NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Super Bowl LX Recap with Sam Darnold, Mike Macdonald and More!

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

The 2025 NFL season ends on a career-defining night for Sam Darnold, Kenneth Walker III and the Seattle Seahawks. The Seattle defense hounded Drake Maye and the New England Patriots offensive line for 60 minutes straight en route to a 29-13 victory in Santa Clara, California. Darnold is solidified as a champion for life, head coach Mike Macdonald catapults himself amongst the all-time great game planners and Walker III is a Super Bowl MVP. On this edition of NFL Daily, Gregg Rosenthal, Jourdan Rodrigue and Nick Shook navigate the minutiae of Super Bowl LX, with interviews from Darnold, Macdonald, Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and more! NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Alani in the backfield now. Play fake to him. Sam stops. Looks throws. Got a man wide open. Touchdown.

It is A.J. He could not wait to get out of that hotel. Talk to him yesterday. He said, I've got to go hit somebody. AJ, how about catching a touchdown too? He does from 16 out. They continue to live. First and 10 at the Seattle 44.

Here comes the blitz. May. Here is he. Tries to throw. Ball comes out. Shannon Owensu, and he scores. Touchdown. Seahawks defense.

They have done it again. That party is just getting started. The Super Bowl 60 champions, 29 to 13, Seattle Seahawks over the Patriots. That's Steve Rable. We got to give the voice of K-I-R-O and the voice of the Seahawks the first word in our Super Bowl recap show. We are in a trailer outside of Levi Stadium. We're near the substation. So if Nick shook or Jordan Rodriguez or I get injured on the way out of this thing,

blame the substation. Wow, what a performance. And fitting there that Nuosu gets the final touchdown. Because this defensive performance and this defense is something we're going to be talking about for a long time. Oh, no, I just pulled a hammy on the way of the trailer. No, just kidding. But this is a performance deserving of nothing more than. Holy catfish, she says.

Oh, I mean, it's the defense that dominated all year. And they showed up in full force the dark side as their nickname. And man, they blotted out the sun for the Patriots today. It was a rough night for Drake May and for this Patriots offense, who stays scoreless until about 12 and a half minutes left. They end up getting two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but it was way too little and way too late. And I think that last touchdown is actually a good place to start

because it's a Devin-Witherspoon blitz. It's a Devin-Witherspoon quarterback hit. It's Nuwosu capitalizing and taking it the other way. But it felt like the turnovers were going to come eventually. And Drake May was just frozen and taking hits. And as the Patriots offensive line was not really ever getting a beat on where it was coming from, Witherspoon had a couple great blitzes. in the first half as well.

You just felt like eventually this was going to happen. Eventually it did. Let's actually listen to the first turnover by this Seahawks defense, the strip sack by Derek Hall late in the third quarter. Stevenson in the backfield now with a wide slot to the left side. May steps up in a pocket and he gets hit. Ball is on the ground. Seahawks fall on it.

Murphy. Seahawks have it. And that was just part of a game. where May looked flummox, and part of it was the game plan by our guest on NFL Daily. I should have mentioned Mike McDonald's coming up on the show. Sam Darnold's coming up on the show. We have a future Raiders coach, Clint Kubiak, who we talked to on the field afterwards. But it really felt like McDonald was in his bag with some of these blitzes early, Jordan,

using the guys from his secondary and getting home on Drake May. He doesn't blitz a ton, typically. but when he does, it's these really well-intended, like well-executed, perfectly designed blitzes that also use the fact that the quarterbacks looking at every other player along that front wondering what they're going to do as a leverage point. And that play was so impressive,

obviously the way that it was orchestrated and resulted in a turnover, obviously. But there was also one right before that, which got Drake May worrying about where pressure was coming and doing so almost immediately when he rushes two interior defensive linemen as well as sending the blitz.

The defensive tackles get initial push and penetration against that front and then they all of a sudden shed and drop back as fast as they possibly can. So it's basically like, forgive the phrase, Greg, a riptide,

basically flowing in and then sucking out and then there's Witherspoon flying around the edge to hit him. It's just, and to force him. an errant throw, it just was a master class early on from Mike McDonald, who I thought Nick

was in his flow immediately in this game. And you could see Drake May felt it. Yeah, this is a team like he said that doesn't blitz a lot. And actually, if you look at the numbers, they didn't blitz a lot. They only blitz seven times the whole game. But it felt like they were blitzing all the time because of the way that he designed the pressure. And it showed up early. And we only got like one normal sack in this game. And it was when one of the rookie defensive linemen just went right through the chest of Jared Wilson and bent him backward and then grabbed onto Drake May and sacked him. Otherwise, everything else was the product of design. Riley Mills.

Riley Mills. First career sack. Fifth round pick out of Notre Dame. I think he had about three tackles on his career before this game. And he picked a perfect time to get his first career sack. Other than that, it was all about stunts. It was about bringing blitzes from different areas. And this offensive line, which we, you know, I discussed it covered all week with the Patriots,

which is veterans on the right side, Morgan Moses. and Garrett Bradbury at center, right? And you continue down the line, Michael Owenu at guard, and then you have the two rookies on the left side. It was very clear from the jump that they were going after that inexperienced left side. They were going to bring the pressure off the edge. They were going to bring Devin Witherspoon.

And then by the time you got to the second half, they had no idea where it was coming from with all the stunts, the twist, what you just described, which in a stunt situation would be called a flash where a guy hits and then disappears, maybe twists around. In this situation, it was a little bit different. It confuses them, and they could now. ever get settled as an office.

Can we call it a riptide? Would that be okay? Can me please? Okay. It's trying to get the glossary right now. Confusing word. Look, we're watching this game and you're thinking like this is a historic performance and we're watching at the very end.

I called the, you know, the first three quarters on Talk Sport, but then we run down. We watched the end in the green room with the rest of the NFL network people. And Judy Batista, who has an MVP vote is kind of canvassing, you know, who guys, who do you think? And you're thinking, like, someone from the defense deserves it. Ken Walker obviously ends up getting it. But at the time, it's like only a hand, like each person on the defense contributed, but it was tough to know who to choose.

Derek Hall does end up getting two sacks in this game. Byron Murphy, who's coming up on the show, does get two sacks in this game. But as always, the pressures are just so evenly distributed. Lawrence with seven, Hall with six, Nuoosu with five in that touchdown, Maffei with five, Witherspoon with three quick pressures, four for Byron Murphy, three for Jaron Reed. And it's just like the answer to who's great is just everyone. Yes.

And anyone that watched this game and thought it was a little boring or thought it was, you know, slow. And it was kind of what the worst case scenario would have been certainly for the Patriots. But also in terms of just entertainment value is like hasn't watched enough Seahawks game, I guess, to be surprised. Because that's what this reminded me of. If so many Seahawks game, the Falcons game where they blew them out in the end, that was six six at half. time. That Colts game against Philip Rivers, right? They're trailing, that wasn't against Rivers. That was 49. When they played the Colts, they're down 13-9 late in the third quarter. Don't have a touchdown to the fourth, but their defense just keeps getting stop after, stop, after stop, and waiting for the offense to finally do something. And then they do it. The Panthers game in the regular season, I think, was 3-3 or 6-6 at halftime before they kicked the doors in in the second half and just ran away with it. Even that 49ers, Week 18 game is a 13-3 game. they're playing football in a way that we just haven't seen teams play football since those Ravens teams and those Bucks teams. And those Rams games kind of get stuck into our minds.

But those were the anomalies from the rest of the season. And they've just had a way of getting stop after stop and almost betting the other defense, who's playing well in this game. The Patriot defense, I think, had a championship effort basically in this game. And it just didn't matter because they're a very good defense, but they're not a special defense like the Seahawks. Yeah, the Seahawks defense, what it has become its calling card all season long, and certainly over the last two years it's evolved into what it is in this form right now,

is it smothers you in a way that and suffocates you in a way that a lot of our best and most favorite offenses have over the last couple of years. It just has this inevitability to it that just feels like it will just keep like just pushing against you. And immediately it was so fascinating to watch Drake May quite literally look for different pockets of the field that he could attack in the passing game. The run was not working. And he was every possession, it felt like they came out. And they didn't have a lot of bites at the apple in terms of actual throws and snaps there because they kept going, you know, three and out and punting and all of these four and out and punting. But he was looking, he would try to attack the flats one time.

