Super Bowl LVI will feature many firsts. 
 
It will be the first Super Bowl played at the Los Angeles Rams' new home, SoFi Stadium. It will also mark the first Super Bowl in NFL history to be contested between two teams seeded fourth or worse, as the fourth-seeded, NFC West Champion Rams will take on the fourth-seeded AFC North Champion Cincinnati Bengals.
 
If the Bengals stand victorious on Feb. 13, it will mark the first Super Bowl win in franchise history. If the Rams win, it will be the first victory for the franchise when the team has been based in Los Angeles (the Rams won in 2000, defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16 in Super Bowl XXXIV, while they were based in St. Louis before moving back to L.A. in 2016).
 
Super Bowl LVI will also feature a matchup between two first overall picks, Joe Burrow, selected No. 1 overall by the Bengals in 2020, and the Rams’ Matthew Stafford, who was taken first overall by the Detroit Lions in the 2009 NFL Draft.
 
It’s just the second time in Super Bowl history both starting quarterbacks were selected No. 1 overall. The first instance occurred in Super Bowl 50 when Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos beat Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers.
 
Burrow, 25, becomes the seventh quarterback to start a Super Bowl in his first or second season in the NFL, joining Dan Marino (1984), Kurt Warner (1999), Tom Brady (2001), Ben Roethlisberger (2005), Colin Kaepernick (2012) and Russell Wilson (2013). These six quarterbacks went a combined 4-2 in their Super Bowl debuts.
 
Coming off a torn ACL in the 2020 season, Burrow came back strong and finished 2021 among the league leaders with 4,611 passing yards (6th) and 34 touchdowns (8th). The Ames, Iowa native led the league in both completion percentage (70.4%) and passing yards per attempt (8.9). For his remarkable season, Burrow was awarded 2021 NFL Comeback Player of the Year, chosen in voting conducted by the Professional Football Writers of America.
 
Stafford, 33, transformed the Rams offence in his first season in Los Angeles and enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career. The Tampa, Fla., native finished with 4,886 passing yards and 41 touchdowns, good for third and second-most in the league, respectively. The passing yards were the third-most of Stafford’s career, while the 41 touchdowns matched a career-high that was set in 2011. 
 
With Stafford at the helm, the Rams’ offence finished seventh in points per game (27.1) after struggling to a 22nd-place finish (23.3) with Jared Goff at the helm in 2020. Los Angeles had the third-most passing plays of 20 or more yards this season and averaged 7.9 yards per pass play, good for ninth in the NFL. Thanks to their new quarterback, the Rams were able to return to the Super Bowl for the second time since 2019. According to Elias Sports Bureau, they are just the fourth team to reach a Super Bowl twice in a four-season span with different starting quarterbacks.

Super Bowl LVI will be a matchup between two of the league’s best quarterbacks, throwing to two of the league’s best receivers, facing off to see who can earn the first Super Bowl victory of their respective careers.