In case you haven’t been following the storyline of the Seattle Seahawks this year, let me offer a quick summary. It is a fun one.

Last offseason, Seattle traded away disgruntled Geno Smith to the Raiders and replaced him with Sam Darnold, and they also traded away disgruntled DK Metcalf and replaced him with Cooper Kupp. This offended a bunch of online cool kids and media members so much so that they spouted off very loudly about how terrible the Seahawks would be this year because they thought Kupp and Darnold were trash. All the Seahawks did was go 14-3 in the regular season, win their division, get a first round bye, and then they beat the rival 49ers and rival Rams on their way to Super Bowl LX for which they systematically took down wonder-kid QB Drake Maye and the New England Patriots.

Sam Darnold, who seemingly everyone not connected to Seattle thought was fold and turn into a pumpkin once inside the playoffs, never turned the ball over in three games a single time, and threw five touchdowns while out dueling Brock Purdy, Matthew Stafford, and said Drake Maye. Instead, he made his legion of loud doubters look like the biggest bunch of knuckleheads and nitwits, collectively.

So, after last night’s Super Bowl LX conclusion, the question of whether you can win a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold is a very definitive “fuck yes, you most certainly can.”

Put 28 year old Sam Darnold on a good team with a great defense, and the right coaching, and yes, our very own Ginger Cuz can get you the Lombardi Trophy. This is an absolute resounding indisputable statement of fact today.

There is a reason why he was taken third overall by the New York in the 2018 NFL draft. He’s a great athlete with a big arm, and he just needed time in this league to properly develop. Period. End of story.

That is the definitive accurate and truthful narrative about Slinging Sammy D. The Jets massively f’d up by moving on from him, but so did the Carolina Panthers, and Minnesota Vikings. This is the history that fans of these teams now have to live with.

Now, Sammy was not the big reason why Seattle beat the living piss out of the Patriots, 29-13, yesterday. Not at all. It was mostly the Seahawks defense that easily found themselves way deep inside of the head of young Drake Maye who overly confident Patriot fans felt for sure would out duel Darnold on the day.

“Just you wait, the Patriots defense is going to make Darnold see ghosts again, and he will throw five interceptions… that guy is trash.”

This was the common language I saw Patriot fans using on social media platforms when conversing with Seattle Seahawks fans all the past couple weeks. Tons of bravado and boasting, but backed by nothing more than sawdust between the ears.

I have spent a little time in the New England area back in the day, and I will say this. Each fanbase has their share of meatheads doofuses, but the meatheads doofuses in and around the parts of Boston feel, well… extra.

So, with that in mind, this win over the Patriots genuinely feels extra special for myself. In fact, I think Hollywood could not have scripted this better.

Not only did the Seahawks avenge Super Bowl XLIX, and the stupid fucking way we lost that game at the one yard line, but they did it in a way that Drake Maye, the young QB that everyone is excited about, looked overwhelmed, distraught, and generally awful on the night because of the way Seattle’s defense confused him in coverage, and got constant pressure on him. They not only made Maye see ghosts, they got inside his head and demonically possessed the poor soul of his.

For goodness sake, they made the poor kid cry in his press conference. That is how badly he played, and how much Mike Macdonald’s defenders got inside is brain, and physically put him through a blender.

For all the loud overly cocky Patriot fans I sensed out there all last week (including Marky Mark, and former Patriot Julian Edelman on podcasts), I say good. Enjoy the reality of knowing your team was in no way a match against the Seattle Seahawks, and good luck winning the division next season against Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills again while playing a much tougher first place schedule.

The Seahawk defense made Drake Maye see ghosts all game long, they scared him into numerous terrible throws clear up until the final moments of garbage time when they softened coverage to allow easy underneath completions to kill clock, and he could therefore walk off the field with some padded stats. The irony that the Seahawks did this with former Jet QB Sam Darnold should not be lost on a single Patriot fan. Blessed be this fact.

Sometimes, if you stay in the game long enough, and keep grinding, life can circle around in interesting ways. I think Sam Darnold’s arch in professional football is a fascinating one that should make any bright minded analyst rethink thoughts on how easy it is to pin a negative label on a player and stay married to it.