He would try to throw it deep another time. And there just was no space on the field for him to find because that's what this defense does. And then they will also get in your face and make you afraid of them as the quarterback as they do it. I felt, you know, by the time you got to halftime, I was thinking this is one of Josh McDaniel's most challenging and perhaps worst performances in the play caller. And then what I came to realize was that he's trying and he's just a step behind this defense because they can bring it to you from so many different directions, which is what we

talked about with this defense is that they're unique in that they have. have the personnel to do something that basically any of the defense except maybe Baltimore when Mike McDonald was there or when Kyle Hamilton is healthy can do. And there was a perfect sequence of the first half where I thought it illustrated just how they were, they were, how the Patriot's hands were tied. Yeah. Because they're bringing pressure off the left side. They're bringing pressure from different areas.

They're bringing pressure without manufacturing, you know, not having to blitz. And Drake May's head is in a blender. Like he's just having a really hard time figuring out what to do like you just described. And the sequence was, okay, we're just going to try. And if the blitz is there, dump it off the flat. Because if they're bringing these guys from the left side, there's got to be open space. And there's a slant coming in from the left side. There's one defender out there.

It's Julian Love. And they try to dump it off to Remandre. And Julian Love's right there to tackle him in the flat for no gain. And it was an incredible play by love to ride with the slant, and then immediately double back and take down the flat because he knew that they were going to force him to throw there. They were a step behind this defense. The Seahawks dictated to them on both sides of the ball all night. It was crazy.

And I wouldn't say on both sides of the ball. I mean, on offense, they certainly. Well, except for when Ken Walker would rip off some nice roads here and there. They just didn't finish drives. We'll get to that in a minute. But I do think that it just was one step forward, like five steps back for this Patriots offense where a first down to 21 yard, I think, passed gets them a really positive conversion. We're in an open-air press box.

There's Patriots fans. It was a Seahawks crowd for sure. There's a smattering of Patriots fans in front of me. And Eric Roberts, losing our. in their minds just for a second. And then it's tackle for loss, tackle for loss, sack for minus 10. It's minus 15 yards. You only get six net yards in the entire possession.

It's like you had something. And then all of a sudden they just decided they're going to snuff it out because they just have more areas of the field covered than you can attack. It's like three or four straight drives in the first half where they move the ball a little bit and then they get a huge negative play and they can't overcome that. And all that's true. And it's because like they had 1.3 yards per pass pretty. pretty deep into the third quarter, which is just insane.

All that's true of how great Seattle was. But Drake May was awful in this game. Like, I mean, it's not like... Cheers, voice break a little bit there. Yeah, his voice cracked. I mean... I know. It's late and I go, oh, Greg.

I'm so sorry. Like, Drake May, I was... We were talking about it with Ross. Like, is this great offense or is a bad... I mean, great defense or is a bad offense. And the answer is a lot of both. On both sides. Like, did Seahawks offensive line

couldn't identify anything. There was like a two-play sequence where Will Campbell, you know, they try to take a play action shot late. And Will Campbell just gets beat so fast that Drake May can't get rid of the ball fast enough and he gets hit while he tries to throw it late. But the play before, Drake May holds onto the ball forever and just doesn't scramble. He was absolutely frozen. There was many, you know, plays in the game where Drake May was so. so hesitant to scramble or even while he was scrambling, he couldn't get away from the guy because he didn't do it with authority. And he also just like missed wide open throws. The sack that you're

mentioning earlier where the rookie, you know, just walks, walks the center back, Jared Wilson and ends up sacking Drake May for a negative. I mean, that was 100% on Drake May. He's just his guy's eyes down the field. He has no feeling of the pressure in front of him at all. He has just, he has so much space on both sides and he has no feel and he's and he's so locked into his own head. he could have gone either way and just moved in the pocket. The first turnover after what was, I think, eight or nine straight punts, the Derek Hall play. Like, that was 90% on Drake May. He just stepped right into pressure.

There was, like, some pressure on the outside coming in, but then he just kind of gets his eyes down and he runs forward right into Derek Hall. So it's a game and a postseason that does change what Drake May's season was. Because if you put this four-game stretch in the middle of the season, and think how differently you feel about his regular season. And it happened. Like, there's no, there's no weather excuse here, and there's just misthrows, and there was not being able to, like, get out of bad plays

that we've seen from him. You give a lot of credit to Seattle, of course, but it was the combination of, like, a quarterback who was pretty lost and a defense that was firing on all. And I think it actually all goes back to how Seattle approached it from the very beginning, because there's a sequence where the people,

Patriots actually move the ball into the edge of Seattle territory. And you have the Witherspoon pressure off the left side that force is made to immediately bail out of the pocket and just chuck it away on third down. They have to punt. They have a sack in a similar situation where Witherspoon comes off the edge gets his sack and it backs him out of Seahawks territory again. And I think from that point on, they were always that step behind because, like I said, his head was in a blender because he had no idea where this pressure was coming from. And I think that affected his entire process. We talked this week about how his clock's been a little bit slow. It wasn't slow tonight.

it was broken because of what Seattle's defense did to him. And then by the fourth, by the second half, you kind of don't see him really become himself again until there is no tomorrow. There's nothing to lose. And they just start chucking it down for you. You could, you could see there. And let's be clear, too, the Seahawks are only up six and oh at the time I'm about to talk about here, six to zero at this point where we're in the second quarter.

And Drake May is running sort of a long boot. And Boe-Maffei is chasing him down. and Boyamafe is so quick off the boot that he just knows. He cuts it off immediately. And you see Drake May looking at him. Like, you are here right now. And it rattles a quarterback when they, you see, they know what you're going to do before you actually do it. And your solution, again, to mitigate pressure, those long boot actions and the nakeds and stuff.

Like, that is, he's right there. He's in your face immediately. And then it rattles the entire rest of the green. group, Will Campbell has a false start right after that. So you got two negative plays and then a deep shot to Mack Hollins. It's incomplete, but it was a desperation heave. Let's try to draw a PI. Like it just was so, we think we might have an answer.

Oh, crap, we don't. Oh, gosh. Okay, let's just try to, you know, sling it like down the field. Patriots, All-Pro 2026 guard, Will Campbell, left guard. I mean, I'm telling you. It was, on one hand, disappointing to, you know, of them get waxed in the Super Bowl. On the other hand, like, it was there to see history. His last game is a start. Yeah. What have I said since Indianapolis could be a very great guard

and just a very average tackle. Look, I give more credit, obviously, to the Seahawks that I do, just saying it's a bad Patriots performance. And what you give the most credit to is McDonald and his not just game plan of this game, but kind of like a season plan and a multi-season plan and how he's added all the layers to this defense. And with John Schneider, added the right rookies and the right free agents and everyone playing their role. And it all came together tonight. And I don't mean on the field.

I mean after the game when he got to talk to us. And most importantly, I think there's at least a chance that Jordan Roderig is responsible for this Super Bowl championship for the Seahawks. After we get done with the interview you're about to hear, I really should have led the show with this. Mike McDonald tells Jordan that he listened to the play caller series about, you know, Sean McVey and in Kyle Shannon in that tree. And what did he say to you? I said, no way.

Did you really? He goes, yeah, I took some notes. And it was, I immediately started crying first of all. But I also was like, my heart stopped. That's the coolest thing. That dude just won a Super Bowl. He took the time, Greg, like he pulled me aside to say that. Right, but you also cost the team you were covering the Rams the Super Bowl.

