Albert Breer: Seahawks Are ‘Loose and Focused’ and Ready to Roll Against Patriots

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Some more thoughts on Super Bowl LX heading into the final day of media availability here …

Seattle Seahawks

The Seahawks’ mantra under Mike Macdonald has been “loose and focused”—and that’s the vibe you get being around the players. They may have football’s best roster. They know it. And you can tell they think it’s going to show in a significant way on Sunday.

One other observation: You can physically see the might of the Seahawks’ defensive front. The Macdonald defense, built in a football lab when the Seattle coach worked under Wink Martindale in Baltimore seven years ago, is founded on having a run wall with hard, sturdy edges. The wall, in this case, is defensive tackles Byron Murphy II and Leonard Williams. The edges are Uchenna Nwosu and DeMarcus Lawrence.

Seeing those guys in person informs you of why it’s so hard to move them off the ball.

• The progress Sam Darnold has made over the course of his eight years is obvious. The simplest way I could get it covered from the coaches that work with him—he’s playing much faster than he was years ago, which is a simple result of seeing things faster as he’s gained experience. He’s cut his snap-to-throw time way down. He’s become more willing and able to take checkdowns. He’s avoided negative plays as a result.

One example of how fast he’s seeing the game came on his game-winning throw against the Rams in the team’s overtime thriller in December—the two-point conversion dart was to Eric Saubert, who was the fourth guy in his progression. And those who work with him have told me that part of his game keeps getting better.

For the Seahawks coaches, the idea is simplified in three keys they give Darnold every week: Protect the ball, listen to your feet and find the open guy.

• My understanding of Nick Emmanwori’s injury during Wednesday’s practice is that it was a tweak that was a result of how hard he practices—he had a similar thing happen to his ankle during training camp. Now, it’s not like this is not a concern. He left practice, so that should get everyone’s attention. But I can’t imagine it’d keep him from playing Sunday.

• One interesting nugget on Super Bowl prep—the Seahawks put a 29-minute “halftime” in their Monday walkthrough that took place after some strenuous strength-and-conditioning work. The idea, of course, was to prep the players for a break that’s nearly triple the length of a regular-season halftime. It’s one of the details that go into preparing for the teams involved.

New England Patriots

One of Mike Vrabel’s tenets since taking the job in January of 2025 has been building a team that could take advantage of bad football.

Of course, the other end of that is avoiding playing bad football, and New England has done that, too. One thing that comes up over and over again in discussing the Patriots’ defense with scouts and coaches who’ve played them is how sound their defense is—guys are rarely out of position, and there’s rarely a bust. The result is teams having to earn their way down the field, a parallel to how Bill Belichick’s best Patriots teams played on that side of the ball.

• Drake Maye being a full participant in practice on Wednesday is a pretty big deal, as I see it. Practice reps this close to the game, for a quarterback, against a defense like Seattle’s, are at a premium. So missing them on that critical day would’ve been cause for alarm.

That he didn’t, I think, confirms what a lot of us heard: Maye had normal wear-and-tear to the shoulder going into Denver, and while landing on his shoulder didn’t help, and was enough to bring caution last week, this was more an aggravation of an existing issue than anything. Still, you’d expect the Seahawks to test where he’s at with it.

Philadelphia Eagles

Losing Jeff Stoutland is no small deal for the Eagles. I’d argue that losing a line coach of that caliber may be tougher to deal with than losing a coordinator.

There are very few guys like Dante Scarnecchia, Bill Callahan and Chris Foerster, who can take average linemen and make them good, and take good linemen and make them great. Having one is worth its weight in gold, given how much development it takes these days to take linemen from some college offenses into a very different pro game, and how hard it is to find excellent ones.

So Stoutland will be missed, and his replacement will be every bit as big a piece of the 2026 Eagles’ puzzle as new OC Sean Mannion figures to be.

New York Jets

The hiring of Frank Reich by the Jets is necessary. Ownership’s desire was for Aaron Glenn to call the defense, which is why the team didn’t wind up with one of the bigger names, like Martindale, on its DC wish list. And so with Glenn devoting more time to that side of the ball, having a sort of “head coach of the offense” was going to be important.

Reich’s experience allows him to be that.

Houston Texans

The Texans’ defensive staff could be pillaged. Secondary coach Dino Vasso, as we mentioned Monday, is a prime candidate to be the Cardinals’ next defensive coordinator. And Texans’ pass-game coordinator Cory Undlin would be near the top of Browns coach Todd Monken’s list if Jim Schwartz isn’t back as DC.

Las Vegas Raiders

Maxx Crosby’s name has been in the news, and his presence as part of the Raiders’ equation for 2026 makes the Vegas DC hire crucial. Signs point to Crosby being traded from the team he’s played all seven NFL seasons. But he also takes a lot of pride in being a Raider, and a one-team guy, so it’s possible a hire like, say, Schwartz, could shift things. We’ll see.