Lineup Fantasy Football Show - Super Bowl LX Predictions | Patriots vs Seahawks

Episode Date: February 5, 2026

Mitch and Mello give their final predictions for Super Bowl LX including a score prediction and who they think has a chance to be Super Bowl MVP Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are officially three days away from Super Bowl Sunday, and we will be giving our final opinions, final picks, and our score predictions for Super Bowl 60 this Sunday. This is the lineup football show. Welcome in. I'm Mitch Anderson. I'm Justin Mello. And if you haven't, make sure to drop a like and a comment with your own score prediction, then hit that subscribe button so you can be notified

every time we drop a brand new episode. Let's get right into things. We've talked about it for three episodes now. Let's give our real last thoughts on the Super Bowl. you go ahead first. We're finally here, Mitch. We're finally here. Super Bowl.

Best time of the year. It's before we enter the worst time of the year, no football. It's like the grand finale. It's like when you like give your dog the best day ever before putting it down. That's literally how I feel right now. I'm the dog in this situation.

Yeah. Just gave you like a filet. Yeah. No, it's hopefully it is a filet. And I think it will be. I'm confident we're going to get a close game. A lot of people are in the Seattle blowout win. We've agreed Seattle should be the favorites. They absolutely should be. I think it'll be a good game.

I think the Patriots coaching staff is too good to let this game get out of hand. And as a Patriots fan, multiple parts of my body will be clenched and puckered throughout this game. I will be on the edge of my seat. Probably won't even be on my seat. I'll be pacing around like an absolute psychopath. I've had the privilege of watching my team playing a lot of Super Bowls and it is the most unsettling, uneasy feeling, but it's awesome at the same time. And the last point I'll make is just regardless of all the narratives, everyone in the media has their own narrative. We have our own narratives we've talked about on this podcast. End of the day, it's the Super Bowl. Both teams deserve to be here. Both teams belong here. And it was truly an impressive great season by both

teams, but there can only be one winner. I'm going to double down, triple down, quadruple down on my take that this is a matchup between two top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL right now that both weirdly have so much to prove. Now, Drake May's situation is, he's young. And so if he doesn't win here, still on a rookie contract. We talked about that last episode. Like, it's not like, oh, Drake May stinks. Sam Darnold, this situation, kind of a similar thing where it's like, there were such

low expectations for Sam Darnold last year going to Minnesota. and he's exceeded them so much that just being like he was an NFC champion, like he doesn't lose all that much. This is still an incredible feat. That being said, what I think this win would propel either quarterback to be in people's eyes is massive. I think this is where you take the jump as either guy into being like in those elite quarterback conversations.

And I think the guy who loses kind of gets pushed down there. I think both these quarterbacks have an opportunity to absolutely propel themselves into that elite. top five, six quarterback conversation next year. Yeah, that's the Super Bowl for you. We all diluted ourselves into calling Joe Flacco an elite quarterback when he won. Nick Foals got himself a huge payday from Jacksonville when he won. Super Bowl can do a lot for your resume.

It's pretty funny how much stock gets put into just this one game for these guys, but at the same time, man, it's like, this is what you play for, and it makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. Let's jump into both teams, and I want to give both teams what their power. to victory is, you start for the Patriots. I think the Patriots need to get pressure on Darnold early and often. Kind of common sense, you got to get pressure, preferably without the Blitz. But they do.

Like, you cannot let Sam Darnold get comfortable getting a rhythm. I think about that 2019 game, seeing ghosts against this Patriot's defense. Obviously, Donald's come a long way. He's significantly better than he was back then. But you do need to get to him and get in his head again. Quick pressure. Don't let him get into a rhythm. Don't let him make easy throws.

the Patriots pass rush has been very good this postseason. They're going to need to continue to be very good. And then on the other side of the ball, they have not been very good. They're going to have to be in this one. I don't think Drake May necessarily needs to be a full-on superhero, you know, throwing for 450 yards and 100 rushing yards. He's going to need to do all that to win.

He's not going to have to go nuclear necessarily. But I do think he's going to have to play at an MVP caliber level like he has for most of this season. get the rest of this postseason Drake May when it was cold weather tough defenses all down. They're not going to win this game. I know they did the Wild Card Round Division around,

championship round. It's not going to happen in the Super Bowl unless Drake May plays at a very high level. So there's a lot of weight on his shoulders. 100%. I had one sentence written down for a path to victory. Make less

mistakes. I think this game is going to come down to which quarterback makes less mistakes. And I just talked about a minute ago, like Sam Darnold, nobody believed in him a few years ago. Drake May, he's so young. Both of these guys are kind of the exact archetype of quarterback that you could see make a big mistake on the biggest stage. The guy who's 23 years old, could be the youngest quarterback to ever win a Super Bowl, second youngest ever go, versus Sam Darnold who led the league in turnovers this year, who had turnover issues in New York. And, you know, he's bringing it together, but like, there's a crack there. And so if you're the Patriots, you are the better coach

team. You've got to be able to force turnovers, got to force the pressure on Sam Darnold, like you said. If he gets comfortable, this game's over. And so protect the ball, make smart reads. And when you have the chance to create a turnover, take advantage. Not just take advantage on taking the ball away. When you get that ball on the other side, like, you got to go score. If you looked at that game against Houston, like five turnovers turning into seven points. zero points by the offense. I think if you do that again, you're not beating Seattle because of how good this offense is. Yeah.