After this remarkable season of the Seattle Seahawks and Darnold, I do not want to hear the term pressure sensitive quarterback ever applied to him again. It was a lazy narrative used against him all offseason, and it was brought up at the mid point of the schedule when he had that one bad afternoon against the Rams in LA on November 16th.

Darnold did not have a great stat line for the night. He was off on a few throws, and he was hurried a ton against heavy pressure that the impressive Patriot defenders were cooking up, but he was the way better quarterback in the game, and it simply was not close.

He handled the pressure better. He was more decisive. He played turnover free and facilitated like a good game manager should reasonably do against a stellar defense. He did not see ghosts nor did he turn into a pumpkin. He was ready to win this Super Bowl and New England’s quarterback was not.

Simply put, Sam knew better the type of game he was in than what Drake Maye understood, and this is the vital bit of NFL quarterbacking that the stat lines don’t often reveal. It is imperative as an NFL quarterback to really understand the game that you are in, and play patiently, and ego free, and be willing to punt when you know you have a great defense which both teams clearly had in this game. Maye did not stay calm against the heavy under pressure, and Sam Darnold did.

In fact, as I have watched Darnold in this last month of football playing pretty mistake free, I can see a growth happening, and feel the potential of him blossoming into a really quality game managing quarterback for the next several years down the road. As a fan of the Seahawks, I am pretty excited about that potential, honestly. I see this as the beginning of a long sustained run with him in Seattle. I just do.

I am also very excited about the idea of Seattle hanging onto Ken Walker after this Super Bowl showing, and the way he has settled into the primary running back role for the past several games. There was a point early on in the season where I deeply questioned his fit in a Klint Kubiak scheme, but like Darnold, I think he has more than answered a ton of questions about his game lately in very positive ways.

Is he as good of a pass blocker and outlet receiver as Zach Charbonnet is? No, he is not, but he is young enough to feel like he can get better in these facets, and in these past couple months of football, I have never seen him run more decisive and stronger than he has shown through these games. He is very much a reason why Seattle ran through this gauntlet of games, making it to the Super Bowl, and winning it.

Without K9’s performance in this Super Bowl, Seattle may still have pulled off the win, but it would not have looked nearly so dominant in the scoreboard. K9 was the one explosive playmaker on offense that stepped up huge in this game both as a runner, and a receiver, which is something I projected out of him on the blog in a piece I wrote the other day.

Heading into this game, I felt New England would do whatever they had to do to limit Jaxon Smith Njigba, and they were resoundingly successful at that. I also felt that if enough attention was on JSN, there stood reason to believe that K9, Cooper Kupp, and AJ Barner were going to have opportunities to make crucial plays. That is exactly how this game played out for the Seattle offense plus some nice contributions out of Rashid Shaheed, as well. On a day that JSN was heavily held in check, Seattle found enough success from other players on offense to comfortably out pace the overwhelmed Patriot offense.

This is a sign of good game management by Darnold, but in that, K9 was undoubtedly the star of the game. He is rightfully the Super Bowl MVP even though Seattle predominantly won this game with stellar defense.

But now, let us again talk about the Seahawks masterclass performance on defense. What an incredible display they put on in this Super Bowl. It felt like they were inside the head of Maye all game long, and really, inside the head of Patriots’ play caller Josh McDaniels who is the coach many were giving an edge to the Patriots in terms of coaching advantages in this game.

Where were all these big trick plays analysts were saying would come from McDaniels and his masterful coaching savvy? The game is long over, and I am still waiting for them to materialize.

Before the ball would snap, linebackers and DBs would run to the line of scrimmage almost predicting a run play happening, and they would absolutely blow up the ball carrier at, or behind the line of scrimmage. They knew exactly when to blitz Maye and either get him into a hurried off target throw or a sack. Many times they could get to him with four rushers while changing coverage post snap, and when they did send extra at him, they almost certainly knew where he was going to throw the football and there would be a defender in the vicinity waiting to make the instant stop, or pass breakup.

To his credit, Maye made a few beautiful throws downfield (including a gorgeous late touchdown), and he made some impressive plays as a runner. He is a great physical talent at quarterback who kind of reminds me of a young John Elway a bit, but Seattle’s entire defense just had him way too overwhelmed to have the New England offense stand much of a chance.