We're going to gloss past that. Because Mike McDonald's taking notes and he's figuring out. I'm going to cry again. He arrived here to be the McVeigh and the Shanahan Stopper. And that's how he got to this Super Bowl was getting through those two men by cribbing the notes that Jordan was taking. My only problem with it was he didn't say it on the show. I said that to him. I don't know if he heard me.

I was like, I wish you said this on the show. But here is. Yeah, that was Greg's takeaway from the entire thing. Always thinking about content. Here is what McDonald did say on the field just a little while after winning the Super Bowl. We are here with the newest Super Bowl winning head coach, Mike McDonald. Mike, you obviously come up with this plan. You practice it for a couple of weeks.

What about what they did tonight were you most proud of in terms of how they executed? We came out and we were us. In games and stages like this, it's easy to try to be extra or maybe try to do something that you haven't been done all year. But our guys really believe that their very best was going to be good enough. It was very evident early in the game that they were playing that way. And at that point, we made some adjustments. But the guys just kept playing. I'm really proud of them.

They made it happen. It was really incredible. One thing I really appreciate and have appreciated about how you call games and how you sort of feel that game flow is you clear. clearly feel so connected with them quickly and they you and today you're dialing up those corner blitz blitzes early and what about what they were showing you and what you felt from your guys made it clear to you that this was the a plus plan ready to go well they do they always they always have my back they always say hey look you know dial it up we got your back and i'll tell you what it's not just me saying the words it's our coaches from down in down out from series to series understand what we're going

to do next, prepping the guys. It's really a team effort. And it makes it, hey, look, when they, when they play the way they did tonight, you know, you pretty much call anything and they're going to make it come to life. Second year head coach, and here you are kind of at the forefront of the league. Like, what about connecting to your players did you learn this week? Because I think, fans that are just learning about you, saw you on the stage after the NFC championship, see you on the sideline and join yourself after this. What has that been like for you as a young coach? Well, you know, we always use this example, but it's not like I came in with a, you know, a big head coaching book, say this is what we're going to do. Anytime we go into a new experience,

we're doing it together. And I think they feel that for me and it's real. And it is real. That's how we roll. And now we have some experience to draw on. So it's pretty cool. Yeah, just like how you call a game, it seems like you go off what you feel. And I think for a guy we know is like sort of a scheme wizard, right? That's a cool thing too. You have that connectivity, that emotion with it too. Yeah, sometimes you just got to trust it. And that's easier said than done. So you did a great job adjusting during the game. Any adjustments you need to make as you go out into the night here

and celebrate your first Super Bowl championship. Right now I'm going to hydrate, so make sure we have a good night. All right, thank you. Mike McDonald. Very cool that we are in the position to talk to McDonald, who does give off great energy. I'm in for life now, obviously. Yes, yes.

Like that was, first of all, great that we got to hear from him, right? But who does that? Just takes a moment to say something incredibly kind to a complete stranger. Like, that's, like, come on. Somebody who just won a Super Bowl and did it on his own volition, in his own way. Man. And look, he is the vanguard right now of defensive coaching in the NFL. Like, he is that dude.

And if you look in the history of the NFL, most of guys who become that dude, like Ashana McVeigh, like most of them aren't like McVeigh. They don't, it doesn't take them a while to win it. They win it pretty early. Like usually if you're going to win a Super Bowl with your quarterback, in this case at Sam Darnold, you win it early on. Because everybody catches up. Exactly.

And I stopped myself from asking that question, like, just saying like, you know, everyone's just going to be watching and everyone's going to be copied. Everyone's looking for their Nickyman Worry. Everyone's looking for their Mike McDonald's stopper now, whereas he was the stopper before and he has this system. But he's going to have great continuity. he's going to have his quarterback. Let's talk Sam Darnold's moment.

Wasn't his best game, wasn't his worst game. It was a Sam Darnold game. And what he did, what I mean by that is like he is part, like it's not all about the quarterback in the NFL. Sometimes it is, like in the NFC championship game, but this team can win games in different types of ways. And in many games this season, Donald hasn't had to be at his very best.

And you'll hear in a second, he was even hard at himself for me. missing some throws in this game. He was part of this game plan, and yet, like, he... The substation just hit us, by the way. No, just me losing my footing. Like, Darnold was just making sure he didn't make any big mistakes. There was a couple plays early where he was close to it,

but what stands out to me most is one of the most turnover prone players in the NFL. I think he finished second, right, in the regular season. Didn't turn the ball over once. in the postseason. And they were more or less unstoppable this season. If Darnold didn't make a big mistake and if they could run the ball

and like check, check. Even if it wasn't an explosive offensive performance, it was more than effective enough to win this game going. Yeah, and that was the key. And that's kind of what I was alluding to earlier is that like, Sam missed some throws early. He also made a couple of really nice throws very early in the game.

But it was very clear to me and I think to everybody else there that, okay, we're not going to put this game necessarily win or loss on Sam. We're going to use Sam to compliment what else we're going to do because we know our defense is going to play very well. And if we can run the ball effectively, then we don't need him to go out there and throw the ball all over the yard to win. We don't need him to play like they did against the Rams in the NFC championship game. We need him to play like they played the week prior against the 49ers. We need him to play like he did down the stretch of the regular season.

They ran twice on third and long. Exactly. Avoid mistakes. Which, by the way, that's the team that runs on third and 16 against the first down. The Seahawks team. That's the team. They avoid mistakes by sticking to the run, being able to balance it out enough. accepting that, hey, we're taking field goals right now. Because as we talked about in the preview show, I remember you just harped on this repeatedly,

you give him an edge, you give him a three point edge. He can now play his A plus plan. He played his A plus plan the entire game. Yeah. And it wasn't until they kind of, like they admitted it afterward. I think it was Devin Witherspoon

who admitted it afterward that like, yeah, we kind of took our foot off the gas in the fourth quarter because we had that lead and we were still mad that we gave up those two touchdowns. But they were in control on that side of the ball. And it allowed them to just kind of balance things out offensively. Don't ask Sam to do much because at one point, Sam was 12 for 27.

I looked at Sam's line. I looked at Drake May's line. And I looked to our editor at NFL. com, Brooks or Sossimo, and I said, well, both of them are playing pretty poorly. But the Seahawks are clearly dominating this game. Darnup is winning the game by two scores, and he was five of 16 at the time through. I think it was their eight drives, something like that for the Seahawks. They had 12 points, which is, you know, 1.5 points per drive.

That's what, like, the 2025 Jets offense would have. But again, they weren't turning it over. And in the end, they did capitalize on that Derrick Hall. turnover and then scored a quick touchdown to the barnyard dog. Heck, let's listen to the call on TalkSport. Gets Barnas to join the backfield and hands off to Halani. No, it's a fake. He's going to look for a shot to end zone.

It's a Barna. Barla holds it in. Touchdown. Seahawks. The biggest man on the field for Seattle breaks out of the formation, into the back corner of the end zone. And on the play action fake, Sam Darley. and finds his man, and Navy brings a second title to Seattle.

A.J. Barner is a walking mismatch. He gets right past Jack Gibbons, the Patriots linebacker, and into the red zone. So much of their offense is around that man. And I don't know if anyone can cover that man in the Patriots one-on-one. That's play-by-play, Greg. I couldn't tell that was you first. Did your voice, like, change a little bit? Might just be the sound there.

You know what? And also, kudos to our really good friend, Will Gavis. Because when we were at the Green Day concert earlier this week, I was worried that he had lost his voice. We were screaming the lyrics. That's a pro. You know what? I love that call. I know you had a blast doing that.

