Former NFL scout previews Super Bowl, player-prop bets, Steelers draft, Hall of Fame

Tim Benz
Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 6:18 a.m. | Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020 6:18 a.m.

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders in the second half of an NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, in Baltimore, Md.

The Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs is Sunday. So let’s get an educated breakdown from my “ESPN Pittsburgh” radio colleague Matt Williamson.

He joined me on “105.9 the X” Monday, when I filled in for Mark Madden.

As a former NFL scout, Matt has an acute sense of the matchups and the X’s and O’s for this game. He watches a ton of tape and has a keen eye for details.

Am I saying all this because Matt happens to agree with a lot of my picks for the game?

Yes. Yes, I am.

I’m never afraid to pander to my own confirmation bias.

Well, that and Williamson has a genuine knack for previewing games. In Thursday’s podcast, he and I are on the same page on a lot of the analysis of Super Bowl LIV. We both are leaning toward the Chiefs, but only slightly.

And we both love “the over” totals on a lot of the yardage for San Francisco’s pass catchers, specifically Emmanuel Sanders, Deebo Samuel and even Kyle Juszczyk.

Matt, in particular, is leaning toward the under for some of the Chiefs receivers and Patrick Mahomes. That sounds counterintuitive. But listen to the logic. It makes lots of sense.

If you think the 49ers are going to keep it close — as we do — they are likely going to have to rack up more yards via the air attack against the Chiefs than they did in the NFC playoffs to do it.

After all, they are trying to keep up with the best quarterback in the game in Mahomes. So look for the Niners to put the ball in the air more than they did versus their NFC playoff opponents.

We’ll give you some more details in this podcast. We also delve into Matt’s take on the Senior Bowl. He has some intriguing opinions on potential tight ends for the Steelers.

Plus Matt is with the majority in Pittsburgh when he says Alan Faneca should be in the Hall of Fame. But has the unpopular local stance that if only one lineman should go in from this finalist group, it should be Steve Hutchinson.

Click here to get Matt’s logic on that front and everything else.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.