And as much credit as we give both these quarterbacks, like you mentioned, you know, potentially both top 10 quarterbacks have been good all year. You're right. Either one of these guys can and has turned the ball over. Drake May. Some really bad fumbles this postseason. Sam Donald led the league in turnovers this year in the regular season. So it's really just one or two bad plays that can change the whole trajectory.

of this game. And with these two quarterbacks and these two defenses, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it's one interception or one strip sack that ends the game and decides it. 100%. I guess this is going to be kind of a continuation of the same conversation, but what's the Seahawks path to victory? Yeah, very similar to a lot of the stuff we're talking about. I talked about Patriots needing to get to Darnold. I think it's the same inversely. I think the Seahawks need to get to Drake May. And we have seen that this postseason. Drake May has really struggled when there's instant pressure in his face, which is unfortunately for the Patriots happened a lot this postseason. So if the Seahawks are able to get quick pressure, we've already seen. It works. And it works against most quarterbacks,

but Drake May especially has just really been struggling when he doesn't have enough time to throw. So Seahawks got to get to him quick. They've been good all year with the pass rush. And then on offense, I mentioned in a previous episode, I don't necessarily love Ken Walker this week. I don't know that they'll be able to run the ball effectively against this Patriots run defense. But I still think they need to try early on and they need to establish the run

because if they're unable to establish the run, they can just get after Donald tell their pass rushers get out of the field. I don't see a way the Patriots win this game if the Seahawks establish the run early. Just full stop, point blank. If Ken Walker dead's going early and the Patriots have to start stacking the box

and not sending as many pass splits and stunts and schemes up front, I just don't see a way the Patriots can win this game if the Seahawks are running the ball effectively. Yeah, I had written down, like, force three and outs early for the Seahawks. Force the Patriots to go three and out, force them to really lean on Drake May. I mean, ideally you're forcing three and outs and you're scoring on the other side. Make this team really lean on Drake May more than they want to. throw the playbook out at halftime and say, okay, here are the adjustments we're making

and make Drake may have to be aggressive in this game. Because like knowing a Josh McDaniels offense, like he's going to have his moments where he picks his spots and Drake's going to be aggressive here and we're going to be taking the little short dink and dunk here. And like they have a plan. They have a scheme. Force them out of the way the thinking going into this game. Force them to make adjustments because if you get the Patriots off schedule, that's how

you take away the big coaching advantage. Yeah, I completely agree. All right, here's the moment we've all been waiting for. I think everyone knows who we're both taking to win, but give me your winner, bold prediction, and score prediction. Yeah, I've been saying for weeks and weeks now, the Seahawks are the most complete team in the league, the best team in the league,

they should be the favorites to win the Super Bowl. But you know, I'm gone with New England. I'm a homer. I'm obviously going to be picking my Patriots. Give me Drake May in a big bounceback game, throws for more yards in the Super Bowl than he has in either of his last two games combined, and the Patriots pull off the upset 24 to 23. I love it.

Here's my score prediction, and I don't think this game goes the way people think. I think the coaching advantage, again, has been overlooked. And that's no shade towards Mike McDonald, who's done an unbelievable job. But I think Vrable has these guys ready to go. I think it is the single best coaching season I have watched in my lifetime as a football fan. I think the Patriots win this one 27-24. I think Drake May shows us the magic he's shown us all season. Going back to the three-passing touchdown well,

I think he's going for three passing touchdowns in this one. I think you're going to see Drake May holding up that Super Bowl MVP trophy and the whole world that's been saying fake May and the schedule. They're all going to have to watch that post-game presser and think, God damn it, Drake May is here, and the Patriots are back with the brand-new Dynasty 3.0. I am getting a little bricked up just hearing you talk about. I got to, we might have to change the subject because if that dream becomes reality, I'm pretty hot and bothered.

Let's move on to our last segment. We're going to keep talking about the Super Bowl. We've been doing it all off season. We are going to take, sorry, all postseason, we are each going to take three guys set our own fancy points line and try to get the other person to guess over or under. And this week's set the line. All right, to recap, we talked about it last week. Overall, I'm 7 and 2 on the postseason. Mello is 5 and 4.