And we, Eric Roberts and I were sitting next to each other in the auxiliary press box. And we went and found you. We sort of scoped you guys out up in the booth. And we were just really proud of you, Greg. And like that touchdown was so cool to me because it was the defense setting up the offense, which is exactly how. this team has played so well, setting them up, especially with a short field, right? Not making Sam Darnold have to do too much, not making this offense have to do too much. But then right at the exact perfect moment, have Clint Kubiak dial up something so simple and so

effective that they've been setting up all game. And that is those escort motions with the tight end that make it look like they're going to run the ball because of the way that he's coming across the stack from the left side, moving over to the right, pausing for just a second to where. he's legally set again, which makes you think it is going to be a run play, which means the running back won right behind where A.J. Barner was just blocking open a gap, but instead having him sift instead of escort the runner, sift into the opposite side of the field, wide open behind three different defenders

who clearly were loaded inside the box thinking that it was, in fact, going to be a run play. So simple, so effective. That is how the biggest man on the field, gets behind the entire defense. And what's the beauty of the sift? It's the sneaking through the shoot. Don't be noticeable. I'm the biggest man on the field,

but nobody look at me because I'm just going to happen to go get open in the corner of the end zone. So it's so wide open that all I have to do is catch this ball that's not perfect, but it's good enough for me to catch for a touchdown. And then it makes me text Jordan. AJ Barner, because I was like on the preview show. Sneaky AJ Barner MVP moment, baby, baby. He was the first one in the end zone for the Seahawks today.

I don't know if I don't think he deserved MVP. I'm going to say, I don't know if he won him. No, he did not win MVP. Thank you. But it is fun to watch him in person. He reminds me a little bit of Darnell Washington for the Steelers. And just that so much of the foundation of the offense is built around his movement and his versatility. The type of guy that, like, I know it doesn't light up the box score.

What do you have five, six hundred yards? Yeah, but he's also the type of guy. But you can just see like if you didn't have him, they would not be the Seahawks. Yeah, I mean, even earlier, it didn't even amount to anything, I think in the long run. But there was a third down where Sam Donald's like under a little bit of pressure. he's under duress and feels it and he looks for AJ Barner hits him. Barner makes the catch, spins around a defender, breaks a tackle, gets the first down. It's the small things like that that then open up the ability to make a big play.

And I don't know if I found it like I was hard on Darnold because I think he played a good enough game. And I think it's kind of like May in their performances where they won in the AFC playoffs early. There actually were a number of plays where it's Sam Darnold's evasiveness. to the pass rush got them a first down. Milton Williams won clean like four times in this game against Anthony Bradford. He got one sack, but on a couple others, Bradford makes a miss, makes a completion

to get a first down, they get three points on that drive. Another one where he makes Milton Williams miss, he scrambles, gets a first down. They get three points on those drives. Now, he was the reason in part that they didn't get seven. Like he misses the throw to cup pretty wide open. Misses JSN just before half. Right.

In the red zone. Like there was a couple of throws that he, he didn't miss, but I thought he played loose for what it's worth for the whole night and like played his normal game. Let's listen to Sam Darnold on the field. Colleen's guy. I mean, a lot of people's guy, but a man that we've had a sound drop for a long time on this show that I got to try to say live to the man himself. We are here with Super Bowl champion Sam Darnold, unreal. Ron, how does that feel to hear that Super Bowl champion, Sam Donald? Yeah, it's pretty special, man. You know, just the crazy ride that it has been for myself,

you know, I can talk forever about my teammates in that locker room, but yeah, I mean, it feels pretty good. People want to hear about yourself now. You talk about yourself because I feel like people, whether it was with the Jets throughout your career, like Minnesota certainly, like they feel invested in you because I think they like you as a person and that your teammates like you as a person. So give yourself maybe a little bit to talk just about like maybe what that means for all them to get to watch you do this too. Yeah, it's, you know, I think hopefully it just inspires them, not only them, but other people,

you know, in the NFL, in the world just to be able to, you know, keep your head down and go to work. And, you know, as long as you work hard, you know, good things will happen. And even if they don't, just continue to put your head down and go to work. Sam, I think speaking, as someone who just watches on the outside, you have been the guy who has taken some adversity and just kept on showing up. At what point did you realize in your career, not only you were going to be that guy and continue to be that guy, but also to be here right now when at a certain point maybe it felt like it might never happen for you.

Yeah, again, like I said, I just kept my head down. And, you know, even this whole season, you know, it's a long season. You know, we had the buy going into the playoffs. that felt like forever. And then, you know, these two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, that felt like forever. So it was just like, as a team, like we just stuck with our process. And we did what we do throughout the week. And we looked up.

We were, okay, we're here. We're playing the game. Now we can focus on the game and everything. Because there's a lot that comes with this game, obviously, with media obligations and things like that. But it was just a, once we got to the game and we were able to kick the ball off, it just felt like we were doing exactly what we were supposed to do. And, you know, that's why we do it.

The first couple of throws that you had, that throw to cup, even the first down that you had before that. I was thinking early on we're going to get to see, like, how you're feeling. How did those particular throws feel on that first drive? Yeah, it felt pretty good. I think there were definitely some nerves, but that's like any other game. But, yeah, the throw felt pretty good. I think Koot made a heck of a play on that to come down with it.

But, yeah, I think also I missed a few throws. that I'd like to have back. But again, every single time we feel like we needed a, you know, a jolt, our defense was able to step up and make a big play for us. Yeah, I was going to say, it's nice to say, I know you mean it when you say it too, but you'd like to have some of those back, but you're wearing the hat right now, my friend. So maybe not this game back overall. I want to know, what did you learn about your teammates, getting to know them this year?

I know you want to talk about them. What is the thing that resonates to you, the first thing you think of when you think of them? Shoot. That's a great question. I think just resilient. Like we've all been here. You know, our coach put up a slide last night, getting ready for this game.

And he just, it was actually AI. It was all these different roads going to Seattle. And Seattle was like surrounded by a lake, which it is. But it was just, it like clicked for me. It was like all these people in this room, these defensive guys, everyone in the building has had different paths to get them to this moment. And, you know, that's just, it's special to be able to play with a lot of guys where,

you know, this means something to guys. I feel like sometimes you can come to work and it's just another day at work. And, you know, you get to go home and be at home after that. But it's like, no, we give 100% effort every single day for our teammates. And, you know, I think that's why it means so much to be able to play with guys like that. I have the best question for you all night because it's the last one. I have it on good authority. You're getting out of here right now.

So what's next? What's Sam Darno doing right now? Are they yelling at you to get down here? No, I mean, they said this is it. This is the last one. And we're getting him out of here. I don't know, man. Drink some beers.

Watching the office a little bit? Drink some tequila. Oh, is this supposed to be PG? No, no, no. I said tonight. You better not be watching the office tonight. Yeah, I'm probably just going to go home after this and watch the office. No.

I'm going to celebrate with my teammates and my family and friends that were able to come to game. Enjoy it. Thank you, Sam. Easy to feel just happy for a guy that, like, Like, everyone that's played with them probably loves him for a reason. Like, they're not all lying, you know. They love this dude.

And he's a Seahawks legend forever. Like, he's a Super Bowl winning quarterback forever. And they're thrilled to have him. And he's got to be the guy that leads their team for a while. So shout out to Sam Darnold. I doubted you. You know, I did. Yes, you did.

That he could get to this moment necessarily. and he did it. And I believed in this team all year, which the head of their press department, their PR department reminded me on the field right before giving us McDonald and Darnold that, hey man, you've been picking us all year.

You've known since October. You've been with us. I've really appreciated that. Why did you pick us against us tonight? Dave Pearson, kind of a big deal, was standing a good 15 feet away from Greg and pointed at him. It was incredible.

He's like, I watch you. I watch you on Game Day of you in the picture. You knew. You knew we were good. You actually got us. And then you don't pick us now. And I'm like, did you look at him and say, I'm sorry, I'm a ass. I said, I grew up there.

I had to go there. I had to go with the heart. But look, it wasn't the head. The Seahawks deserved champions. Let's take a quick break. And we'll come back with more after. This month, IHeart Radio is celebrating the stars of the 2026 Winter Games. Scottsdale, Arizona, produced Austin Matthews, who headlines a star-studded roster as

NHL players return to the Olympics. One of the most lethal goals scorers in the world, Matthews brings his elite wrist shot and MVP pedigree to Team USA. For the first time in a decade, the world's best pros are facing off for national glory. And Matthews looks to lead the Americans to a miracle finish in Italy. For more Winter Games gold, search Olympics on the IHeart Radio app. I'm Dylan Playfair. And I'm Tyler Smith. We're putting loneliness in the Penley Box by talking to some of our favorite athletes about the importance of friendship. This is Bromance. Bromance is brought to you by Charm Diamond Centers, proudly Canadian-owned and operator.

