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James White carved out a nice role for himself in the New England Patriots offense prior to Super Bowl LI. He had piled up 400-plus receiving yards out of the backfield for the second straight year, and he became an even more important weapon later in the season with tight end Rob Gronkowski injured.
But he was still an underrated name in an offense led by quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Julian Edelman, who was fresh off a single-season career-high 1,106 receiving yards.
But then White went off for 139 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns in the Super Bowl, including the game-winning plunge in overtime.
White was an unlikely hero after he averaged 44.8 yards from scrimmage per game throughout the regular season in 2016. He was the sleeper who stayed wide awake.
White, of course, is returning to that stage on Feb. 4. He could repeat his X-factor routine, though that title might just as easily go to Rex Burkhead, another member of the Patriots backfield, or linebacker James Harrison on the other side of the ball. And for the Philadelphia Eagles, there are a handful of underrated players who could become difference-makers, including defensive end Chris Long and cornerback Jalen Mills.
Let's take a look at those names and more as we highlight the possible Super Bowl sleepers.
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Sure, it might not seem like the underrated label applies to Danny Amendola right now after his AFC Championship Game heroics. The veteran wide receiver was a key figure in the New England Patriots' comeback win over the Jacksonville Jaguars with his sprawling catch at the back of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
But Amendola is the sort of overlooked option who can keep surprising you, even though he's continually buried in the Patriots offense.
I'm not sure we'll ever appreciate Amendola enough. Or more importantly, the Patriots' ability to keep producing Amendola types. Getting sporadic production from him, as the Patriots have throughout the playoffs, must be like how it feels when someone on Antiques Roadshow finds out Grandma's old lamp is worth enough to put their kids through college.
He just finished his ninth NFL regular season, and Amendola's highest single-year output is 689 receiving yards back in 2010. With the Patriots he's averaged only 476.6 receiving yards over five seasons, and he had 11 games in 2017 when he didn't reach the 50-yard plateau.
Which is why the 32-year-old is an afterthought until an injury occurs and he's called on to do something spectacular. He's answered that call with 274 receiving yards and three touchdowns over his last three playoff games.
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No player on the 2017 Patriots embodies the "do your job" Belichickism quite like running back Rex Burkhead.
Burkhead is healthy now after missing three games because of a knee injury. Prior to suffering that injury he was sizzling as a red-zone back with six touchdowns over a four-game stretch.
Burkhead has a specific role and excels in it when given the opportunity. His scoring production becomes even more remarkable when we remember how scattered those opportunities have been.
Burkhead was on the field for a mere 17.1 percent of the Patriots' offensive snaps during the regular season. Yet despite that tiny snap percentage, the 27-year-old still scored eight times. He finished with 518 yards from scrimmage over only 10 regular-season games.
It gets better, as four of those touchdowns came inside the 5-yard line, according to Pro Football Reference. That tied Burkhead with the Raiders' Marshawn Lynch, the Chiefs' Kareem Hunt and the Bears' Jordan Howard, all of whom had significantly heavier workloads throughout the season.
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Duron Harmon always seems to be around when a game-sealing play is needed. After a while, that can't just be shrugged off as luck or happenstance.
No, it's a product of quality instincts and vision. Harmon snatched a career-high four interceptions in 2017. That brings his career total to 13 including the playoffs, and 10 of those picks have come in the fourth quarter, as NESN's Doug Kyed noted.
He's a deep safety who's primarily on the field as part of the Patriots' nickel package. That meant he was used for 66.2 percent of New England's defensive snaps during the 2017 regular season, which makes his career-high interception total even more impressive.
Harmon is also a key figure for a physical Patriots secondary that allowed only 44.9 receiving yards per game to tight ends in 2017, according to Football Outsiders. That unit will face a tough test in Super Bowl LII against Pro Bowl tight end Zach Ertz.
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James Harrison will turn 40 years old in May. In human years that makes him a middle-aged man who has to fight off all the standard stereotypes associated with that scary birthday, like wearing socks with sandals and just hurting all the time.
And in football years, he should be sinking even deeper into his rocking chair. Being an effective pass-rusher means surprising the blocker opposite you with either your strength, speed or both. Usually the latter fades first—and fades fast.
Harrison is at the point then when, according to his age and birth certificate, he shouldn't have much to offer even in a specialized and reduced role. The Pittsburgh Steelers sure seemed to believe that, which is why he barely saw the field for them and played only 40 snaps before being released.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is well-known for turning another team's discarded veteran into his next scrap-heap hero. And Harrison seems to be on that path after signing in New England.
The outside linebacker had two sacks in his Week 17 Patriots debut. During the playoffs, he's been asked to provide a fresh source of energy in limited snaps for a defense that struggled to create consistent pressure all season.
He's responded with six tackles over two games, and Harrison's pressure off the edge helped to create a strip-sack that backed the Jaguars up with two minutes remaining in the AFC Championship. The Jags couldn't convert from the resulting distances on the following plays (3rd-and-19 and then 4th-and-15), and the Patriots held on, advancing to their third Super Bowl over the past four seasons.
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The Patriots were uncharacteristically aggressive during the 2017 offseason. He wasn't saying it out loud, but Belichick was surely aware of a championship window possibly closing as his superstar quarterback ages.
So he traded away first- and third-round draft picks to acquire wide receiver Brandin Cooks. Then he shipped off a second-round pick as part of a deal to get defensive end Kony Ealy, who was then cut at the end of training camp. Finally, he parted with a fourth-round pick to bring tight end Dwayne Allen aboard.
