Well, that was a defensive performance, wasn’t it? Wait, that’s what I wrote last year. Let’s try something else. Well, that was a great halftime performance, wasn’t it? The Seattle Seahawks kicked the New England Patriots in the tuchus all night long to take home Super Bowl LX Sunday night, 29-13. It really wasn’t even that close, as the Patriots scored twice in the fourth quarter — once to give themselves a slight chance of a comeback, and once after it was completely decided. This was a big victory for the Seahawks defense, which had -68% DVOA and shut down MVP second-place finisher Drake Maye. This was the sixth-best defensive DVOA in a Super Bowl since 1978 (table below). The offense only had -5% DVOA, although that’s partly because the opponent adjustment is based on the regular season when the Patriots defense was bad. This was also a big victory for us here at FTN Fantasy, because DVOA has been riding the Seahawks since early in the season. Seattle first took over the top spot in DVOA after Week 3 and they held it for most of the rest of the 2025 season except for a couple of one-week blips where the Seahawks fell all the way to second place.

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Going into the 2025 NFL draft, a lot of questions arose regarding whether or not Will Campbell could play tackle at the professional level.

Those questions are resurfacing again as, after a shaky showing in the first three rounds of the playoffs, Campbell had an all-time disappointing performance in Super Bowl IX. The fourth overall pick allowed the most pressures (14) in a single game this season, according to Next Gen Stats. It was an ugly showing for both the eye test and the stat sheet.

Campbell is facing scrutiny from both the public and the media. After the Super Bowl, he was one of the only players who didn’t speak to any reporters after the game. Campbell reportedly declined multiple times to speak with the media and left the locker room without saying anything, according to the Boston Globe’s Ben Volin.

While it’s clear Campbell struggled during the postseason, the issue isn’t as black and white as it seems. So the question becomes, should the Patriots at least consider switching him to guard?

The Case to Switch Will Campbell to Guard

As previously mentioned, a lot of questions about Campbell’s ability to play at the NFL level surfaced right before the draft. Most of those had to do with his arm measurements. 

Most elite tackles have an arm measurement of over 34 inches, so they can not only have the ability to block in the run game, but also handle outside edge rushers looking to sack the quarterback. Campbell, who at the time was a left tackle prospect out of LSU, measured at 32 ⅝ inches at the NFL Scouting Combine and 33 inches at the Tigers’ pro day, according to CBS News.

Critics of the tackle prospect believed that the lack of arm length would hurt not only Campbell but the team that drafted him. It’s evident that after his imperfect postseason debut, the LSU product needs to change something about his game. And that much just be a switch to the inside of the line.

Patriots Past Success Shifting Positions

A position switch has worked out well in New England before. In 2010, the Patriots drafted Rutgers cornerback Devin McCourty, who shone in his rookie campaign with seven interceptions. But during his sophomore year, McCourty was one of the worst cornerbacks in the league, and he became a liability. 

After a midseason trade for Aqib Talib during the 2012 season, Bill Belichick decided to switch McCourty to free safety. It was a risky choice; the young defender would have to learn an entirely new position while assuming a quarterback-like role in the secondary.

That move paid off in strides, as McCourty became the defensive back signal caller the Patriots needed. Throughout his career, he garnered two Pro Bowls, three All-Pros, and most importantly, three Super Bowl championships.

Making a change is not admitting defeat; in fact, it’s the opposite. Players should utilize their talents to the best of their abilities, and sometimes it’s in a different place than the organization originally thought.

Will Campbell obviously has the talent. Therefore, the Patriots might be better to utilize it on the inside line rather than on the blindside.

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Change Isn’t Always Good

It’s hard not to overreact after a dreadful Super Bowl loss, but let’s not overreact. 

Campbell is only 22 years old. He just wrapped up his rookie season, and most importantly, he has shown he is capable of playing left tackle. To start the season, the rookie provided some stable play at his preferred position, even showing flashes of franchise-level play at times.

During the Patriots’ Week 12 matchup against the Bengals, Campbell suffered a torn MCL. The team originally thought the injury was season-ending, but Campbell managed to return during the final week of the regular season. However, he was far from 100%.

Furthermore, the rookie — in his first postseason, no less — immediately faced four of the best defenses in the league in the Chargers, Texans, Broncos, and Seahawks upon his return to action.