Charm has been part of your love stories and bromances for over 50 years. And you can find Bromance on the IHeart Radio Network or wherever you get your podcast. Second down and three steps up in the pocket, going to let one fly down the seam and it's intercepted. Coming back near side, 40, 45. Midfield, Julian Love. 40 steps out of bounds on the near sideline in front of the Patriots bench. So that interception by Julian Love really is what ended the game. It's with eight minutes and 49 seconds to go.

The Patriots did force a punt and score a touchdown in the fourth quarter. There were so many points in the fourth quarter of this game. We entered at what, 12 to nothing. and then the 17 to 13 score in the fourth quarter. May throws probably the best two balls that either quarterback threw all night back to back out of nowhere, like a pass over the middle that was what to digs over the middle that just was like a C&I whole shot. It was like, oh, there's the Drake May. And then a bomb to Matt Collins for the touchdown.

You're like, okay, they cut it to two scores. They get a stop. They get the ball back. in another world where the Patriots offense was actually playing, like, well, down to scores, 10 minutes to go, isn't that crazy. That Julian Love thing puts it away. And one of the reasons why the game was out of reach at that point is because the Seahawks were able to get explosives on offense. And they did it with Super Bowl MVP Ken Walker.

How about that man making some money tonight? And one of the most fun running backs in the league to watch kind of having his moment in the biggest stage. At one point, he had as many, he had more yards than the rest of his team combined and the Patriots combined. It's so crazy. And Greg, we were talking about this when we were kind of waiting to go on to the field in the fourth quarter and in the bowels of the stadium. Their success rate was pretty bad. Like he was pretty bad success rate wise. It was just a 29.6% success rate running the ball per next gen stats.

But the thing that really differentiated Ken Walker tonight was the explosive runs, which really set Sam Darnold and the rest of the office. up to get those field goals and to go ahead 12 nothing in the first place. And then also the way that he moves, it's so crucial to like the ethos of what this offense wants to do because he will be patient. He'll almost wait and almost just like hold the ball in one hand. And then he'll stretch you to the side or he'll stretch you to the other perimeter. He can run between the tackles. We know that.

but the way he just like sort of flows side to side and back and forth when he's trying to hit these perimeter runs in particular really sets the stage for those play action shots over the seam that Sam Darnold came out swinging later in the game after a couple possessions. I tried to hit that one to Rashid Shahid that Christian Gonzalez broke up by like a fingertip. And all of that was set up by the fact that they had been flowing the Patriots defense from side to side. and because of the way that Kenneth Walker was running, and when he would hit those explosives, it immediately set them up for success, at least for a field goal. Yeah, it was so funny how they came out with that intent offensively

from the beginning. It was getting the run action going early, whether it was handing off to Kenneth Walker, having the fake on the reverse, somebody coming around in motion and still going through that. In fact, they essentially did that type of pre-snap motion and post-snap motion as well, where they're handing it off to them,

but that guy's still coming around the backside multiple times. They're never really tossing it to him. Then they toss it to him once. But before they toss it to him, they were in a play action where they fake it to Ken Walker and the toss, and then Donald drops back and tries to throw a pass there. They had so many avenues that they could travel with this offense. And it all starts with Ken Walker.

And the thing about this that took me again back to our preview show where we thought about, all right, what's the real difference between these teams? Because they're both very sound and they both have pretty solid schemes, but there was a talent difference. And I felt like the Patriots sound tax. acklers felt like they were just this close and couldn't close the deal defensively all night. And it was because of Ken Walker's running style where he's sneaky elusive. He's able to go one way, bend it back the other.

He's able to take a handoff that's a designed misdirection or it's a design situation which he's running inside and he's got to read which way he's going. And Kairis Tonga tries to shed this way. And as soon as Kairis Tonga tries to shed this way, Ken Walker goes the other way and rips off a nice little chunk up the middle. No matter whether it was wide, it was inside, his ability as a runner, his vision, his explosiveness elevated that offense. and really powered him to that MVP performance.

Look, the first play of the game was a 10-yard run by Walker. Yeah, to the perimeter. I just felt like, oh, that's a bad sign. Yeah. I turned to Eric and I go, perimeter run. Yeah, like that was an omen. And there was a drive where he hits a 30-yard run and then a 29-yard run back-to-back,

the one where he goes up the sideline and keeps his. And on that play there, I thought Barmore was going to cut it off in the backfield. He's this close. He misses. You think he's going to get cut at the edge. He gets around the edge. I mean, he so often goes against the grain of what's blocked and doesn't do what's called that it cracked me up that there was a play in the second half where he did exactly that, except the Patriots didn't even go where the play was going to go because they were waiting for him to go where the play wasn't supposed to go.

And he ran into like a three-yard loss. They were all waiting for it. It's like, we're on to you. But by then it was too late. It was too late. He had made too many big plays. I do think we should give the Patriots defense some credit because, look, Christian Gonzalez. had an awesome game.

Save two touchdowns. You know, three passes, defense, some of the most beautiful, like, diving passes, defense that you ever want to see. He traveled with Jackson Smith and Jigba for much of the game. JISN had 27 yards on 10 targets. So one of the least effective things that the Seahawks did tonight was throw the ball to Jackson Smith in Jigb.

Legacy Patriots defense, going back to the Belichick days, sometimes he would go into these matchups to just eliminate the best receiver from the game. Although it wasn't like that complicated. For the most part, it wasn't always, it wasn't always Gonzalez, but that play at the end of the half, which maybe that was one of the throws Sam Darnold was talking about. But I actually think it was just a better defensive play than it was a bad throw by Darnold.

Oh, it was a fantastic. He's got a third of the field to cover and no one else is over there. He's in phase the whole time. And he took a hit while he threw it too. Yeah. Like he, you mean, are you talking about the past breakup that Christian Gonzalez made? Yes, but also just like the fact that, you know, he has a third of the field to cover with.

with JSN who tries to put the move that he's going to go to the outside. Gonzalez never bites on it. And it's just there aren't many cornerbacks in the league that could do that. Yeah. It just, it was really cool watching him play. And really the Patriots defense, you said at the very top of the show,

Greg, I do think that they showed up like a championship caliber team. Oh, yeah. Would show up. They, it was clear from the beginning that, and you mentioned the perimeter run with Kenneth Walker. And we were kind of laughing about it because it's like,

yeah, of course you're going to run away from like where Milton Williams right and where that great defensive interior is, right? And they were getting pressure on Sam Darnold. They were blitzing a ton, which they've been doing at about a 40% rate since week 14 anyway. They were up to like 70% at one point during the game, dipped a little bit back down. Sam Darnold really, Sam Darnold was really struggling against the blitz in the first half. He was blitzed on 12 of his 22 dropbacks per next gen, pressured six times total,

completed just five of those blitz dropbacks. and there were nine, he was pressured nine total times at half with six of those coming off the blitz. So yeah, it got to him and it hassled him. Now he wasn't sacked during that time, but it did hassle him. It did get to him. And you could tell that this was something that the Patriots were just going to be as aggressive as they possibly could, knowing that they had guys like Christian Gonzalez who could cover so well on the backside. It's a team game.

Like when the Patriots defense was on the field and the Seahawks defense was on the field, if this was a boxing match, like, there was no knockout, but in the end, like, the judges scored it 2-1 for the Patriots. The Patriots won that battle, ultimately. They give up one touchdown in, what, 13 drives, and that one touchdown was a 37-yard drive. Like, they just gave up field goals, and most of them weren't even long drives. But ultimately, like, yeah, it's all four units and including special teams, which wasn't a huge factor today that matters. And on the other side of the ball, it was a... second round knockout.

