What's Wright - Super Bowl REACTION: Seahawks DOMINATE Patriots, Darnold’s REDEMPTION, Maye OVERRATED? | Nick Wright NFL

Welcome in to our Super Bowl sixty recap, episode four hundred twenty six; quick heads‑up on travel: Daytona this week, then LA for Cowherd and All‑Star, then Vegas for a poker taping, so expect one audio‑only show and a mailbag next week—subscribe everywhere and send us questions on anything.

I’m good and ready to talk Super Bowl, though I wanted more offense.

Same—low‑scoring can be thrilling when every snap feels like the swing, but this one felt one‑sided more than tense.

Both defenses showed up, and New England’s offense looked stuck in the snow.

Before the tape, shout to the goofy postgame Disney tradition and to Demonze for nailing the Gatorade color, and yes, I briefly loved that lost‑dog doorbell ad before the surveillance crowd ruined the vibe; halftime takes were a tire fire too, with a certain Paul walking his rant back the next morning.

Second title for Seattle, defense was monstrous, and Darnold didn’t cough it up—what impressed you most?

The defense owned it, and the MVP should’ve reflected that; if voters had synced up, I’d have handed it to Devon Witherspoon as the stand‑in for a unit that blitzed him more, hit the quarterback, and flipped a score, all inside Mike Macdonald’s first‑timer trap that’s been stoning young quarterbacks for two seasons.

Couldn’t they just give the trophy to the whole defense?

They can’t, and Kenneth Walker’s monster rushing night made sense on the ballot, but the story was a season‑long chokehold that spared almost nobody not named Matthew Stafford or Baker Mayfield, which is why I’ve said the NFC title game felt like the real final and why John Schneider deserves flowers for bold calls from the Russell trade to moving on from Pete and Geno.

Is this the start of a run? They’re early favorites to repeat.

They’re set up well, but repeating without a true apex quarterback is historically brutal, so the bar is high even if the roster and coach say they’ll be back deep in January.

So what’s the league‑wide lesson from Seattle?

Draft well, don’t hand out superstar money to a good‑not‑great quarterback, and hire the right coach—Macdonald’s been a wizard who’d be getting twice the buzz if he weren’t tucked into late windows, while louder personalities elsewhere soaked up headlines.

Darnold went from that infamous “ghosts” moment to a ring; any real comps, or is this one of one?

Jim Plunkett is the cleanest comp—high pick, bounced around, then won big as a Raider—while Darnold’s arc ran Jets punchline to Carolina flashes, to backup duty, to a strong Vikings stint, to Seattle where he played clean in the Super Bowl and downright brilliant in the NFC title game; that last one probably earns him an extension that smooths cap hits and keeps him in the mid‑forties per year range.

On New England: people felt vindicated about Drake May after this; how should Pats fans feel?

He was terrific week to week in the regular season, but the playoffs were a turnover‑and‑sack avalanche—long stretches of punts, then late push mixed with giveaways, twenty‑one sacks and seven fumbles in four games—and while year two buys grace, next year’s draw is nasty with nine road games and a first‑place slate, the left tackle looked shaky, and history says Super Bowl losers rarely sprint back, so expectations should cool.

MVP clarified anything for you after this game?

Yes—Stafford deserved it, and comparing Drake May to Stafford versus that same defense ignored context like McVay, weapons, and divisional familiarity; also, the voting habit of tossing first‑place nods to Josh Allen in thinner seasons popped again, which is why I daydream about a blind single‑ballot draw to curb performative picks; Stafford’s an unquestioned Hall of Famer now, though top ten all time is wild—he sits in that top twenty to twenty‑five lane ahead of guys like Rivers, Eli, and Russ.

Programming note to close: one show might be audio‑only, we’ll do a Bill Simmons‑style mailbag next week, so subscribe and drop questions in the comments; I’ll check in from Daytona and see you on TV with Colin soon.