Let the top-five pick recover and see what he has during training camp. If he continues to struggle, then conversations need to be had. But it’s foolish to overreact now, especially so early in his career. And if the Patriots do decide to move him to the inside, that creates an immediate need at left tackle, a position that’s extremely hard to fill.

Something’s Gotta Give

Regardless of what decision the Patriots make, changes to the offensive line will need to be made this offseason to stay competitive in the conference. The AFC will likely be much more menacing next year, and the “easy” schedule that has dominated headlines all season long will be much tougher next year.

Campbell is at a major point in his young career. The question remains as to whether or not he’ll face it as a tackle or as a guard.

The post Should the Patriots Move Will Campbell to Guard? appeared first on The Lead.

The quarterback often gets an oversized share of the credit or blame, but a former New England Patriots player wouldn’t fully fault Drake Maye for Sunday’s Super Bowl loss.

Maye didn’t make the most of his marquee moment, yielding three turnovers in a 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. The 23-year-old has taken some criticism for the sloppy performance, and Devin McCourty noted on “Up & Adams” that Maye missed some open throws and didn’t exploit all of his running opportunities.

However, the three-time Super Bowl champion also explained why the coaching staff deserves some blame.

“A lot of that, to me, fell on the coaches and game-plan oriented,” McCourty said. “Because they couldn’t do anything. They couldn’t run the football. Drake Maye didn’t have much time when he was dropping back. There weren’t guys open.”

McCourty recalled times during his 13-year playing career in New England when the defense couldn’t make a stop despite the coaching staff calling multiple different looks. On the other hand, he didn’t feel like New England’s offense got creative enough on Sunday.

“It felt like last night, as you watched the game, like they didn’t call everything,” McCourty said. “Now I’m assuming there’s reasons for that … But watching it, it felt like Drake Maye needed a lot more help from the sidelines than what he got that game.”

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McCourty thinks Maye has the mental makeup to rebound from the rough Super Bowl outing. But the two-time Pro Bowler wouldn’t let anyone off the hook after Sunday’s showing.

“When you come out and get punched in the mouth the way they did, you get flustered. And that’s what the game looked like through the majority of it,” he said. “When you don’t score a point in three quarters, there’s enough blame to go around for every coach and player, and that’s on the offensive side of the ball.”

The New England Patriots will hope their Super Bowl LX appearance was the start of sustained excellence rather than a fleeting missed opportunity.

New England’s road back to relevancy under Mike Vrabel abruptly ended with a 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. One Patriots player believes the season is just the beginning.

Carlton Davis III was one of several offseason acquisitions to make an impact for the Patriots in 2025. The cornerback reflected on their season after Sunday’s loss.

“It’s our first year together,” Davis told reporters. “Nobody thought we would be here. We put the league on notice.”

Davis, who won a Super Bowl alongside Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers five years ago, thinks he’ll get another chance to compete for the Lombardi Trophy.

“Obviously we didn’t get the job done and (expletive) stings,” Davis said. “(Expletive) is never going to not sting. But we’ve got a bright future, man. We’ve got a lot of great young players. Coming in this (expletive) and taking the league by storm. Having a new coaching staff, a lot of new free agents. Something that’s really unheard of. So (expletive) hurts, but I’ve got a feeling we’ll be back.”

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The Patriots undertook a massive roster overhaul last offseason, but Davis hopes for less turnover entering the 2026 campaign.

“Every year it’s a new team. Hopefully we can retain a lot of the core guys,” Davis said. “I really feel like we’ve already got a lot of guys under contract. I’m pretty sure the front office and our coaches will make the right decisions moving forward for next year.”

Davis thinks losing on the grand stage will drive them to return to the Super Bowl and seek a better ending.

“I think we’ll use it as motivation and we’ll move forward,” Davis said. “I feel like we’ll be back.”

Super Bowl LX showcased the best and worst of New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye.

For the first three quarters, he resembled the rookie year version of Maye who went 3-9 as a starter with 15 touchdown passes, 10 interceptions and nine fumbles. Maye was completely stymied by the Seattle Seahawks’ ferocious defense, throwing for just 60 yards and no touchdowns entering the fourth quarter.