Maybe not even second round. It was Mike Tyson versus Michael Spinks, and they just wanted to get out of the ring as soon as possible. And, you know, if it was a boxing match, collect their paycheck. Let's talk to some of the defenders that were, you know, knocking the Patriots out. We got to talk to one of the best young defensive players in the league in Byron Murphy. And we also talked to Jaron Reed.

I really enjoyed both of these interviews. Let's listen to the Reed one first. So you're going to hear these back to back. Jordan and I talking to Reed and Murphy on the field after the game. What's up, Darren? Congratulations. I've got a mic for you. I'll hold it a little higher because it's a little quiet.

Here we're again. A little further, so we're not. All right. We are here with Sharon Reed of the Seattle Seahawks, a big part of tonight's dominant defensive line performance. At what point in the game? did you realize that you had the number of the men across from me? Hey man, look, we respect them, but we knew from the beginning, if we just go out there and be us,

then we could dominate this game. What's that feeling like collectively? You guys rushed with violence, with purpose, with a little joy too, I like to think. When that all connects, what that feel like? Man, it feels good. It's just a testament to how we work every day. You know, we're well connected off the field, and we talk with each other every day. All we got to do is be us, rush together, talk, communicate, we'll have a great game.

You've been a long time Seahawk. You've been there. You've been Elser, and now you're back. What does it mean to you to win this title as a guy who stayed with the Seahawks all this time? Hey, man, it means everything, man. Being drafted here in 2016, you know, I was gone for two years, but this is where my heart at, man. This is my home. You know, I belong here.

And to bring the Super Bowl back here means everything. Like, I got so many emotions. I don't know what to feel right now. Well, we can see it in your eyes now how powerful this feeling is because there must have been a time where you wondered if it would ever come, right? And now you're standing here. I mean, look behind you right now. Oh, yeah.

That's a beautiful feeling, man. That's a beautiful feeling. Everything we work for, man, we worked so hard. People don't understand how hard we work. And we deserve this, man, every bit. You put a defensive performance, really a season that everyone's going to remember. What are you going to remember most about this group of players? Man, just our togetherness, believe it or not.

The way we shadow box, our lingo, how we talk, everything is it. Believe it or not, it's crazy. of the lingo. I can't, man. You know what I'm saying? It's just an inside thing. You got to be inside the walls. But, you know, it's a special team, man.

We're connected on all levels. From the quarterback to the D-line, to the officer line, to the receivers, the D-Bs, man. We are a true family. When did you guys turn from this is a really great defense to the dark side? And if that happened. Man, I think we knew it all alone. Like I told everybody all week, you know, we had a group chat called the dark side.

But we had the identity. We just had put a name to it. And now you see why? Yeah, John Schneider drafted him in 2016, brought him back, and now forever he is a Super Bowl champion. Jaron Reed. Tell us about what it is like to be a Super Bowl champion. Man, I can't even put it into words. It's the best feeling in the world, though.

I tell you that much. And I just want to give all the God, you know, without him, none of this is not possible. So I just want to give a shout out to God, my family for, you know, just support me, you know, being on his journey with me. And, man, I'm going to feel good. It feels good to be a Super Bowl champion. You're too. It's a blessing. This team felt so connected all year. And obviously the defense has led the way and been such a backbone for this entire group.

But the connectedness in every phase, what's that been like for you and seeing it, I mean, look behind you right now. Like seeing it manifest like that. What is it like right now? Oh, man. It's a great feeling, especially when you know you put it in the work, you know, to, you know, to, you know, to be. to be in this moment, you know, since throughout all season, throughout OTA's training camp, you know, this is what we trained for. And, you know, we got, when the opportunity presented said, you know,

we took it. Now we're Super Bowl champions, man, so. And all the guys, you know, I feel like everybody had one goal. We all bought in, we all bought into the program. You know, everybody wanted to win a Super Bowl. Everybody put all their eggs in one basket. We just rolled, man. You're like a connoisseur's defensive lineman.

Like, everyone knows Byron Murphy. like he's better even than the numbers show. But tonight you got to have some numbers. Go get the quarterback. How did that feel on the biggest? It felt good. You know, getting two sacks. And the biggest, you know, the biggest game in the world,

that's something I never forget, man. So I also, too, I just want to give a shout out to my teammates and the guys that I was rushing with, man. So if it went for them, I wouldn't be able to get them two sacks. So just rushing is one. Hey, I was really funky, cool pressures that you guys have been drawn up all year. there was one tonight that got spoon-free off the edge for a pressure, and it was two defensive linemen.

You guys looking like you're going to go in and penetrate up the middle and then popping back. The athleticism that you guys collectively have to be able to do something like that, kind of everybody eats, even if it's a corner who's, you know, finally getting his time to do it too. What are those designs like for you and really thriving with that athleticism? Mike McDonough loves to build for you guys. Hey, I call Mike.

Mike the Wizard, you know, I feel like he be, you know, he put us in the best position to make plays. And also, too, I just feel like he'd be knowing the play before it happened. So, man, when Spoon came free and, you know, and got the second, I wasn't even surprised. Like, I know when he dialed it up, it's going to work 100%. You know, I don't ever have no doubt, you know, in his play calls or anything. So, you know, when he called, when the play call came in, I knew something was for the happen. What did it feel like tonight in the huddle on the sideline? You know, I know they got a couple

scores late, but you have them with no no points on the board through three quarters. Like what was that feeling amongst you guys as you're trying to pull off history? Oh, it just felt good. You know, we just kept telling, you know, we just kept telling each other, you know, the defense, you know, no, we're not going to allow them, you know, the piss will drop. You know, we want to come out here, you know, obviously we didn't get the shut out, but you know, that's what we wanted. But, man, just, just playing great defense and playing great team ball, man. That's, that's all we wanted to come here and do it just you know proofs of the world you know we're the best defense in the world and you're you're so young yeah to contribute the way that you did tonight i mean we talked about

stats but even the unseen things you know the pressures and and getting other guys free building as a team to contribute like this at such a young age does it feel like the rest of the world is open to you now at this point what does this feel like uh it feels amazing uh just be able to you know contribute to Contribute to the team and help my team win. No, that's all I care about. You know, I don't care about none of personal stats or anything like that. I know that's going to come.

I just care about my team and helping my team win. That's all I care about. That's all that matter to me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, we did. Appreciate you. Yes, we did.

Byron Murphy, you wanted to be with the best of the world? They are the best in the world tonight. Yes, sir. Just an awesome performance by that defense on the field and in front of the microphone. Yeah, and for the listeners. as Greg does often remind me that this is for many of you in audio medium. We, these guys are understandable.

They're really emotional when they come to talk to us. They just won the freaking Super Bowl. So, of course, we have this massive graphic banner behind us on the Jumbotron that says Super Bowl, 60 champions, Seattle Seahawks. So I'm like, man, can you look at that for a second as you're talking? And then realizing after the fact that our listeners are not aware of what's happening and they're just, I'm just telling guys to turn around and look at something behind them. You're being too hard on yourself.

Go watch the YouTube. The fear of the mind. But it was a really cool thing. And I really like talking to Duren Reed because it was like he didn't think that this would ever be possible for him at a certain point. And you could see it all over his face as he kind of processed it. Yeah, he's a guy too that has been a role player. He's kind of one of those guys that Seahawks fans know that will always hold him in a special place, a role player for a long time that they gave. like a smart, short, pretty sizable term contract to keep them around kind of as like a seventh

defensive lineman. And that's why you give John Schneider so much credit for building this team. You know, DeMarcus Lawrence leads them in pressures tonight as a free agent pickup. And just all the moves that came up big. And in the end, when you look back at like how this season played out, how we were kind of like, man, was that NFC championship? The Super Bowl? I was like, yeah. Yeah, it was. And we knew it in the moment. But I got to give a shout to DeMarcus Lawrence.

