Albert Breer on Seahawks’ Special Season, What’s Next for Patriots?

He gave the Seahawks what they needed.

All right.

Welcome in to the Brew Report for February 10th, the 2025 season is in the books , 272 games down.

We have a world champion and it is the Seattle Seahawks.

29 to 13 winners over the New England Patriots.

It's the 2nd Super Bowl championship for the franchise, the 2nd Super Bowl championship for their general manager, the Executive of the Year, John Schneider, and of course, the 1st championship for Mike McDonald, Sam Darnold, and so many other people in that building.

So, that's where we're gonna start our takeaways, our 3 takeaways coming out of Super Bowl.

60 and the first takeaway is going to be Mike McDonald and his staff establishing themselves as one of the best staffs in football, and we are going to get to some of the attrition that's happening now in a second, but what an incredible job they did of not just building that team and building a culture and having a smart, resourceful, resilient group.

Um, but also the continued growth and the job that they did in developing the players and then putting a final plan together.

Now, the first part of that, developing the players, to me, so much of this for the Seahawks was how so many guys went from very good players to great players over the course of the last year.

And we said at the beginning of the year, that's what this is gonna be about.

How many guys in Seattle could go from very good to great.

They were similar to the Packers prior to the Micah Parsons trade in that regard.

And that happened.

Sam Darnold went from very good to even better .

Jackson Smith and Jigbo went from very good to great.

I think you say that about Devin Witherspoon, Charles Cross, even some of the older players like Leonard Williams who had his best year.

At 33 years old, they, there was just a continued development of all the players on that roster, and some of the guys who wound up playing their best in the Super Bowl were guys that continued to develop through the program.

Guys like Derrek Hall and Kenneth Walker.

So no doubt about it, the development piece of it was huge for the coaching staff.

And then I think the job that they did in-game here and some of the adjustments that they made and two of the key plays of the game, and I thought this was really interesting, were plays.

Um, that they put in over the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl Bowl, believe it or not, those are brand new calls on one on defense, one on offense.

The first one, that was on defense and that was on the Patriots' second offensive possession.

It was Devin Witherspoon ending that possession on a sack, and it was an adjustment that the Seahawks made.

Devin Witherspoon had mostly come off the edge as a blitzer.

He's very skilled as a blitzer for a defensive back, and they even did that on the Patriots' first series on a 3rd down with Devin Witherspoon chasing Drake May off the edge and ending that possession with a punt, while on the Patriots' 2nd possession, there's a little tweak and it was something that the Seahawks put in over the course of the week.

They looped Devin Witherspoon inside.

And so basically, rather than blitzing him off the edge, they were gonna loop him inside.

They wanted to test the middle of the Patriots' line with speed, and so they were able to do that.

Morgan Moses didn't react quick enough.

Devin Witherspoon got right back, got right back there and into Drake May's lap, sacking him there, and just as far as momentum goes up until that point, the Patriots had actually moved the ball some.

That was the end of it.

After that, from that point with about 5 minutes left in the 1st quarter all the way to the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Patriots generated just 1 1st down that didn't come via a penalty.

So for 2.5 quarters, the Seahawks had almost no first, the Seahawks allowed almost no 1st downs, which is an incredible stretch of defensive football, and it was sparked by that play.

After that play, it just looked like the Patriots had trouble dealing with whatever the Seahawks were throwing at them on defense.

And then the second piece, the 2nd call, and this was in the 4th quarter, and this was on the offensive side, and credit to Clegg Kubiak.

And his coaches for this one.

This was to take advantage of a, a quirk in the Patriots' coverage where the Patriots were very match-oriented in their zones, and they figured that if they could get someone, if they, if they could get one of the Patriots' corners in their cover 3 and the corner would have the deep 3 and the cover 3.

To follow a receiver on a, on, on, on an over route, they could use play action to pull up a linebacker and slip a tight end back into the vacated area, and that's exactly what they did.

Um, on AJ Barner's touchdown, if you watch the play, you'll see the Patriots are set up in what looks like a cover 3 shell.

Cooper Cupp, um, is running an over route from the right, uh, boundary position.

Uh, Cooper Cooper Cupp comes off.

Christian Gonzalez follows him.

The area over the top is vacated with Christian Gonzalez going with Cup.

AJ Barner leaks right into that area, and the real key here was that was off play action.

It was off an outside zone call.

They'd run that outside zone call over and over again in the game.

Linebacker Jack Gibbons steps up to defend the run.

Barners right by him, easy touchdown.

So it's these little things that the, the Seahawks were able to put in to combat specifically New England that I think showed the level of detail they're working with from a staff perspective.

Um, and again, this whole season has been a testament to the program that Mike McDonald has built, and certainly, the Super Bowl shows that there is no stone left unturned.

OK, coming out of Super Bowl 60, Sam Darnold was not the MVP of the game, but to me, this was a great example of a quarterback recognizing exactly what his team needed in the game.

I thought the Patriots' defense was outstanding, and then for the most part, end to end, their defense played really, really well and gave the team what it needed.

And so for Sam Darnold in this game, where he didn't have his A game, he admitted to me after the game, he wasn't over the, over the moon with the way he played, missed some throws.

The important thing was that he understood what type of game he was in, and he understood exactly what his team needed, and his team just could not afford turnovers.

And so if you have to play for field goals, play for field goals.

That's just the sort of game it was.

Um, and yes, he made some tight window throws at the beginning of the game, two big ones, one to AJ Barner, one to Cooper Cupp that put him in a position to take a 3-0 lead.

But you can see this understanding with Sam over the course of the game.

