Drake Maye can replay the tape all offseason and it still won’t change the damage Seattle did in Super Bowl LX. The rookie quarterback got buried by pressure, New England went scoreless until the fourth quarter, and the Seahawks’ defense piled up six sacks while constantly changing the picture in front of him. That game is exactly why the Patriots spent the summer trying to make sure the rematch looks nothing like the first one.
That’s the backdrop for the early Patriots vs. Seahawks betting line at Bovada, which has New England as a 4.5-point underdog for the trip to Lumen Field.
The number matches the spread from last season’s showpiece in Santa Clara, even though this time the game is on Seattle’s home field. The reason is simple enough: both teams changed, and the Patriots believe they changed in the right places.
New England’s biggest swing came with A. J.
Brown. After a rocky final season in Philadelphia, Brown’s numbers still looked respectable on paper - 78 catches, 1,003 yards, seven touchdowns - but the 12.9 yards per catch told a different story.
He was traded after June 1, with Philadelphia spreading a dead-cap hit north of $43 million across two years, and the Eagles got back a 2028 first and a 2027 fifth-round pick.
Brown, reunited with Mike Vrabel from their Tennessee days, called the move close to heaven. More importantly for New England, he gives Maye something he didn’t have in February: a true field-stretcher.
Paired with Romeo Doubs, Brown should force safeties to make a decision instead of sitting on the box and choking off the middle. That kind of presence changes the geometry of an offense fast.
Seattle, meanwhile, has been stripped down on the side of the ball that made life miserable for Maye in the Super Bowl. Boye Mafe, Tariq Woolen and Coby Bryant all played major roles in that six-sack, three-takeaway performance, and all three are gone now.
Mafe took a three-year, $60 million deal in Cincinnati. Woolen signed a one-year prove-it contract in Philadelphia after his role had already been reduced behind Josh Jobe.
Bryant landed in Chicago.
What’s left is a different-looking group: Devon Witherspoon, DeMarcus Lawrence, Uchenna Nwosu, Dre’Mont Jones and Dante Fowler, with Ty Okada now expected to help cover ground that used to belong to a Pro Bowler. The Seahawks still have talent, but the exact mix that overwhelmed New England in the title game is no longer intact.
Then there’s Kenneth Walker, the player who may be the most painful reminder of that night for one sideline and the most comforting one for the other. He carried 27 times for 135 yards and won Super Bowl MVP by closing out the game in the fourth quarter while New England couldn’t get the stop it needed. He later said he sensed the split coming as early as midseason.
Walker is gone now too, taking a three-year, $43.05 million deal with Kansas City, the richest free-agent contract for a running back in NFL history. The Chiefs wanted help fixing a run game that finished 25th in the league. Seattle wanted to keep him, and John Schneider said as much, but the money went elsewhere.
That leaves rookie Jadarian Price as the next man up. Seattle took him 32nd overall, making him the second Notre Dame back selected in the first round that night.
At Notre Dame, he played alongside Jeremiyah Love and built a reputation as a tempo runner with smooth hips, a feel for the crease and a finisher’s touch near the goal line. Schneider made it clear what the Seahawks expect from him: replace a really good runner, not just fill a roster spot.
With Zach Charbonnet still working back from the torn ACL he suffered in the divisional round, Price could be the back carrying Seattle into Week 1. That puts a rookie who has never played an NFL snap in the position of trying to approximate what the Super Bowl MVP did against this same Patriots defense seven months ago.
In Other News...
Former Seahawks Starter Suddenly Resurfaces After Devastating Injury
Ethan Pocics football path has taken another turn, and it brings a familiar name back into the conversation for the Seahawks. The former Seattle second-round pick, once a starter in the middle of the line, has worked his way back from an Achilles tear and is healthy enough to get back into training camp, a notable development for a veteran center trying to reestablish himself after a lost season.
Baltimore needed help at the position after Tyler Linderbaum left in free agency, and the depth chart behind him is thin enough to make any proven option look appealing. Pocics return gives the Ravens a player with starting experience and a chance to stabilize a spot that has been unsettled, while Seattle will at least keep an eye on how that situation develops given its own questions along the interior line. [Read more 🡒]
Steelers Fans May Not Like How The DK Metcalf Trade Is Aging
Sixteen months after Seattle sent DK Metcalf to Pittsburgh, the deal looks a lot different than it did on draft night. Metcalf has been productive enough with the Steelers, but not in a way that has clearly shifted the balance of the trade, while the Seahawks have already turned the draft capital they got back into a meaningful piece on defense. For a team that needed the move to work on both the roster and the cap sheet, that kind of early return is hard to ignore.
The ripple effect in Seattle went beyond one player, too. Moving Metcalf helped open the door for Jaxon Smith-Njigba to take on a much larger role, and the Seahawks have been able to build around that change while also adding a defender who has quickly become part of the conversation on that side of the ball. For Pittsburgh, the question now is less about whether Metcalf can help and more about whether the Steelers got enough back to make the price feel right. [Read more 🡒]
One Seahawks Veteran Is Suddenly In A Real Camp Fight
Seattles defense still looks loaded on paper, with a front that has been built around Pro Bowl and All-Pro talent and a steady stream of additions from John Schneiders front office. Even after losing four key players in free agency, the Seahawks have kept the group deep by supplementing the roster through the 2026 draft and by bringing in veteran edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr., a move that was supposed to help stabilize the rotation.
Now the real intrigue is in the back end of the edge-rush depth chart, where a handful of young undrafted free agents have turned the fourth spot into a legitimate camp battle. The Seahawks have made it clear that draft status will not protect anyone, and that kind of approach has opened the door for a group of hungry newcomers to push for a job that once looked like a straightforward veteran hold. [Read more 🡒]