Well, you're right. We'll move past that. DeMarcus Lawrence, who leaves the Cowboys and leaves with the parting shot of, yeah, Dallas is my home. I love everybody there. But I knew I was never going to win a Super Bowl with them. Immediately goes and went to Super Bowl with the Seahawks. Congrats to you, sir, for dunking on the Cowboys. We love good manifestation right there.

Big victory. Yes, yes. That's on his vision board. And it's true. If, like, if people are going to give. titles so much weight when doing quarter? Hell, let's make defensive end wins a thing. I mean, DeMarcus Lawrence's Hall of Fame can I see should go up quite a bit after.

I got to give another shout out too. Okay. In a losing performance. Because I'm sitting there up in our press seats that are getting roasted by the sun for the first quarter and a half. It's a miracle as a bald man that I don't look like a tomato right now. For those of you watching on YouTube, for those of you listening, just imagine it. But I'm sitting there thinking. you know, Craig Woodson's having a pretty good first half.

Yeah. And I think Ken Walker might have had a Russian touchdown or two if it wasn't for Craig Woodson. And so even in a losing performance, a hell of a rookie season by that guy, somebody who one of his teammates said on opening night, if there's one household name that becomes a household name during the Super Bowl from that defense, it would be Craig Woodson. We'll forget about it.

It'll be in the footnotes. But his performance was deserving of that, much like a lot of this Patriots defense that we just covered already. They deserved better. But unfortunately for them, football is a three-phases game. Yeah, and it's a huge missed opportunity. They got to this point.

A lot came together for them to get to this point. They were not a complete team. Like, if they are going to be a great team under Mike Rable, it might look a little more like the Sean McDermott-Bills build, where, like, you had that first year, but you still had a lot of pieces that you needed to add to that. Because a lot of these guys are short-term players, and they got to this point

and they're going to still have to really build a nucleus that gets better. So this is not their final form. But they also had like an incredible opportunity to just go win one game. And they learned they really weren't in the class of where the CHawks were at. And to me those are, you know, as a fan. And I don't know if that works as a player, maybe easier to swallow just because I think you looked at them tonight and you just kind of accepted like, yeah,

not that good. They had a great season, but they weren't like a Super Bowl champion in waiting. The Seahawks have much more of that look. Well, I think it's time for them to be honest about all of that, right? And it'll sting for a while, but as they go into the off season, be really honest about where the deficiencies actually were, the difference between luck and schedule and explosive moments that worked in their favor because they all executed at the same time very, very well. And, or all of these little things, these little moments that happen in infinite fashion over the course of season, to look at those things and say, okay, this is actually a legitimate problem. I would point to the offensive line here, the run game.

These are legitimate problems. Okay, maybe the defense is beyond expectations or above expectations. Certainly the quarterback is who he is, as long as he doesn't have more repeat performances of what happened to him tonight. It's one of those things where the Seahawks were really honest with themselves last year. The Seahawks were really honest with themselves when Mike McDonald decided that he was going to fire Ryan Grubb and bring in Clint Kubiak as his new offensive coordinator to piece together little additions or cuts to the roster. They cut their tight, one of their long time, not long time, but had been there for a couple years, tight ends at the beginning of the season. Everyone lost their minds. Well, they were moving in a new direction with Clint Kubiak because of the vision that they had and what they were not the previous year.

So that's where the Patriots now have to go. They have to look at the way that they got here and it's great. And I think they can feel really good about that. But similar to exactly what this Super Bowl winning Seahawks team did last year, really look at their flaws or where they're at or below average. And I don't think they're that far away from getting back again. Even though the defense played great, they got to get, you know, they need to find more core young pieces, get more athletic on defense.

They need to get the offensive line. And they still need to upgrade the people around Drigme. The best thing that they're going to have to feel about Drick May, And this is going to be a big thing for him to overcome is that he's 23 years old. That he's that he's two years younger than, you know, Jane Daniels and Bo Nicks and all these other compatriots. And he got to this place a little ahead of schedule. But what is he going to be like as a player when he is 25, 26, when he has more experience at the pro level? And it's a lot to come back from because he was not good in these playoffs.

And I think he'll own that. Yeah, I think he will. The beauty of life and the beauty of losses is that you can learn a lot from them. And the two beauties in this is that Drake May is on a rookie contract. And you just had the most cap space in the league that you spent like crazy because you had to last year. And it's also that you're all going to learn from this experience, Drake May especially, in how overwhelmed he was by the defense that he faced, which we may look back five, ten years from now. And that was an all-time great defense.

And it obviously, you know, he drowned in it tonight. But look, he's in a second. I don't need to look back. The DVOA had them going into this game as a top 10, top six overall team of the last 30 years. I do think it's a historic defense. They went and spent and they spent and they spent. And one of the positions that they went and spent on was at center. And Garrett Bradbury was not their first choice at center.

They went after Coleman Shelton, who the Rams brought in to help take some of the pressure looks that Matthew Stafford was starting to see a lot of courtesy of what everyone had seen Mike McDonald's defense due to him and the various pollinations of that defense due to him. They brought him back in because he needed actually, and he would say this to you, wanted just because you can see all of it and direct all of it. It doesn't mean you should always have to. Your center has to pick up a lot of that stuff. And you think about these little moments that happen when a team is being built over the

course of months and months and months at a time. And I think that when you are looking at that decision, you're looking at a couple of other decisions here and there drafting. Well, Campbell is one of them. If you're the Patriots, your Mike Variable, you are putting your Mike McDonald hat on right now and looking at things multiple years in a row. And especially in a game like this where you can point out specifically where things went wrong, oh, our quarterback's awesome.

Maybe we shouldn't ask him to handle those types of looks all by himself as often as we do. You know, these are the types of things to build off of. So we talked about the changes in Seattle. and Clint Kubiak was obviously one of the biggest ones. Both he and Rashid Jihad arrive in Seattle, about what, nine months apart. Yeah, different times. Sheeat comes during the season.

Clint Kubiak comes in January, and it ends up just one year for Clint Kubiak with the Seahawks. He did confirm to our Stacey Dales. Of course, he is becoming the Raiders head coach. And look, he's going to have a busy week ahead. I don't know if he's even going to find time to go to the parade because he's got a whole staff to hire. We talked to Clint Kubiak on the field after the game.

We are here with Clint Kubiak, Super Bowl champion, offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks. You've obviously been in football in a long time. How does it just hear to hear the word Super Bowl champion with Kubiak? Yeah, really cool. It's a blessing. We're on a great team, great organization. So just really fortunate to be able to work here this year.

Clint, I want to start with Sam Darnold, where we must start, because what a journey for him. There was this, like, radical positivity coming through your building all this time about Sam, about what he could accomplish and the belief that you guys had in him. What does it mean for you to see him on stage like that after this Super Bowl win? This is good to see, you know, good things happen to good people. Sam's been working his tail off. He's been through adversity. He kept fighting through it, and he's a world champion now. So it's really fortunate to work with him.

He's a stud of a player. And, you know, for the moment that he got here in April, all he's done is elevate our team. So, you know, I'm proud of him. He's a stud. Schematically, you guys won in so many different ways this year on offense. And we love watching your defense all year, of course, but you problem solved a lot with your offense,

whether it was first the explosive pass game off that play action, the run game really getting going. You guys found some creativity with the perimeter runs. What was it like to problem solve with this one? group with these players with Sam and Ken Walker. Yeah, I mean, that's the name in the game. You know, every time you start doing something well, someone takes it away and you got to find new ways to win.

So we just have a really good roster. I mean, John Snyder has a deep roster here with a lot of great talent. And, you know, he allowed us to come here and coach, bring some coaches from New Orleans. And it's really grateful for him and Mike bringing me here. Your father obviously, like, experience so much, you know, as a head coach, how is it going to be to share this experience for you with him? Yeah, I just saw him on the field. You know, 10 years ago, you know, I got to give him a hug after they won it all.