With the game out of reach, Maye finally started to look more like himself in the fourth quarter, showing flashes of the player who finished second in the NFL MVP race this season. He led the Patriots on a pair of late scoring drives, throwing a pair of touchdowns and racking up 235 passing yards in the fourth quarter alone.

In fact, the 235 passing yards were a Super Bowl record for most passing yards in a single quarter. It was more than Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold had in the entire game (202).

Unfortunately, it was too little, too late for New England, which still lost 29-13. The Patriots weren’t able to overcome Maye’s previous miscues, which included three turnovers, six sacks and 10 off-target throws.

Maye was the second-youngest starting quarterback in Super Bowl history, and it showed. Still, at least he managed to end the game on a high note and salvage something from his shaky performance.

Maye was great this season, but he struggled mightily in the playoffs. He still has work to do this offseason if he wants to get back to the Super Bowl and have another shot at a championship someday.

The New England Patriots‘ 2025 campaign came to an end in brutal fashion on Sunday night when they suffered a 29-13 loss at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. And with that, a very important offseason has begun for the Pats.

After watching the offense dominate throughout the regular season, the script flipped in the playoffs. New England’s defense was the unit leading the way, with the offense getting dragged to victories instead of doing the majority of the work.

Nobody expected the Patriots to win 17 games in the regular season and playoffs combined, which led to them making it all the way to the Super Bowl. That’s because, even when taking into account all of their accomplishments this year, there are still some glaring needs on this roster, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.

Let’s start along the offensive line. After an encouraging start to his pro career, Will Campbell struggled after returning from an MCL injury that landed him on injured reserve late in the year. New England doesn’t necessarily need to move him off of left tackle right away, but adding a tackle on Day 2 in the 2026 NFL Draft is probably a good idea.

The lack of protection for quarterback Drake Maye throughout the playoffs (he got sacked an NFL record 21 times in his playoff games) was a big problem, and Campbell isn’t the only guy responsible for the o-line’s struggles. But even when Maye had time to throw the football, he was unable to find guys who were getting open for him.

Part of this is on his supporting cast, and part of this is on Maye, whose wheels were spinning on a weekly basis as a result of playing some of the top defenses in the league during the postseason. In order to help him progress, he needs better targets to work with in the passing game.

Simply put, this team needs a No. 1 wide receiver. Stefon Diggs was great this year, but beyond him, there’s nobody on N.E. who can consistently get open against man coverage. Guys like Mack Hollins, Kayshon Boutte and Demario Douglas are solid secondary options, but they are reliant on someone else taking attention away from opposing defenses.

It also couldn’t hurt to look into drafting and developing a tight end to work behind Hunter Henry. While he’s a reliable option who has a good rapport with Maye, he’s getting older, and he had a couple of costly drops in the playoffs.

The third most important area of need behind the o-line and a top-tier wide receiver is on defense, though. While Milton Williams and Christian Barmore are a dominant interior duo on the defensive line, more help is needed on the edges, especially with K’Lavon Chaisson potentially departing in free agency.

Could Maxx Crosby be a trade target for New England? Potentially, and after a breakout campaign, the Pats will have an easier sell when it comes to recruiting guys this offseason, whether it be in free agency or on the trade market. Using a first-round draft pick on an edge rusher also wouldn’t be a bad idea if the price for a guy like Crosby is too high.

The Patriots are in a great spot to add to this team. They have cap space to sign players in free agency, and with 11 picks in the 2026 draft, that gives them even more flexibility to make moves on the trade market. Losing in the Super Bowl is tough, but if New England plays its cards right this offseason, it could be back in the big game before you know it.

The Seattle Seahawks are your Super Bowl 60 champions. After going 14-3 and getting the number one seed in the NFC, the Seahawks beat the 49ers and Rams to get to the Super Bowl. The New England Patriots and head coach Mike Vrabel also went 14-3 during the regular season, beating the Chargers, Texans, and Broncos in the playoffs on their way to Super Bowl 60. 

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The Seahawks were the favorites going into the game, they completely controlled the game flow from start to finish. Yes, Seattle was the better team, but Vrabel and his coaching staff did their team no favors in this game. Rather than coach to win, they looked like they were coaching to lose. 

The first half:

In the first half, the Patriots offense was nonexistent. They took no shots down the field, they made no adjustments from drive to drive, and their playcalling made it seem like they were comfortable just not turning the ball over. They were playing scared in their offensive playcalling, hoping that their defense could capitalize on a Seattle mistake and set their offense up with good field position.

