For a team that was supposed to be so proud of the players who helped them reach the Super Bowl last season, especially compared to a team that supposedly ‘couldn’t afford the Super Bowl tax,’ the New England Patriots sure did a lot more overhauling of the roster than the Seattle Seahawks did.
You may hardly recognize the Patriots who show up on Wednesday night in Seattle.
Offense (Super Bowl) vs (Week 1 2026):
Seahawks bring back top 9 players in snaps
Seahawks bring back 13 of 14 top players in snaps
Patriots bring back 6 of top 7 players, 9 of top 11
Patriots lose 4 of top 14 players in snaps*
*If Treveyon Henderson doesn’t play (he probably won’t) that’s a fifth player who played in the Super Bowl who won’t play in Week 1.
Most of the attention has gone to New England’s efforts to get Drake Maye better weapons, replacing Stefon Diggs (45 snaps in the Super Bowl) and Kayshon Boutte (52 snaps) with A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs. But that’s not even half of the story.
The Patriots will have one new offensive line starter, but have changes at two positions: Alijah Vera-Tucker is the new left guard, and Jared Wilson has moved from left guard to center.
Tight end Austin Hooper played 31 snaps in the Super Bowl, but New England’s new TE2 is rookie third-round pick Eli Raridon. He’s someone to watch in the red zone as early as his first career game. Also, I wrote about how 22 and 21 personnel and Brady Russell could have a surprisingly increased role in Week 1 for the Seahawks, and similarly the Patriots brought in fullback Reggie Gilliam this year, suggesting increased snaps for a role that didn’t matter to New England that much in 2025.
Henderson is a player we probably won’t see in the backfield, as he has not practiced in two weeks. That would leave Rhamondre Stevenson as the Patriots’ lead back (both were irrelevant against Seattle in the Super Bowl) and Corey Kiner, an undrafted free agent in 2025 who was just traded from Arizona to New England.
If that were not enough, Mack Hollins had a huge role in the Super Bowl, playing 51 snaps and leading the Patriots with eight targets. That’s not likely to be his role on Wednesday, as Demario Douglas and Kyle Williams will challenge him for that WR3 role and a surprise name, Efton Chism III, could move up the depth chart as well.
Tally up the Patriots’ offensive changes:
Offensive line: 1 new player, 2 “new starters”
Wide receivers: 2 new starters, reformation of depth
Tight ends: Hunter Henry still starts, depth is completely changed
Backfield: Henderson probably out, Gilliam increases FB role
In comparison, the Seahawks bring back the exact same starting offensive line, the exact same 1-2-3 at receiver (only losing Jake Bobo as WR4 due to injury), the exact same 1-2-3-4 at tight end, and they even have the same RB2 they had in the Super Bowl because George Holani played 24 snaps.
We don’t even have to address the loss of Robbie Ouzts for the purposes of this exercise because he was out of the Super Bowl.
That makes just two notable changes on the Seahawks offense: Kenneth Walker will be played by Jadarian Price, Klint Kubiak will be played by Brian Fleury.
Yet the narrative has painted the Patriots as a team who overhauled their offense to “get better”, whereas the Seahawks simply “couldn’t keep the band together”. In reality, Seattle’s offense has continuity, experience, and chemistry.
Defense (Super Bowl) vs (Week 1 2026):
Seahawks bring back 14 of 17 players who played in Super Bowl
Coby Bryant, Riq Woolen, and Boye Mafe are gone; Nick Emmanwori is likely out
Patriots bring back only 11 of 20 players who were in the Super Bowl
Totally overhauled the linebacker positions, depth
The Seahawks let go of a starting safety, Bryant, who was essentially created by Mike Macdonald; Bryant was a backup corner prior to 2024. Woolen and Mafe were rotational players at their positions, but the media has framed these losses as “huge”.
There’s no question that Seattle is thin at safety with injuries to Emmanwori and Ty Okada. They’re still on the Seahawks, however, whereas the Patriots felt they needed a complete do-over at certain positions:
5 linebackers who played in the Super Bowl are no longer on the Patriots.
Along the edges will be new starters Dre’Mont Jones and Elijah Ponder, the latter being an undrafted free agent in 2025. The backups are rookies Gabe Jacas (round 2) and Quintayvious Hutchins (round 7).
The Patriots have also replaced safety Jaylinn Hawkins with 33-year-old Kevin Byard. New England will have the same corners and defensive line as they had in the Super Bowl, but still had far more turnover than Seattle. It’s just that nobody wanted to frame it that way for some reason.
Special Teams (Super Bowl) vs (Week 1 2026):
Seahawks coverage unit: 7 of top-10 are back
Patriots coverage unit: 9 of top-13 are gone
I’ve written in the past how Seattle had phenomenal retention of their elite special teams unit from last season. Their only hit there was Dareke Young, prior to the loss of Jake Bobo. They were in the top-10 for special teams snaps in the Super Bowl, as was Velus Jones, and he’s on the practice squad so technically he could be elevated and play.
The Patriots are much different. The highlighted players are gone:
And Ponder has a starting role on defense. Will he play on special teams?
“New” England, but Better England?
Change isn’t a bad thing, and continuity isn’t always a good thing. The Patriots clearly did have problems at receiver and along the offensive line in the playoffs last season (which is why I didn’t think they were a worthy Super Bowl rival, even though so many in the media picked “Drake Maye” to win) and addressing those needs with A.J. Brown and Alijah Vera-Tucker makes all the sense in the world.
Maybe New England will prove to be a bigger threat to Seattle’s defense than they were in the Super Bowl.
But when the media has been caught desperately seeking reasons to doubt the Seahawks, they’ve only managed to come up with “losses” like Walker, Woolen, and Kubiak. Whereas in the Patriots case, when they can only cobble together Dre’Mont Jones and leftovers at edge rusher, somehow that story never crossed my desk? Despite New England also being a Super Bowl team from last season.
Will the Patriots be better or just different? Will the Seahawks be better for the sake of being mostly the same? One thing is for certain: Seattle’s recent injuries have been far more “taxing” than any salary cap.
So the O-line Committee YouTube channel just rated O-lines in the NFL. Seattle was rated top 10 by two of the committee and top 6 by one of them. I think these guys have it right.
Luke Wilson, former Seahawk TE and Super Bowl member interviewed JS on his PodCast:
https://youtu.be/taNoCR8wSR4?is=DPeFMnLBXGw6wPA1
So I had a dream where Spoon was taking snaps lined up as a safety in a two high safety scheme. Yeah, it was just a dream, but if anyone could line up as a deep safety and play it without ever playing there, Spoon could do it.
I think the end of the world is near. Pete Prisco rated the Seahawks the #1 team in the NFL, ahead of the Lambs. He rates the Pats 16th.