Josh McDaniels isn’t ducking the memory of what Seattle did to New England last February.
The Patriots offensive coordinator said plainly on Sunday that he owns the Super Bowl LX failure, the one that ended with a 29-13 loss to the Seahawks and a night where Drake Maye was sacked six times. Seattle’s pressure looked like it had the Patriots offense on a string, and McDaniels didn’t try to soften it.
“I didn’t do a good enough job. Point it at me. They ‘out-everythinged’ us in the game,” McDaniels said on Sunday.
That’s the backdrop as New England gets ready for a rematch to open the 2026 NFL season. McDaniels said the Patriots have spent the offseason sorting through what went wrong, but he also made clear he expects a different look this time around.
“We have a lot of things we’ve learned. But I think this will be a different game, I think it will be a new game.
It’s a new year. We have some different players.
They have a few guys that are new. We’ll see how different it is.
They certainly found some opportunities last year, and hopefully we’ve done a good job trying to limit those Wednesday night.”
New England’s offense rolled through the regular season as one of the league’s best units, then hit a wall against top defenses late in the year. The Super Bowl only magnified those issues. Seattle’s front repeatedly got home, and the Patriots’ line had trouble holding up, especially on the left side with rookies Will Campbell and Jared Wilson.
McDaniels is now looking at those same young players with a different lens. Wilson has moved back to his natural center spot, and Campbell is back healthy after playing through a sprained right MCL in the Super Bowl. The coordinator said he likes the way Campbell has attacked the offseason and the start of the year.
“He’s had a really good mindset all year. Locked in,” McDaniels said of Campbell. “He had a good spring, good [training] camp - trying to work on the things he knows at his position are important and critical to his improvement.”
The Patriots’ offensive line also includes free agent addition Alijah Vera-Tucker, and the group will get another serious test Wednesday night. Seattle is bringing back most of its front, and McDaniels pointed to the challenge posed by head coach Mike Macdonald’s scheme.
Even so, he said he feels good about where the offense stands entering the game. He pointed to a productive week of preparation and said quarterback Drake Maye is operating from a stronger place after the pair have gone through their second full offseason together.
“Drake just knows a lot more than he did last year in general at this time. And he’s learned a lot of valuable lessons I think over time,” McDaniels said.
“He’s also had a great mindset and approach this spring and summer about the things that he can do better and he’s worked really hard. Nobody’s worked harder.
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