That tactic worked for them against the Texans and CJ Stroud’s five turnovers, and worked for them against the Broncos, who started a backup quarterback. It didn’t work in the first half of the Super Bowl, though, and it’s why they trailed 9-0 going into halftime.

The second half:

The Patriots got the football to begin the half and were given a chance to get right back into the football game. They had an extra-long halftime to make offensive adjustments, script plays, and drive down and change their fortunes. There were no adjustments to be made, though. The Patriots came out looking flat, calling conservative plays that didn’t work in the first half, giving Seattle the ball back within the first minute of the third quarter.

It was only when Seattle went up 19-0 that New England began to try to push the ball downfield. They attempted no big plays through the first three quarters, and rather than try to make something happen offensively throughout the game, they played conservative and scared football offensively.

Of course, once they actually opened up their playcalling, they scored their first points of the game. They never called plays to get QB Drake Maye into a rhythm, and frankly, they looked outplayed and outcoached.

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The Patriots came up short, losing 29-13 to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Sunday. However, wide receiver Kayshon Boutte believes New England missed out on numerous opportunities throughout the game.

“I said they played well, I wouldn’t discredit that,” Boutte said on Sunday after a reporter asked what made Seattle’s defense so good. “But I think as an offense we left opportunities out there too, as I said, they did everything we expected them to do, we just didn’t execute.”

Seattle’s defense did an excellent job of keeping New England in check for most of the game, holding it scoreless until the fourth quarter.

Boutte had a challenging night, finishing with just one catch on five targets for a total of 21 yards. A significant factor in Boutte’s struggles was quarterback Drake Maye, who also had a difficult game, turning the ball over three times — two interceptions and a fumble.

New England’s offensive line also played a significant role in the offense’s inability to move the ball, leading to Maye being sacked six times.

The Patriots struggled to find their rhythm until late in the game, but by then, they were too far behind on the scoreboard to mount a comeback.

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye avoided using his shoulder injury as an excuse for his poor performance in Super Bowl LX, but came pretty close…

Maye, who was listed on the injury report for the majority of the two weeks between the AFC Championship and Super Bowl, ultimately shed any injury designation before playing and losing the big game to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

It’s safe to say he gave an eye-opening answer when asked about how it impacted him, however.

“My shoulder feels – they shot it up, so not much feeling,” Maye admitted in his postgame press conference, per video shared by Tom Carroll of WEEI. “It was good to go, and felt alright.”

Maye’s removal from the injury report would suggest there was nothing holding him back during the game, but his performance would suggest something completely different — as he turned the ball over three times and ultimately put things on ice as he forced the ball into triple coverage and saw it get intercepted in a two-possession game.

The Patriots didn’t do much to help him, either.

Maye was sacked six times — with the number being much closer to seven considering he was hit and had the ball knocked loose and directly into the arms of Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu — and ultimately failed to make any changes that could have resulted in an easier time in the pocket. If that’s on anyone, it’s the coaching staff and not the sophomore signal-caller.

New England will find solace in the fact that it is set up for future success, but an opportunity was clearly missed on Sunday at Levis’ Stadium — whether it had anything to do with an injury or not.

The New England Patriots faced a tough 29-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Sunday night, marking a disappointing chapter in their history.

With this defeat, the Patriots now hold the record for the most Super Bowl losses, at six, putting them one game ahead of the Denver Broncos.

Their previous five Super Bowl losses include Super Bowl XX on Jan. 26, 1986, against the Chicago Bears; Super Bowl XXXI on Jan. 27, 1997, where they fell to the Green Bay Packers; Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3, 2008, to the New York Giants; Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5, 2012, again against the Giants; and Super Bowl LII on Feb. 4, 2018, when they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.

With New England appearing in the Super Bowl 12 times, it was only a matter of time before it set the record for the most losses in the game’s history. However, the Patriots are also tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins in history, with six.

Although the Patriots couldn’t win this season’s Super Bowl, the future looks promising with quarterback Drake Maye and head coach Mike Vrabel at the helm. Perhaps next season, New England will return to the big stage, aiming to secure the title of the team with the most Super Bowl victories in NFL history.