You would basically need a clean sweep of misses for me and a 2-1 record. I'll let you give me my first one. Yeah, I got to be good this week. I'm going to set tough lines for you. And I'm going to start with the guy that you have as the Super Bowl MVP. And I wrote down an initial line, I'm going to juice it up now that I know. Oh, I'm going to juice it up. now that I know how bullish you are.

I'm going to set Drake May at 19 points even. Over. Over, over, over. I thought you were going to go like 25 and then I was going to have to think about it. No, I had it at 18.3. I almost juiced it up more, but I was like, I can't. I can't go that high. I want to change my bold prediction from three passing touchdowns to Drake May is responsible

for three touchdowns. Okay, that's fair. So he can rush one in. Three touchdowns from Drake May. that's the easiest over of my life. All right, let me give you my next one. We talked about him a little bit. Ken Walker, you're not super high on him,

but I took his line at 17. Would be his lowest point total of the postseason still at 17. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's a decent amount of points, but yes, it would be the lowest of the postseason, but I talked about how much I love this Patriot's defense. And last week it was the death of me. I said, I will not go down

because Ken Walker failed me. So I bet against him and he hit the over. I'm going to do it again, though. I'm not going down betting on Ken Walker. I refuse to do it out of principle, especially against my Patriots in the Super Bowl. No, I'm taking Ken Walker in the under. Patriot defense is great.

Give me the under there. Okay. All right. I will move on now. I'm going to go to his teammate, Seahawks side. A guy, you think a lot of people are going to be taking in DFS. maybe you don't like him quite as much, but he is a big play waiting to happen.

I'm going to give you Rashid Shaheed at 8.1 fantasy points. I will go under because I think this line is too much unless he returns a special team's touchdown and I don't think that happens here. I think I like the Patriot Special Teams too much.

So give me the under on Rashid Shaheed 8.1. I hope you're right. I hope I'm right too. This is going to be double bad if that happens. I'm going to save my favorite one for last. I'm going to go to Matt Collins, my pick for a 100-yard game here. I'm setting his line at 6.6.

I made this way too... I mean, this is around where I think his median projection is. I just think he absolutely crushes this. Yeah, I'm not quite as bullish on him as you. I think 6.6 is, like, actually realistically a good line, in my opinion. I think that's where it should be. But you like him a lot. Like the 100-yard game.

And what I like is the touchdown outside. And all it takes is one touchdown and he's already hit the over. So while I do see a universe that Matt Collins in this game goes one catch for 13 yards and doesn't even come close, I think there are enough variations where he hits the over that I'd rather be on that side. So I will take the over and I will be rooting for him just like you. That is a great. Literally only takes one line where he could catch a one yard pass for a touchdown and that would be 7.1 points and he would go over. Yep, exactly. So I do like the over there. I will cap off my last set the line option here with a guy.

You've liked a lot throughout this season. We haven't really been talking about him as much for the Super Bowl, though. I'm going to put AJ Barner at 8.8 fantasy points. Oh, this is an interesting one because I'm a little worried to go under on two separate Seahawks here. but I love JSN, I love Cooper Cup. And so 8.8 is slightly too rich for my blood. I like a 3 for 40 from AJ Barner, so give me the under on that one. Mitch, I think we've so far gone three unders on three Seahawks

and two overs on two Patriots. Okay, well, here's your chance for... Let's see how you feel about Hunter Henry, 8.1 points. I already know your answer. Oh, that's a, I was like ready to take an under on a Patriot just to prove her not time. Hunter Henry 18.1 points. 18.1, I would reluctantly take the under. But if you're actually giving me it at 8.1, emotions aside, I genuinely love the over there. I've talked about it a couple episodes ago. I'm all over Hunter Henry in this Super Bowl. Give me the over there. Easy. Not even a question for me.

Okay. Let me give you a fresh line. Just so that we can, like say something super positive about the Seahawks. Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, 21 points. I would take the over. I would take the over too. I would take the over. It's probably a good one. Sam Darnold, like 18 points.

I'd, ooh, 18 points is actually kind of high. Yeah, that's a little high. Sam Darnold, 16. I take the over on 16. I'd probably taking the over there. Yeah, I would take the over on 16. All right, that would say something nice about the Seahawks. Thank you everyone for watching.

I know this was a super quick episode. we will be back on Monday reacting to the Super Bowl. You are either going to see two absolutely fired up guys for that show or two of the most depressed football fans you have ever seen. I'm really hoping it's the former. Make sure to drop a like in your score predictions down below and hit that subscribe button so you can be notified when the Monday episode drops. And we will see you guys bright and early Monday morning.