FOXBOROUGH - I couldn’t remember the score.
That’s how one-sided the Patriots' Super Bowl loss to the Seahawks was. I had to look it up (29-13 was the final). Quite frankly, my recollection was it wasn’t that close.
Seven months and one day later, the two teams meet again, this time to kick off the 2026-27 season. The Pats have dabbled in Seattle ‘stuff’ at various points during training camp, but Mike Vrabel told me they didn’t want to overwhelm their players.
“I think you have to be careful how much you do early on. I don't know how much gets retained,” he said, adding, “There were times during training camp or times last week that we tried to do stuff, but I think you just have to be careful.
“You know, it's the first game. They got a new coordinator, and some things will be different. I'm sure they'll have some plays that are similar that they like, and you know, I think their defensive structure may be the same. It may not. It's a good defense. They're very talented. So you have to, I guess, be careful how much you show them, and try to focus on what it is that we're trying to accomplish.”
The second half of that answer was a good reminder that week ones tend to be the outlier more than a true tell of what’s to come. Just look at the start of the 2024 season under Jerod Mayo (a buttoned-up win at Cincinnati). But neither team made wholesale changes. The Patriots are returning their entire coaching staff and most of their key performers from a year ago. We’ve covered all that. But what has changed in Seattle as they look to become just the 9th team to repeat as Champions?
Departures: Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III (Kansas City), cornerback Riq Woolen (Philadelphia), pass rusher Boye Mafe (Cincinnati), safety Coby Bryant (Chicago).
Additions: Edge Dante Fowler (Dallas), RB Jadarian Price (1st round pick), RB Emanuel Wilson (Green Bay), CB Avery Smith (LA Chargers/UDFA), first-year play caller Brian Fleury (previously the San Francisco 49ers’ tight ends coach).
Second-round pick, safety Bud Clark, was spending a lot of time running with the first-team but suffered a broken ankle and has been lost for the season. He was going to be Bryant’s replacement, and with his ball skills and ability to play some at corner (that’s where Bryant began his NFL career), it really had a chance to be a 1-for-1 move.
In addition, that physical freak Nick Emmanwori had offseason surgery and didn’t come off PUP until August 11th. He has been working his way back, but his availability for week one has not been confirmed. At 6’3”, 225 pounds, Emmanwori’s ability to act as an outside linebacker but also cover out of the slot made him a weapon in Mike Macdonald’s scheme, giving the head coach/defensive playcaller the ability to play a lot of two-high but remain physical enough to handle the run game with lighter boxes.
Beyond that, the Seahawks also find themselves playing cornerback roulette. They inked Trevon Diggs to the practice squad and former Lions first-rounder Terrion Arnold as well. Arnold is not likely to be available any time soon as he goes through the legal process for his off-the-field drama (kidnapping charge, among others), but it would seem very likely Diggs will be on the field two Wednesdays from now. But that outside corner spot opposite Devon Witherspoon is dicey, though Josh Jobe held up well against the Pats in the Super Bowl.
But if you think that makes the Seahawks vulnerable, I'd like to remind you how dominant they were defensively last season.
Total Defensive EPA: Ranked 2nd in the league, trailing only the Houston Texans.
Red Zone EPA: Led the entire NFL (-0.23).
Scoring Defense: Allowed a league-low 17.2 points per game.
Gulp, especially because that front 7 remains the same (Fowler in for Mafe as a sub-rusher). Seattle was excellent at scheming up ways to attack and defeat the Pats' protection plans, absolutely dismantling the Pats' offensive line and often fooling Drake Maye.
Maye was sacked six times as Macdonald got into his kitchen, maneuvering his personnel to the point that it led to linemen blocking the wrong guy or not blocking anyone at all. Witherspoon blitzed more times (7) in that game than he had the entirety of the regular season (6), and it was a double ‘B” gap blitz that he got home on that led to a defensive touchdown by Uchenna Nwosu that ended the game (for all intents and purposes).
Veteran right tackle Morgan Moses praised the Seahawks for their plan that night, and the way their players executed it. He’s also seen enough to know that, as Vrabel alluded to, it could look different at Lumen Field.
“It's the evolution of the unknown,” he told me Tuesday. “It's game one, and obviously, you know, you can't really look at preseason games because nobody really puts that much out there. But looking forward to whatever curveball they throw, knowing that we have to operate as a unit, not as individuals.”
Now imagine that Pats OL having to handle these types of looks/pressures in the raucous environment in Seattle. That’s a tough spot.
On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks are rolling out the same offensive line as they did in February. Milton Williams was a force that night, though as he noted, he had the chance to make a handful of plays and just missed. Keep an eye on him.
Otherwise, the big change comes at running back, where Price, a 1st-round rookie out of Notre Dame, is in for Walker. Price didn’t play in a single preseason game because, with Zach Charbonnet on PUP, the Seahawks don’t have great depth at that spot.
"He's a special player," Sam Darnold said after the Seahawks' August 21 joint practice against the Titans. "He's a really special player. He brings a different facet to the offense that only a guy like him can bring. Whether it's catching passes out of the backfield, catching screens, running in between the tackles, outside the tackles. He can really do it all, and I know he's just going to continue to get better and learn."
The other X factor could be second-year tight end Elijah Arroyo. He has been used out of the backfield or, when lining up in bigger personnel, as the ‘X’ receiver. At 6’5”, 254 pounds, with good speed, Arroyo could be a handful.
Notable offensive stats for the Seahawks:
- 9th in explosive play rate
- 15th in success rate
- 20th in rushing the EPA but had the 2nd-highest run rate on early downs
Can the Patriots turn Darnold into the pumpkin they thought they could in the Super Bowl?
"Not to be a friggin' douche, but I didn't play great in the Super Bowl," Darnold told the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast. "I missed way too many throws, and we still won. Our defense balled out, and I didn't turn the ball over, which helped. But dude, to win the Super Bowl that way, I was kind of bummed."
Darnold went so far as to say he didn’t even rewatch the game until right before OTAs in April. Reports on his spring and summer have been positive, but we’ll see if he meshes as well with Fleury, who is well-thought of league-wide, as he did with Klint Kubiak, now the head coach of the Raiders.
"It's a lot of the same stuff [with] Fleury obviously coming from San Francisco, but a couple different wrinkles here and there," Darnold said. "So it's been good that way to be able to get some of that same verbiage but just a couple different wrinkles.”
This game won't make or break the Pats' season (barring catastrophic injury), but will test them on all fronts and, in doing so, give us a better idea of what they are right now and, perhaps, where they may be going in the future.
"We’re focused on just competing against Seattle," Vrabel said, "not competing for something that’s going to happen in February."