That he wasn't going to need to make 15 throws, he'd probably needed to make 5 throws, and the key was in the rest of them to protect the ball and make sure his team stayed on schedule.

And time and time again, Sam Darnold gave the team what it needed in that regard, the same way 2 weeks earlier against the Rams, they needed him to be a superstar and he was a superstar.

So again, Do I think that he wishes he had some of the throws back?

I absolutely do.

I, I know that he feels like, feels like if he had been a little earlier on his, on, on his read to, to, to Jackson Smith and Jigba at the end of the first half, we'd be talking about the, the Seahawks going into halftime with a 13 to 0 lead rather than a 9 to 0 lead.

But he also got, again, exactly what his team needed.

And gave them that.

And so 0 turnovers.

He managed the game well.

He kept the team on schedule.

He made the throws when they need him to make the throws, those big throws at the beginning of the game, the touchdown throw to Barner, which by the way, was preceded by a great throw on 3rd 9 to to to to to move the chains.

I thought overall, Sam Darnold's poised in the situation and poised for the moment.

And this, this spot where everybody thought he would crumble, his ability to just manage the game, manage the situations and play the game as the game was being played was huge for the Seahawks.

So, Sam Darnold now a Super Bowl champion, and there's a reason why so many people are happy for him, guys, is because he's always been a great teammate.

He's always been a great worker, a great guy to coach, and You know, so much so that, that Mike McDonald said to me after the game that he's as happy as he's ever been for anybody he's coached after that one when it comes to Sam Darnold.

Um, and again, on this stage, he gave the Seahawks what they needed to go out and win the game.

OK, finally, the Patriots, where do they go from here?

Well , a big piece of this for the Patriots is the path they took, and there's no denying it.

Easiest schedule in the league.

And then in the playoffs, they play the Chargers in the 1st round with a depleted offensive line.

The Texans in the 2nd round with CJ Stroud perhaps playing the worst game of his career and not having Nico Collins.

They've missed Bo Nix in the championship game and get Jarrett Stidham instead, then get a snowstorm at the end of that game, so there was some good fortune.

That said, they still won 17 games.

This is a massive step forward.

They now have proof of concept.

They've been to a Super Bowl.

So there's a lot you can, a lot of good you can take from this.

They still need improvement on the roster and Sunday showed it.

And again, I think if you want to compare how the Patriots got there with how teams have previously had to get there through the AFC, you look at the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, and the 7 quarterbacks that Patrick Mahomes had to play in his 7 AFC championship games.

It was in order.

Tom Brady, Ryan Tannehill, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Burrow again, Lamar Jackson.

And then Allen again, and then the year he beat Tannehill in the championship game, which was on the way to his first championship, he had to beat Deshaun Watson, who at the time was the top five quarterback in the divisional round and come back from a 24 to 0 deficit in that game.

I'm not saying that to discount what the Patriots accomplished.

I'm saying it to make people understand that the path they'll face from here is tougher.

The schedule next year is tougher.

The path in the playoffs almost certainly would be tougher, and so the roster is going to need to improve in a conference where you are going to be going up against Burrow and Jackson and Allen and Mahomes.

And so where do they need to get better?

They certainly need to, to, to add some weaponry and offense.

I think they know that.

They need to really evaluate the left tackle position and whether or not Will Campbell is the answer there long term.

Uh, Mike Vrabel has already said that he's not looking to move him inside to guard, but I think it's something that they would at least have to consider at some point.

Campbell could be an all-proguard.

Is he just an OK tackle?

Is he deficient at tackle?

He didn't look great in the playoffs.

He was dealing with a grade 3 MCL sprain, but he didn't play well in the playoffs.

And then defensively, I think the addition of a pass rusher could be in play.

Would they be a contender for Max Crosby?

And that's where you get to the good news here.

I think New England would be high on Crosby's list because of the idea of playing for Vrabel for him.

And I think the idea of playing for Vrabel would appeal to a lot of people now based on what the Patriots have.

It doesn't mean they're the destination that they were when Tom Brady was there.

But at the very least, they're not gonna have to go over the top the way they had, they had the the, the way they did with, with Milton Williams last year.

In that case, they paid $26 million which was way beyond what the Carolina Panthers were offering.

And they had to give him that again, to get him away from the Carolina Panthers.

So , Now they've got a program in place that's gonna be an attractive one for free agents to go to.

They've got a quarterback that should attract skilled players to come to New England .

The Patriots are in great shape coming out of this.

And, you know, again, a big piece of this is going to be looking in the mirror, and I think Mike Vrabel and Elliott Wolf and all the guys there, John Stryker, Ryan Cowden are gonna do that, being honest with themselves about where they're at.

They won an AFC championship, but to get over the hump and to, to, to get back into, uh, back, back into the Super Bowl.

I think it stands to reason they'll have to be a lot better than they were this year, which is just the way it works.

Appreciate you guys coming out, not just today but all year long.

This has been a fantastic season to interact with all of you guys, um, and we are not stopping.

We, the 2026 offseason is now officially underway.

We'll have a mailbag for you on Thursday.

We'll be looking forward with the Bre report on Friday and the combine.

It is just 2 weeks away, or less than 2 weeks away, actually.

I'll be leaving for the combine in 13 days.

So we'll obviously have you guys covered end to end with that draft, free agency, all of that's coming.

Um, and as always, we're always happy to dive in on your comments.

You can leave those down below YouTube or you can get me on my social media at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert Abreer on Facebook, at Albert_Breer on Instagram.

We will see you guys on Thursday.