49ers: Positional analysis of the Super Bowl LIV matchup with the Chiefs

4. Comparing secondaries

Secondary as a whole should definitely swing San Francisco’s way as well. Even though Kansas City’s secondary has played much better the second half of the season, the 49ers have the number one pass defense in all of football this year allowing just 169.2 passing yards a game.

Richard Sherman was once again one of the best corners in the game and registered as the league’s least-targeted cornerback through Week 17 this season, per PFF.

Emmanuel Moseley got a lot of playing time at cornerback when Ahkello Witherspoon was injured, but once he returned, Moseley still found his place on the field by replacing a struggling Witherspoon and playing up ever since.

So, overall, the 49ers secondary is by far superior to Kansas City’s.

And that leads me to my next comparison of cornerbacks and safeties where the cornerback edge should definitely also go to San Francisco.

But in terms of safeties, I actually give Kansas City the edge with Tyrann Mathieu and Daniel Sorensen playing out of their minds right now. Sorensen is making big play after big play in the postseason and Mathieu had himself four picks this year in his first season with the Chiefs.

The edge in overall secondary and corners goes to San Francisco, but the edge in safeties has to go to Kansas City as I’ll take ‘Honeybadger’ and Sorensen right now over Jaquiski Tartt and Jimmie Ward for San Francisco.