The NFL’s 2025 season gave us one of the most wide-open race for the Super Bowl in years.
We are left with two unexpected teams in the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks.
The Patriots are familiar visitors to the Super Bowl, having won six past titles, This is their first Super Bowl since 2019, back when legendary quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick were around. A rebuilt Patriots team has come from nowhere to reach Super Bowl 60 in California and secure a record-extending 12th appearance.
The Seahawks have reached their fourth Super Bowl, and their first since 2015, when the Patriots denied them back-to-back championships.
Brady and head coach Belichick led New England to nine Super Bowls between 2002 and 2019, winning six. That tied the record for most Super Bowl wins with the Pittsburgh Steelers so the Patriots will go clear if they win at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara.
Last season, New England finished with a 4-13 record under Jerod Mayo, who was replaced by another coach who won the Super Bowl as a player with the Patriots, Mike Vrabel.
The ex-Tennessee Titans coach rebuilt the Patriots’ roster and they improved to 14-3. That 10-win swing is tied for the biggest turnaround from one season to the next – and the Patriots are the first of those teams to reach the Super Bowl.
Former linebacker Vrabel can also become the first man to win a Super Bowl as a player and head coach with the same team.
New England’s rise centers around quarterback Drake Maye. He is the ninth second-year quarterback to reach the Super Bowl and aims to become the first to win it since Russell Wilson with Seattle in 2014. At 23, he will also be the second youngest QB to start a Super Bowl after Dan Marino in 1985.
Seattle’s quarterback Sam Darnold NFL journey has become a redemption story.
After struggling with the New York Jets, then Carolina, Darnold spent the 2023 season as the San Francisco 49ers’ back-up, before being thrust into the starters’ job at Minnesota.
Darnold led the Vikings to the play-offs last season but, with JJ McCarthy returning from injury, he joined Seattle in the off-season and has become just the second QB after Brady to have back-to-back 14-win seasons – and 28-year-old Darnold is the first to do it with different teams.
Who am I picking? Well, the Patriots are Super Bowl underdogs for the first time since Brady won his first in 2002.
Seattle are strong favourites with the bookmakers having emerged from the ultra-competitive NFC West division to clinch the NFC’s top seed, before beating divisional rivals San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams again in the play-offs.
Darnold has formed a devastating connection with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who led the league for receiving yards, and Seattle’s defence allowed the fewest points (17.2 per game).
I like Seattle big in this game. The Seahawks have the better roster, the better offense, and the better defense.
