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NFL Power Rankings: The 10 figures whose legacies can change most with a Super Bowl LIX win

frank schwab
Senior writer
·7-min read

Being great in the regular season is commendable, but the NFL playoffs carry all the weight when it comes to legacies. How much different would the conversation be around Lamar Jackson if he was heading to his third or fourth Super Bowl this postseason?

Every playoff win helps build up a résumé. Andy Reid went from a head coach who had the reputation of never being able to win big to being mentioned as perhaps the greatest coach of all time with a few Super Bowl wins the past six seasons. He's one of many examples of coaches and players whose legacies completely changed after some postseason success.

Which NFL figures have the most to gain, in terms of their legacies, over the next two games? Here are the top 10:

Wagner is likely on his way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He has 13 straight 100-tackle seasons, tied with London Fletcher for the NFL record. He's a nine-time Pro Bowler, six-time All-Pro and a 2010s all-decade team member.

A Super Bowl would remove any tiny bit of doubt. Wagner has one ring with the 2013 Seattle Seahawks. A second would be different. Wagner has been given a lot of credit for helping change the Commanders' culture in his first season with the team. A Super Bowl win with Washington would help boost Wagner's standing among all-time linebackers.

A Super Bowl win wouldn't push Hamlin up in the Hall of Fame conversation like some other players on this list. But it would add a chapter to his story that movies are made of.

Hamlin almost died on the field due to cardiac arrest after a hit he took during a game in January of 2023. He became a household name to non-football fans. Hamlin returned to play, but many may not know that he has become a full-time starter for the Bills this season and has had a good season with 89 tackles and two interceptions. His inspiring comeback story would be told countless times in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl.

Jalen Hurts (1) and Saquon Barkley (26) have the Philadelphia Eagles one more win from a Super Bowl appearance. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
Jalen Hurts (1) and Saquon Barkley (26) have the Philadelphia Eagles one more win from a Super Bowl appearance. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Hurts was a hot name two seasons ago. He almost won NFL MVP and would have won Super Bowl MVP if the Eagles could have pulled out a close game over the Chiefs. His stature has cooled since then. It would rebound quickly with a Super Bowl. Saquon Barkley would probably get more credit, as the Eagles have barely passed the ball this postseason, but Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks always get a bump. So would Hurts.

Truthfully, Dan Snyder's legacy is the one that will (somehow) get even worse if the Commanders win a championship so soon after they were finally able to be rid of him. Snyder should already be considered the worst team owner in NFL history, so how much further can he sink?

For Harris, he would be looked at as a hero by a fan base that had started to turn on its favorite team as Snyder ran it into the ground. The decision to hire Adam Peters as general manager, Dan Quinn as head coach and draft Jayden Daniels in one offseason would be remembered in Washington for a long, long time.

With each Chiefs Super Bowl win, Spagnuolo gets closer to history. There are no members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who made it almost entirely due to their work as a coordinator. The coordinators in the Hall either had a stellar playing history or accomplishments as a head coach. Spagnuolo didn't play in the NFL and has an 11-41 career record as a head coach.

But he is the only coordinator with four Super Bowl rings and the only one with a ring from two different franchises (he also won one with the 2007 Giants). It would take a strong argument for Spagnuolo to make it as a coordinator. Five rings, including two the last couple seasons when the Chiefs' defense has been a huge part of their success, would be a good start.

Quinn deserved more credit for what he did with the Atlanta Falcons. But if you remember his time as Falcons head coach, you probably recall just the infamous 28-3 collapse against the New England Patriots.

That would change with a Super Bowl win, especially for a franchise that won four games a season ago and has a rookie quarterback. Quinn has a ring with the 2013 Seattle Seahawks as a defensive coordinator, but coordinators don't get enough credit for titles. A ring with the Commanders would change his stature in a big way.

We'll package them because the stories are similar. Reid and Mahomes are already firmly among the greatest ever at head coach and quarterback. Three Super Bowl titles and seven straight trips to the AFC championship game does that. But each Super Bowl gets them further up the list. Mahomes needs every ring he can get if he'll pass Tom Brady on the GOAT list. Another ring might get more people talking about Reid as the greatest coach in NFL history. The legacies for both men are already secure. They can still get stronger.

Barkley would join two lists if the Eagles win a Super Bowl. Assuming he plays fairly well for two more games, Barkley could rise to the top of the list of greatest running back seasons ever. He has 2,638 total yards from scrimmage, counting playoffs, and 17 touchdowns. He reached the magical 2,000-yard rushing mark during the regular season. A Super Bowl would give Barkley a good argument against Jim Brown's 1963 season, O.J. Simpson in 1973, Eric Dickerson in 1984, Marshall Faulk in 1999, LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, Chris Johnson in 2009 or any other all-time great running back season.

Barkley would also enter the chat with Drew Brees, Reggie White and Peyton Manning as the greatest free-agent signing in NFL history. For the sake of New York Giants fans, we'll stop there.

Allen has supporters who list him as the best quarterback in football. He might win his first MVP in a couple weeks. But it's hard to head the list when Patrick Mahomes has multiple Super Bowls. To many, that's all that matters.

Allen could at least shorten the gap over the next few weeks. If he wins a Super Bowl, it would mean the Bills beat Mahomes' Chiefs this weekend. That would carry some weight. Allen has played at an elite level for a while. A Super Bowl would validate everything he has done.

It would be historic for Buffalo too, considering its playoff heartache through the years and lack of a Super Bowl championship. One win would erase all the pain and make Allen a legend in Buffalo forever.

There's a good argument to be made that someone like Josh Allen should be No. 1. The conversation about him would change a lot with just one Super Bowl ring.

But Daniels could do something nobody has ever done before.

No rookie quarterback has ever started a Super Bowl, much less won one. If Daniels takes a flawed Washington Commanders team, which finished 4-13 a season ago, and carries them to the Super Bowl he'd immediately go to the head of the line of greatest rookies ever, if he's not there already. This isn't someone like Ben Roethlisberger starting for a good 2004 Pittsburgh Steelers team and not screwing things up. Daniels is carrying this Washington team. We're still at least a year or two from seeing the Commanders at full strength. And Daniels has willed them to a conference championship game.

A Super Bowl as a rookie would be unprecedented and shape the conversation of Daniels' career for many years to come. Even with rookie quarterbacks being more advanced than ever, it could be a long time before any other rookie QB wins a Super Bowl. If Daniels gets the job done, he could remain alone on that list for many years.