Patriots Pregame Thread SUPER BOWL PREGAME THREAD - Patriots vs Seahawks 2026 SB - The Rematch

PatsFan2 said:

Don't get me started on H Henry a Cltuch TD catch in the Chargers game - Five measly yards in the Texan game and he supposedly had 12 yards last game *scratches head* still trying to remember when?? We need a really Good Young TE via the upcoming Draft.

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We do need youth but its not as bad as you make it sound. He was targeted twice in the Houston game and caught one. The Denver game he was targeted three times and caught two. Without looking deeper I cant say if he wasnt getting open, Drake went elsewhere with the ball or Drake was running for his life. I do know that Henry most times during the season won his match ups. I expect him to have a decent game next week.

Patsfan1645 said:

We do need youth but its not as bad as you make it sound. He was targeted twice in the Houston game and caught one. The Denver game he was targeted three times and caught two. Without looking deeper I cant say if he wasnt getting open, Drake went elsewhere with the ball or Drake was running for his life. I do know that Henry most times during the season won his match ups. I expect him to have a decent game next week.

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FTR: I'm feening for a Young TE for Maye like Loveland or Warren. They make such a difference: Dalton Kincaid is another matchup nightmare: we Need ours.

People are prisoners of the moment. The Seahawks and Rams game was a well played great game. Pats Broncos was not, mainly due to the conditions. It was one of Drakes worse games of the year in my opinion, but he still made enough plays to win the game. That is a very tough place to play for a team that seldom plays there and Drake is in his second year. Knee jerk reaction is the Seahawks looked much better than the Pats therefore they will beat them in the Superbowl. Not sure how great the Seahawks would have looked in those conditions. I like our chances to win the Superbowl, anybody who thinks this is some kind of mismatch, I do not see it at all. The idiots on ESPN do not help at all with this narrative but who cares, that is why the games are played on the field.

NFL Mystique said:

I believe prime Bill would turn Darnold back into....Darnold. This is a game he would excel at defensively. Taking away best players, mixing things up, turning a team's small weakness into a huge weakness.

Brady with these receivers would be enough to put this as a pickem game. There is nothing he has not seen defensively in his career. Pocket awareness & missing throws would not be an issue.

It's the first non Bill/Brady Patriots SB in 30 years. That is why I bring them up. How would that duo do vs this Seahawks team. It's tough not to think about it.

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This defense is on-par, at worst, with the 2004 defense. It might actually be better.

jal said:

This is pretty much what I expect. The Seahawks aren't a LOB team - they are gonna try to confuse Maye but they will likely play more zone than man. McDonald will scheme up traps to try to bait him against some of our favorite passing concepts. The two week gap will give him more time to come up with exotic disguises. McDaniels and Maye obviously will know this and so it's a cat and mouse game.

Josh needs to figure out how to keep the reads simple for Drake - the Rams beat all this stuff by focusing on 1v1 man opportunities deep (makes the post-snap read simple - two high or single? if single then go deep to your top 2 guys down the sideline and let them win). We don't have quite the same personnel advantage as the Rams (duh) but we do have a great deep ball thrower and guys who are either separators (Williams/Douglas) or physical at the catch point (Boutte). We need to take shots from time to time to simplify the read for Drake.

Similarly another tactic to simplify coverages is to go with the hurry up. It's much harder to disguise and roam around when you are just trying to get lined up in time before the snap goes off. You can't do this all game but in spurts this can work.

The last thing that makes things simple is just running effectively. A lot of these disguises with defenders trying to get to a mark post-snap mess up run fits. I wouldn't expect as much disguising on early downs for that reason - thus please don't run on every 1st down esp. early in the game!

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.....and please bring in a more useful player to block than Jake Westover. I've watched him closely since the middle of this season, and I've seen him make ONE effective blockthe past 9 games (I believe it was the second Jets or Dolphin game). All he does is run up to a lineman and slow dance romantically.

He is the most futile Patriot player since Jordan Richards. Nobody says a word about him, though.

Last week he played 26 offensive snaps - - it was brutal watching him. I wanted to throw something at the tv.

Play more Munford on the extended line or sign up 60 yr old Sam Gash for a game. Anything!

.

This game isn't about trying to make Sam Darnold bad or turn him back into the QB he was when he was forced to wear the petulance green of the Jets and bear that weight. He isn't that guy and turns out to have NEVER been that guy. Rather he is a talented QB who was worthy of being drafted in the top 3 and an example of what happens to good players who get drafted by bad organizations.

Seattle is not going to win or lose this game based solely on the play of Sam Darnold. In order for us to control the excellent Seattle offense we are going to have to do to some degree, what we have been doing to all our playoff rivals. That is confuse what Sam sees at the LOS at least some of the time, control the LOS so the Seahawks can't control the LOS with a good run game (under 75 ypg), and provide enough pressure with 4 and 5 man rushes to move Darnold off his spot. We want to force him into his 2nd and 3rd options and make his job hard and his pass drops longer.

As for our offense? I'm not sure. It has been a month since we have seen a game where it looked both efficient and effective for any length of time. A time where WE were dictating the flow of the game. I just have to believe all we saw in the first 17 games of the season wasn't a mirage and we will have an answer if we get into a shooting match.

I really would be happy to hear a report this week or next that T. Williams was seen in the building or out in Santa Clara. I have a feeling that he has been contributing more to the defensive planning than people realize, even if he hasn't been there to coach it directly. That's my hope at least.

Lagaffe_07 said:

Did you see the one handed catch he made yesterday? Absurd.

The Gonzo - JSN matchup will be fascinating.

