Super Bowl 60: Seattle Seahawks Add To The Blueprint

This sounds like an obvious ideology. Yes, obviously, the roster matters, but I’m not sure many teams know that. The success of Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady in the past has warped everyone’s minds.

Everyone now believes that A+ level quarterbacking is the key to success. From 2019 to 2024, the quarterbacks to win the Super Bowl have been Brady, Mahomes, and Matthew Stafford. These are tier one quarterbacks, so as a result, teams and general managers have a warped perception of what success looks like.

The Philadelphia Eagles‘ victory, though, opened people’s eyes to an alternative method. Solid quarterbacking with a well-built roster around him. Jalen Hurts is a good quarterback, but he is not at the level of current guys like Mahomes and Stafford.

How did Hurts pull off the win against Mahomes in the Super Bowl last year? He made plays when he needed to, but it was that defensive line. The line forced six sacks and three turnovers, leading to an Eagles 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

A performance like that can remind NFL historians of what Super Bowl Winners looked like in the past. Quarterbacks such as Joe Flacco, Eli Manning, Nick Foles, Trent Dilfer, etc., have all hoisted the Lombardi. How? It’s due to the rest of the roster being polished up, especially at the defensive line. It feels like every Super Bowl turns on a strip sack leading to a turnover. Another great example is the 2015 Denver Broncos.

Yes, that team had Peyton Manning, but he was well past his prime. He threw for nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions and got benched due to injury. He was not even as good as a typical game manager.

The GM, John Elway, built a supernova defense. He brought in players such as Demarcus Ware to shore up a defensive line that already had Von Miller and Derek Wolfe. In the end, that made a difference, where Denver sacked Cam Newton seven times and forced four turnovers.

Sound similar to the last two years?

A Complete Team

The 2025 Seattle Seahawks are the definition of a complete football team. They could win with offense, defense, and special teams.

In the 2026 playoffs, all three phases showed up for the Seahawks. The first stepping stone was using one draft pick from the Russell Wilson trade to select Devon Witherspoon in 2023. He was a monster all year and forced the defensive touchdown in the Super Bowl.

The next thing GM John Schneider did was hire a defensive guru, Mike MacDonald. In the 2023 NFL season, he called plays for the Baltimore Ravens’ top ranked defense that led the team to the AFC Championship.

MacDonald brought that same defensive prowess to Seattle, and it clicked in year two. The Seahawks were top five in every major statistical category in 2025. All they needed was a guy who could manage the game at a high level. That was what Sam Darnold was brought in to do. To play an efficient quarterback style and let the strength of the defense do its thing. When the defense doesn’t have it, he can step up as he did in the NFC Championship.

In the final four weeks of the season, Darnold had no turnovers. In that span, they blew out the San Francisco 49ers twice. They also beat the Los Angeles Rams in a classic and won the Super Bowl over the New England Patriots. Seattle didn’t need a superhuman performance from their quarterback to have a chance each week.

More teams moving forward need to think less quarterback-centric and focus on how to build around him.

End Of My Super Bowl Blueprint Rant

Today, it feels like teams don’t get a blue-chipper at quarterback; they give up on them too fast. Examples are Darnold and Baker Mayfield.

Other teams try too hard to cater to the quarterback. An example is the Miami Dolphins in the early days of Tua Tagovailoa. They drafted Jalen Waddle and brought in Tyreek Hill to help out the QB. After his production skyrocketed, they paid him franchise quarterback money, which hamstrung the rest of the team.

The Cincinnati Bengals are the next example. They have put all their spending on the offense and Joe Burrow, which has led to great offensive numbers. The defense, as a result, has been neglected and has been among the NFL’s worst the last two years.

Not enough teams give enough emphasis to the surrounding cast. Everyone tries to make their quarterback a star, thinking that is what will get them over the top. In reality, not everyone will have a Mahomes or Brady, and that is why general managers get paid the big bucks.

The message is simple: strive for a complete football team. Despite it being simple, it doesn’t seem to be understood around the league today. Hopefully, this Super Bowl was a massive wake-up call.