After two incredible conference championship games that resulted in wins in overtime, we're left with Pro Football Focus' two highest-graded teams battling for the Lombardi trophy.
We ranked the top 53 players from the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Rams on both sides of the ball using PFF's play-by-play grading. While going strictly by the grades can work for positional rankings, certain positions impact the game more; as a result, you'll see those positions ranked a bit higher.
Sticking with the starters on either side of the ball got us to 44 total players, and we added rotational players to get to 53, in honor of it being Super Bowl LIII. Let's dive in.
1. Aaron Donald, DT, Rams
Grade: 95.2 | Position rank: 1
PFF's highest-graded player at any position was a no-brainer here, as Donald is truly the best player whenever he steps on the field. His 106 total QB pressures during the regular season paced all defenders by 11. He also was the league's third-highest-graded defensive player in run defense. He can do it all.
2. Tom Brady, QB, Patriots
Grade: 91.2 | Pos. rank: 3
What else can be said about Brady as he makes his return to the Super Bowl? He breaks the mold for what quarterbacks of his age (41) are supposed to accomplish. Since 2016, he has the lowest percentage of turnover-worthy passes thrown in the league (1.7 percent), while still averaging the ninth-highest average depth of target (8.8 yards). He's no checkdown machine, just an elite quarterback who makes the correct reads more often than not and doesn't put the ball in harm's way.
