Seahawks film studies: Darnold, JSN, Emmanwori, Drake Maye, and more!
Seahawks fans have some homework to do before the Super Bowl
Over the last couple of months, Seaside Jay and I have been re-watching Breaking Bad and I have to say that even having already seen it that I’m continuously still blown away (no pun intended … for those who know) by how good it is. I’ve heard a surprising number of people tell me that they didn’t like Breaking Bad or couldn’t get into it and to each their own, but for me this is the cinematic storytelling that actual cinema stopped being about ten years ago.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Breaking Bad will have to take a backseat to the Seattle Seahawks for the next couple of weeks and I KNOW you’re going to join me on this film study watch party!
I’ve linked 20 YouTube videos in this Wednesday bonus newsletter, most of them directly about the Seahawks, and these are just from the last couple of days. As someone who has followed Seahawks Xs and Os YouTubers as closely as anyone in the last few years, the shift in focus to Seattle over the last week as the team keeps winning has dramatically increased and what was once might only take 10 minutes is now a Herculean effort to get through it all.
I’ll stop wasting time now. Then I’ll get to some of your questions from Super Joes!
All-22: Seahawks D Witherspoon and Emmanwori
The King of Seahawks Xs and Os. Must-see as always^^^
Jaxon Smith-Njigba
Jackson Krueger:
Steve Smith:
The Coach Plays:
Nate Tice on Kubiak (blocked by NFL):
Do you think JSN will win Super Bowl MVP?
Sam Darnold
Chase Daniel:
Underdog Fantasy:
Wil Upton:
Film Study for Rookies:
ESPN “goes inside” Darnold:
Offense
The Football Scout offensive breakdown (thumbnail blocked by NFL):
Mattydubs:
The O-Line Committee on OL/Walker (thumb blocked by NFL):
The OL Committee also did a Patriots film breakdown. AQ Shipley also did a short Walker film study on The Pat McAfee Show.
Rams-Seahawks by Darius Butler:
A video on why Defense matters in the playoffs:
Share your video thoughts in the comments, please!
Every week I take questions from Super Joes for a Q&A and this week is obviously a SUPER Super Joes Q&A edition. If you want to get in on next week’s pre-Super Bowl Super Joes Q&A, join or upgrade to Super Joes for an annual subscription! Just click here or enter your email here…
Grant: I've watched zero Patriots games this season. I'm sure you're already planning to write about matchups and key players and stuff like that, but if you had to pick one thing that defined the 2025 Patriots what would it be?
Without being a hater by any stretch of the word, what stands out about the 2025 Patriots is how fortunate they’ve been to get to the Super Bowl. Sometimes lucky teams win the Super Bowl too — that’s how luck works, right? — but I’m just saying that has to be their narrative.
This is a team that lost to the Raiders in Week 1. How many Super Bowl teams have lost to the team with the number one pick?
A team that faced the easiest schedule in the league despite sharing a division with the Bills, arguably the best team in the AFC prior to losing in the playoffs. And then avoids a third game against Buffalo, a team that beat them 35-31 in December.
And not to take anything away from their defense, the Patriots have faced three quarterbacks in the playoffs who were shooting themselves in the foot, especially C.J. Stroud. Finally, they draw the Broncos in a snow storm and Sean Payton coached his way out of a Super Bowl.
By and large the media has agreed that the Patriots should have at least lost their last two games if not for unforced mistakes by their opponents.
Well, the Seahawks nearly led the league in turnovers. Though they haven’t turned the ball over in almost a month, Seattle’s capable of shooting themselves in the foot too. But how do I define the Patriots?
It’s amazing that they’re in the Super Bowl and for many reasons.
This isn’t ruling out a New England victory (who better to know of a Super Bowl upset than the Patriots, both as winners (2001) and losers (2007)?) but that’s what I’m seeing. A team that won with the schedule they were given but quite clearly plays bad offense against good defenses and therefore leaned heavily on their defense/good luck in those games.
By the way, what do you all think of Belichick’s Hall of Fame snub?
Cavmax: I'm still curious about the the head coaching openings and especially about the Browns. The interested parties keep canceling interviews, if I'm correct. Are they going open the next season without a hc?