There in lies the reason why I believe Seahawk fans can be legitimately hopeful for more Super Bowl victories in future seasons. Give head coach Mike Macdonald two weeks to scout out an opponent’s offense, and he has the intelligence to tweak his scheme in order to properly attack.

Heading into this match, I don’t think Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels were likely expecting Seattle to blitz much because that wasn’t something they did a lot in games this year. It is apparent, however, that Macdonald saw stuff on tape with the New England offense that he felt extra pressure would exploit, and the Seahawks felt very ready to attack what New England was prepared to do.

So in that, I say kudos to K9 for winning the Super Bowl MVP honor. It was well earned by his efforts, but the real MVP of the game is none other than Mike Macdonald, in my opinion.

His defensive scheme has a long list of badass players such as Leonard Williams, Devon Witherspoon, Nick Emmanwori, Byron Murphy, and so on, and so forth, but the way this guy gets these dudes playing together like what we just witnessed in this Super Bowl is next level. I know I might be accused for recency bias when I say this, but I think this Super Bowl version of the Seahawk defense is better than that of the LOB defense of 2013. It is way more exotic in totality, and that is one hundred percent due to Mike Macdonald.

This was just year two of Macdonald, and it was year one of the Kubiak offensive system with Darnold and company. Kubiak will leave to now take the coaching job with the Raiders, but I strongly suspect Macdonald will look to keep this system in place with his new offensive play caller to be named at a later date.

There is every reason of optimism for Seahawk fans to feel like this team is just getting started with a long sustained era of championship runs over the next few years or more. In fact, I don’t think it is a stretch to imagine that, at all.

With that said, let me leave you with these closing thought to wrap of this incredible season of Seahawks football. Let me paint you a tapestry of what these Seahawks accomplished in a tough division that NFL analyst Chris Simms picked them to finish fourth place in at the start of the season on his podcast with Mike Florio.

The Seattle Seahawks won their division but winning 14 games and losing 3 games by a point total of 9 points all together. They hosted playoff games against the dreaded 49ers and Rams, two NFC West rivals who Seahawk fans have feared for a number of years now, and took both division rival teams down, sending them to Cancun. They then flew down to Santa Clara and beat the Patriots in Super Bowl LX on 49er turf where thousands of Seahawk fans took over that Stadium, and the area.

They avenged Super Bowl XLIX from a decade ago, and they did it with a quarterback who three years ago was Brock Purdy’s backup in San Francisco. They beat the Patriots with the quarterback who their whole entire fanbase from the Northeast thought was a joke in the league for years, and they made their beloved Drake Maye look overwhelmed and out classed all game long.

Effectively, for the past four games, the Seahawks have punked the 49ers twice, they psychologically damaged Sean McVay and the Rams, and beat down the Patriots in the stadium for which 49er fans go to watch their team play. This is what they have accomplished.

The entire psychological trauma that is has likely placed on the 49er Faithful in the wake of this is probably a lot more than most of them would be willing to admit at this point, but it will be there nonetheless. As a Seahawks fan who still views the 49ers as the main rival within the division, I find this reality a precious one.

I would also say that there is probably a few million people in the Northeast who are, in the back of their minds, left wondering if their team is really all that after this game. They can deny this notion all they choose, but somewhere in the back of their minds, there will exist a dark cloud of doubt.

NFL seasons are fleeting. The league is perfectly set up to promote parity. Next season, the Patriots will be playing a much tougher first place schedule over the ridiculously easy last place schedule that they were awarded this year. Teams inside their division will certainly be studying this Super Bowl and looking for ways to incorporate Seattle’s game play against Drake Maye. Given these facts, it should not be shocking at all if New England has a down season in 2026, and miss the playoffs altogether.

As a Seahawk fan, I love all of this tremendously. I feel like I will be pinching myself daily for months just to make sure that this isn’t an elaborate dream I have been having. The Seahawks are rightfully back inside the minds of the 49ers, and they have now messed with the minds of the hoards of loud obnoxious Chowderheads of New England.

This here reality is really pretty awesome, and this victory parade cannot come soon enough in downtown sunny and scenic Seattle, Washington.

Go Hawks, and God Bless America, and keep her well protected from tyranny.

Go Hawks!