And so the only way to describe that is from God. You know, it's a blessing. There's no other reason to describe all the great things that happened this year. I mean, what kind of bragging rights do you have over your brothers, though, at this point? You know what? I saw my brother a minute ago, too. He was here supporting us. We know how fortunate we are to get to grow up in this business.

And now to get to experience this is a real blessing. Clint, I know you're going to celebrate tonight, all of that. You know I have to ask, though. The rest of your life, the rest of your head coaching career comes after this. How are you feeling about it right now? Yeah, I'm a Seahawk all night tonight. I'm going to celebrate with these guys because, you know, we deserve that. We worked our tail off.

And, you know, whatever happens next will happen. but I want to celebrate with our guys tonight. Speaking of celebrating, like, you're running back. Kenneth Walker is going to be a Super Bowl MVP the rest of his life. He also has an uncertain future, but he gets to enjoy this. What's it like coaching him? Because sometimes watching him,

he doesn't always run the same way it looks like the play is supposed to be called, but damn it doesn't work a lot of the times like tonight. Yeah, well, I would say K-9 is another great success story because he was hurt, you know, in training camp, and he really just played his best football toward the end of the season. So we don't make this run without him in the playoffs.

And you're right, he has a crazy little running style, but he's a supreme athlete, really gifted, and he's got a heart as big as this stadium. So we all love him and we're all proud of him. Clint Kubiak, newly crowned champion. He's a Seahawk for tonight. Go enjoy it. Thank you, y'all.

Appreciate it. Okay, we are wrapping up our 20, 25 season in this wild little trailer. Bigger than last year. Next to the substation, everyone did a great job setting up. Bad Bunny, thought that was great. Excellent. Not that I, you know, am overly familiar, but just like the set design and everything just kind of looked amazing.

Lady Gaga came out too. It's always like a better TV show than it is like a live production. But the TV, you know, we had a copy in front of us. It looked absolutely great. The TV did not get to see the streaker that my son Walker videotaped running on to the field. Maybe I'll put that one out. Corrilla journalist Walker. Social. Apparently that was like. He's coming for our seats.

Yeah. His favorite moment of the entire game was Kyle Williams, you know, tracking down that streaker. You can't really call him a streaker. No, no, actually, he wasn't a streaker. He was a shirtless man running across the field with remarkable speed for a quote-unquote streaker. And also understands better than some quarterbacks

who will not be named how to protect himself. Because as soon as he saw Kyle Williams, he immediately slipped to the ground. Yes. It was so funny because he juked a security guard to the ground and started running and lifted his hands up in celebration. The crowd was going nuts for him after he pulled that move. And Kyle Williams turns around and he starts running after him. The guy sees Kyle Williams out of the corner of his eye and goes, it clearly goes, oh,

F and slides to the ground. Like it was an incredible sequence of events. An incredible just end of the season sequence for this Seattle Seahawks team, which, as recently as that Thursday night game against the Rams, you know, entering the fourth quarter, it looked like they would probably be having to win three games on the road in a brutal NFC, and it all turns around with that Rashid Shaheed, punt return touchdown. And it's crazy. Shaheed really only made a handful of plays since he got to the Seahawks.

But weren't they big? And literally it feels like those plays. were like the difference between maybe them winning the Super Bowl and not. And so he was just that last little Lanyap added to this mix. And they will be Super Bowl champions, Rashid Jihad forever. He's a free agent. Ken Walker's a free agent. We're going to be diving into that in the offseason as they start to finally lose my voice.

We did it, guys. We got to the end. Any final thoughts here from the season? Not that we're going away. It's in the title. daily, Shucky, uh,

appreciate you especially, coming in off of, I'm just saying on tonight, you're out there writing and we don't usually, we don't usually have you in person. So I'm just saying like it's nice that you're here. Oh, come on out to L.A.

I would love to and plan to. And it's been great to be here. And I can't wait to see how many commenters comment on my size. I'm a large man in a small chair. Not that small this time. But I've been very happy to be here. It's been an absolute pleasure and couldn't do it with two better people than you guys. Yeah, I can't believe we get to do this, honestly.

Like, I have several moments every time over the last couple of years that we've done this, that I just am standing there and thinking, how the heck did I get to be standing here right now? And a lot of it's so to you, Greg, really, and for you putting a team together and taking a shot on us. And a lot of people sitting in this trailer right now in production, and Eric Roberts, who had to listen to me yapp the entire game and also freak out over Bad Bunny, Billy Joe Armstrong, and Lady Gaga in sequence. And just everybody. Oh, yeah, the Green Day pop.

That was nice. Excellent. The hair makeup department really has taken care of us all year, including tonight when just things were flying around chaotically and, like, just there's a lot of people. I mean, it helped shook out. That ball of, that ball dome is just shining in the light. There's just a lot of people. You guys.

there's just a lot of people who have taken care of us all season and continue to do so, and we appreciate them very, very much. Including getting us great guests tonight on the field. So thanks to everyone who helped, especially with that match, Snyder, and Jay and Kleinman, and we got Drake here, along with Eric, of course, and Chris Bobona back in L.A., getting it done. And, yeah, I was thinking about, I'm with you, the excitement and just feeling a lot of gratitude being able to do this. maybe it's just me, but what, like the best part, I think, is right before it starts. Oh, can I tell you a story?

Yeah. So this was my sixth Super Bowl. Miami Chief Senators 54 was my first. And I'm sitting in Hard Rock Stadium and you feel the swell of energy before that game. And the national anthem plays. And it hits me like, oh, I'm at the Super Bowl. And I start to get choked up and my eyes start to water. And I'm thinking that's going to be like a one-time thing.

It has happened to me every Super Bowl. since including today. Today was a little bit different because I lost my dad and it's the first one without him and everything else. It was Nick Siriani, big tears going down in the face today.

But I cannot express enough how in that moment, I am just so thankful for having the opportunity to be here and to do this with you guys. It's special and it's cool enough that I end up on Denzel Ward's story and my sister sends me a DM about it.

And that's all because of you, Greg. That's great. That's great. I love it. Yeah. There's nothing in the world like it. And open, our press box, even though it burned our faces off.

Opener press box, there's nothing in the world like it. It was incredible. Shout out to the fans who came out. You know, you worry that this is a corporate event every year? Well, the fans. But it leaned very Seahawks and it was loud. I know. I was so confused by the week because walking around San Francisco was so many Patriots fans,

but it was like, oh, no, Seattle, they were all just flying down or driving down or coming down. Coming down late because that thing was so. loud when the Patriots had the ball. They were overwhelmed. I mean, frankly, they wanted it more. But yes, your dad, right? Your dad would be really proud of you. You really would. Yeah, I was thinking that right as it was getting going. And in part of it, yes, is the flyover and, you know, the anthem and all that. But it's more like we got here. Every year that we get to go do another one of these games is a victory too. And I think it is a thing

in life. It's kind of like why when you get off. work, let's say you have a long weekend, like a three-day weekend. What's the best moment of that three-day weekend? It's like when you have the most in front of you. It's Thursday afternoon, right when you get home. It's why week one is my favorite week of the year. I don't care. Like the division arm's great. Week one's great. And you get there and it's just the anticipation. It's like, we've been waiting all season. We've been waiting all week. And then you're just like right there in that moment. What is going to happen? And what happened is Sam freaking Darnold. Won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks.

An all-time team. We'll see if they back it up and everything, but I don't need to see more. This was a great Seahawks team, worthy champions, with some of the best fans out there. And so this team is going to be celebrating, as Sam said tonight, drinking some beers, drinking some tequila. And I know all the Seahawks fans out there will be doing the same.

That's it. Shout out to the lady with the square root of baseball. 144 sign 12. She was a Scott's a guy. Shout out to the guy with the June minus one number 10 Patriots

jersey. Shout out to Mike McDonald for a new core memory. Yes. Thank you, Mike, for coming on the show. Thank you everyone for listening all season.

That's it. NFL Daily. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.