion percentage (69.0%) and rushing yards (891) while helping lead Washington to their first NFC Championship game since 1991. Seeing Daniels against Chiefs four-time Super Bowl champion defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s blitz-heavy defense (35.6% blitz rate in 2024, fifth highest in the NFL) would be a treat. The 2024 second overall pick quarterback ranks third in the entire NFL in expected points added (EPA)/play against the blitz (0.34) this year, including the postseason. 

In Washington’s Week 16 win over Philadelphia, the Eagles attempted to treat the Commanders quarterback like the rookie he is by blitzing Daniels on 35.6% of his dropbacks, which was Philadelphia’s second-highest blitz rate in a game of the 2024 season, including the playoffs. That didn’t work with Daniels shredding the Eagles’ blitz for 173 yards passing, three touchdowns and no interceptions on 10 of his 15 throws while being blitzed. That netted out to a 145.3 passer rating, which was the third highest in an NFL game this season when blitzed on at least 15 throws in a game.

This matchup could be a fun scheme battle between Commanders offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury and Spagnuolo plus Chiefs head coach Andy Reid versus Commanders head coach Dan Quinn on the other side of the ball. 

2. Bills vs. Eagles

The Buffalo Bills have famously never won a Super Bowl after losing all four of their big game appearances in a row from the 1990 to 1993 seasons. Having them win the AFC would be a fun breath of fresh air after the Chiefs have won three Super Bowls and made four Super Bowl appearances since 2019. 

Bills vs. Eagles provides a matchup between Philadelphia and the only NFL team that plays their home games in the state of New York, so there’s somewhat of a regional rivalry component there. It would also be a fun matchup of dangerous backfields with dual-threat dynamo Josh Allen and running back James Cook vs. 2024 NFL rushing champion Saquon Barkley and dynamic dual-threat Jalen Hurts. This matchup would also provide the Bills the chance to finally get over their NFC East losing streak in the Super Bowl after losing to Washington and the New York Giants once and the Dallas Cowboys twice in the 1990s. 

1. Bills vs. Commanders

All season long, many football fans and football media paraded around the Detroit Lions as a darling because they have a tortured fanbase and were finally breaking through to relevancy the last two seasons. 

Well, this matchup gives the people what they said they wanted in the Super Bowl with the Lions: Two snake-bitten franchises going head-to-head for the right to lift their first Vince Lombardi trophy in a long time (the Commanders haven’t won it all since 1991) or all time (the Bills have never won the Super Bowl).

These two teams also provide two of the most thrilling quarterbacks in the entire league today with Josh Allen vs. Jayden Daniels. Allen is the first quarterback in NFL history with 25 or more passing touchdowns (28), 10 or more rushing touchdowns (12) and fewer than 10 interceptions in a single season (six), per CBS Sports Research. He also registered the lowest percentage of plays (4.2%) with a sack, fumble or interception in a season since the 1970 AFL/NFL Merger, minimum 500 plays, per CBS Sports Research. 

Daniels is fresh off tying the NFL playoffs record for most passing touchdowns in a game for a rookie with five in Washington’s NFC divisional-round road defeat of the top-seeded Lions. The Commanders defense also forced five turnovers against Detroit. Following the Commanders’ two playoff wins, Daniels is the only quarterback since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger to have over 300 total yards and no turnovers in consecutive playoff upset wins in a single postseason, per CBS Sports Research. 

One of the NFL’s hottest teams in Washington, which has won seven games in a row, against one of the league’s best teams all year in Buffalo, 15-4 this season including the playoffs, with two quarterbacks playing high-level football for Super Bowl-starved franchises. There isn’t a better Super Bowl showdown than Commanders versus Bills out of this season’s conference championship games.