You know this by now because you posted your question before Wednesday’s news, but the Browns hired former Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken.
The latest word out of Las Vegas is that the Raiders will interview Klint Kubiak on Saturday, thereby refuting Schefter’s report that I wrote about this week that suggested all jobs would be filled by Wednesday. Seattle’s not out of the woods yet regarding their offensive coordinator.
Derek A: Drake Maye doesn’t do well with pressure, but the Seattle 4-man rush hasn’t been getting a lot of pressure lately. What do you expect MM to do to rattle Maye?
A few Drake Maye stats:
Maye had 15 TD/0 INT against the blitz (129.2 passer rating) and 16 TD/8 INT against no blitz (105.7)
Maye had 10 TD/3 INT/61% comp under pressure (103.1) vs 21/5/77% under no pressure (118.5)
Maye had 10 TD/0 INT on 118 play action passes vs. 21 TD/8 INT on 374 non-PA passes
Maye’s 8.8 Y/A under pressure led the league, but he was also strip sacked six times and then he got strip-sacked FIVE MORE times in the playoffs. He’s been sacked 5 times in all three playoff games, which is already an NFL record.
Patriots rookie left tackle Will Campbell has been praised this year and understandably so, but his pass protection has been an issue at times and many of his great starts came against bad teams and a lot of backup players; now going against playoff teams, New England’s offensive line is getting eaten alive. (Not just Campbell, but he’s the high-profile player of the line.)
The Seahawks ranked in 4th in pressure rate in the regular season, but had a 28.9% in the NFC Championship which was Seattle’s worst such game since Week 4. Props to Matthew Stafford and the offensive line for that one.
Conversely, the Patriots have had a negative (bad) EPA on offense in all three playoff games, including their worst passing game of the season against the Broncos and their second-worst rushing game of the season the week before against the Texans. Three of New England’s five worst offensive EPA games have come in the postseason.
Chip Mac: I wondering the defensive ranking of the Patriots opponents in 2025 and how many top defenses they faced?
According to DVOA (Defensive-adjusted Value Over Average), the Patriots offense faced the EASIEST schedule of defenses in the NFL.
2 games against the Jets (#31 defense)
2 games against the Dolphins (#24)
2 games against the Bills (#20)
1 game against Bengals (#30)
1 game against Titans (#29)
1 game against Giants (#26)
1 game against Panthers (#22)
1 game against Bucs (#18)
1 game against Ravens (#17)
So 12 of 17 games were against teams ranked in the bottom half of defense. Prior to the playoffs, New England hadn’t faced an above average defense since the Falcons (#12) on November 2nd. The best defense they faced all year was the Browns (#8).
Against above-average defenses, the Patriots averaged 21.6 points and 1.6 turnovers.
Against below-average defenses, the Patriots averaged 31.8 points and 0.5 turnovers.
Cut to the playoffs against three top-10 defenses, the Patriots average 18 points and turned it over 5 times.
Look, we can compliment the New England Patriots a thousand times and it can all be true. Maye got my wife’s fantasy team to the number one seed in the playoffs. Mike Vrabel took over a 4-win team and has them in the Super Bowl.
But for some reason the first Super Bowl team that comes to mind is the 1994 San Diego Chargers. If the Patriots do not win this Super Bowl, I wonder how many fans will remember in 10 years that New England made it here. Whereas if the Seahawks lose the Super Bowl…people will definitely remember them and not necessarily for good reasons.
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I think Klint Kubiak is doing a 2nd interview with both the Cardinals and the Raiders this weekend. So there is still a decent chance we will lose him this year. Lucky for us, these are perhaps the two worst openings available this year. I’m hoping Schneider will offer him a raise to stay and be top of the heap next year after another stellar and better Seahawk offense next year. Both teams left have been dysfunctional for several years. Both teams seem willing to pull the plug on head coaches rather quickly. They are far from ideal situations. Offer more money to stay and ease the loss of salary he would be giving up next year as HC in exchange for waiting it out for a better team, a better QB, and a likelihood of a longer tenure with his new team that is not dysfunctional one year down the road.
More Bobo, Dammit.