All that shuffling and maneuvering is important to remember as we watch the steady rise of Deatrich Wise, the defensive end who was under pressure to produce quickly as one of only four Patriots draft selections in 2017.
Wise was pushed into a prominent role as the 131st overall pick, playing just over half of the Patriots' defensive snaps as a rotational pass-rusher during the regular season. He's recorded seven sacks including the playoffs, four of which have come over New England's last five games.
The growing presence of a more reliable pass rush is a significant reason the Patriots defense has allowed 20-plus points just three times since Week 5.
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Linebacker Kyle Van Noy is yet another example of Belichick's ability to turn expendable pieces on other rosters into his core players. Basically, he's the artistic wonder who can somehow take a beat-up trash can and make a cool windmill that will sell on Etsy for far too much money.
The Patriots scooped up Van Noy and a seventh-round pick from the Detroit Lions in the middle of the 2016 season for a sixth-round pick. That was a small price for a player who has started 14 games for the Patriots this season including the playoffs. And it's an even smaller price for a defender who finished third on the team in regular-season tackles (73).
The Patriots coaching staff brought the best out of Van Noy, allowing him to showcase his speed and instincts as a pass-rusher, which translated to 5.5 regular-season sacks. The 26-year-old shined during the AFC Championship when he finished with nine tackles (including one for a loss), one sack, a pass defensed and a forced fumble.
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The NFC Championship Game was competitive for a little bit. No really, that's true, even if it feels like the early stages of the Eagles' eventual beatdown happened five years ago.
With 3:25 to go in the second quarter, the Minnesota Vikings trailed by seven and had possession on the Eagles' 16-yard line. At worst they were in position for a chip-shot field goal, and that alone may have stalled the Eagles' momentum and changed the complexion of the game heading into halftime. That's when defensive end Derek Barnett took over, as he has so often during his rookie season.
Barnett catapulted off the edge and was on top of Vikings quarterback Case Keenum almost immediately. The resulting strip-sack erased a scoring opportunity and gave the Eagles offense another chance for more points before the half.
It was a familiar scene for the Eagles and their first-round rookie. Despite that draft status, Barnett can still be overlooked to some degree among a stacked group of Eagles pass-rushers. As the youngest and least established of a DE quarter (with Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry and Chris Long), he was at the bottom of the rotation and finished with the lowest regular-season snap percentage (41.2 percent). But that didn't matter, as Barnett still amassed five sacks, including two multiple-sack games.
His age makes that production extra scary. At only 21 years old, Barnett isn't even close to his talent ceiling yet.
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The Eagles defense is overflowing with pass-rushers who can do a lot with little opportunity. Which means everyone stays fresh, energized and ready to make life generally horrible for anyone trying to block them.
That includes veteran defensive end Chris Long, who was on the field for only slightly more snaps than Barnett throughout the regular season (48.2 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps). And also like Barnett, he was a whirlwind who tore up the opposing backfield.
Long finished with five regular-season sacks and had a crucial game-changing play in the NFC Championship. It was a night when he recorded two tackles and two passes defensed, and his pressure forced Keenum into a high-arcing, wobbly and inaccurate first-quarter throw that landed in the hands of Eagles cornerback Patrick Robinson, who ran back the other way for a pick-six.
The Eagles signed the 32-year-old to be a pass-rusher who can maximize his snaps and inject more life and depth into their pass rush. Long has easily checked off those boxes, and his performance in Week 16 against the Oakland Raiders (eight pressures on 24 pass-rushing snaps) stands out as a prime example.
The key to beating Brady is relentless pressure. That's how the Jacksonville Jaguars nearly pulled off an upset win in the AFC Championship Game and how the Denver Broncos knocked off the Patriots in the 2016 conference title game.
The Eagles might need a sudden jolt from one of their pass-rushers, and Long has been providing that all season.
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In 2017, Eagles cornerback Jalen Mills experienced the standard peaks and valleys of a seventh-round pick in his first full season as a starter.
Early on during a narrow Week 3 win over the New York Giants, he was correctly identified as a weak spot in the Eagles secondary. The Giants targeted Mills a whopping 21 times, and he allowed 15 receptions for 119 yards and two touchdowns, per Pro Football Focus.
But as the season went on, he rebounded to finish with three interceptions and 14 passes defensed. Then, the 23-year-old shined when he was needed most by posting a passer rating in coverage of 39.6 during a divisional round win over the Atlanta Falcons, again per PFF.
The task of containing or even slowing a Patriots passing offense that averaged 276.1 yards per game during the regular season (second) can feel daunting. But between their high-motor pass rush and ball-hawking secondary, the Eagles might have the defensive pieces to pull it off.
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Nigel Bradham has quietly blossomed late in his career under the guidance of Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. He's become a well-rounded linebacker who can be trusted to fill gaps against the run and, perhaps more importantly in his case, provide another shutdown presence in coverage.
He led the Eagles in tackles during the regular season (88) and finished fourth in tackles for a loss (six). Bradham also chipped in with a forced fumble and a sack.
But his most impressive strength as a linebacker comes when he's asked to drop back in pass coverage. Bradham finished 2017 with a career-high eight passes defensed.
His positioning and instincts as a pass defender were often present at critical times in key games. Like in Week 14 when the Eagles faced the Los Angeles Chargers, another NFC powerhouse team, and Bradham put up a passer rating in coverage of just 51.3 while getting targeted five times, per PFF.
Bradham is yet another key component in a defense that's grown stronger with each passing week. He has the elements to make Super Bowl LII anything but an easy march to another championship for the Patriots.
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