Could make Gonzo a lot of money

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Gonza is going to make a lot of money regardless. Pretending like one matchup will make or break that is absurd.

shmessy said:

.....and please bring in a more useful player to block than Jake Westover. I've watched him closely since the middle of this season, and I've seen him make ONE effective blockthe past 9 games (I believe it was the second Jets or Dolphin game). All he does is run up to a lineman and slow dance romantically.

He is the most futile Patriot player since Jordan Richards. Nobody says a word about him, though.

Last week he played 26 offensive snaps - - it was brutal watching him. I wanted to throw something at the tv.

Play more Munford on the extended line or sign up 60 yr old Sam Gash for a game. Anything!

.

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Sorry. You aren't paying attention if that's what you honestly believe. I've seen him make 2-3 decent blocks a game. Your portrayal of him is as ridiculously hyperbolic as the moron who claimed Belichick was a **** to everyone.

Since you haven't paid attention, the team has Brock Lampe on IR.. He's 23. No reason to think he'll not supplant Westover as the Starting FB.

Water Boy said:

Landry has a $19 million dead cap if cut in 2026. It would be ashame if that salary prohibits us from taking a run at Chaisson.

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My money is Landry retiring and being a post June 1st submission. Which breaks up the cap hit.

PatsFan2 said:

FTR: I'm feening for a Young TE for Maye like Loveland or Warren. They make such a difference: Dalton Kincaid is another matchup nightmare: we Need ours.

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Kincaid may be a matchup nightmare. He's also a bust.

Regardless I'd like a dependable TE too, but I note how some of these guys appear and disappear. Whta happened to Hockenson and LaPorta? Weird to see people fall off like that

patfanken said:

This game isn't about trying to make Sam Darnold bad or turn him back into the QB he was when he was forced to wear the petulance green of the Jets and bear that weight. He isn't that guy and turns out to have NEVER been that guy. Rather he is a talented QB who was worthy of being drafted in the top 3 and an example of what happens to good players who get drafted by bad organizations.

Seattle is not going to win or lose this game based solely on the play of Sam Darnold. In order for us to control the excellent Seattle offense we are going to have to do to some degree, what we have been doing to all our playoff rivals. That is confuse what Sam sees at the LOS at least some of the time, control the LOS so the Seahawks can't control the LOS with a good run game (under 75 ypg), and provide enough pressure with 4 and 5 man rushes to move Darnold off his spot. We want to force him into his 2nd and 3rd options and make his job hard and his pass drops longer.

As for our offense? I'm not sure. It has been a month since we have seen a game where it looked both efficient and effective for any length of time. A time where WE were dictating the flow of the game. I just have to believe all we saw in the first 17 games of the season wasn't a mirage and we will have an answer if we get into a shooting match.

I really would be happy to hear a report this week or next that T. Williams was seen in the building or out in Santa Clara. I have a feeling that he has been contributing more to the defensive planning than people realize, even if he hasn't been there to coach it directly. That's my hope at least.

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The plan clearly has to be to pressure Darnold, who drops from being a top 10 ranked QB not pressured to bottom 10 QB under pressure. However Seattle's coaches aren't dumb - you can't make it too obvious with your blitzes or they will have some answers prepared. Spin the dial with some simulated blitzes mixed in and some unusual blitz angles to keep it from being stale. But the core of the plan on defense should be straightforward. The biggest question is how to handle JSN given how much Seattle has been moving him around in the playoffs (during season they were not an especially motion-heavy team).

On offense I think the answer is just nuanced. We performed fairly well against the Chargers (381 yards, 6.0 yards per play) but we failed situationally and thus only scored 16 points when we easily could have put in high 20s. Texans game was really just due to quality of defense and weather (plus Campbell was getting absolutely mauled), while Broncos game was actually a bad game by the offense - specifically Drake and his receivers. Thought we were mildly outcoached in terms of McDaniels vs. Vance Joseph but some of it was also execution (Drake missed more open passes than we've seen in a long time).

Against Seattle we really just need to execute at a higher level. I don't see this as a Texans-style matchup where even great execution is simply going to run into an all-time talented defense. Seattle is very good and arguably busts less than Houston, but they don't have the same level of talent. Seattle's coach is very very smart and he will have tons of traps set in the disguised zones to bait Maye - post-snap recognition will have to be very high and every play should have some easy read options as bailouts (e.g., post-snap rotation into single high => throw go balls down sideline).

upstater1 said:

Kincaid may be a matchup nightmare. He's also a bust.

Regardless I'd like a dependable TE too, but I note how some of these guys appear and disappear. Whta happened to Hockenson and LaPorta? Weird to see people fall off like that

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Hockenson did fall off but LaPorta ended his season on IR after nine games. The Packers lost Tucker Kraft too to a ACL he was really coming one.

ZoisKing said:

Will take that matchup. Barmore and Milton are going to be a tough matchup for them.

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As is Tonga.. Durden has really stepped up as well.

That interior 5 with Taylor has really done well.. I have to wonder if they might just shut Josh Farmer down for the year with the way that Taylor is playing.

Gumby said:

Did you see / hear his [(Durden) post-game] interview….. said Vrabel “rescued his career”

Sounds like home-town discount to me….Cha -Ching!!!

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Durden still has another year on his contract.. Though I could see the Pats doing an extension and bumping him up to 3M-5M AAV for 3 more years..

Double TE said:

He is 6’1 isn’t he? Rest I agree. Shifty, great hands. Elite route runner. Key is pressure on Darnold and not giving him time to throw

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6'0 5/8" technically..

PatsFan2 said:

Hockenson did fall off but LaPorta ended his season on IR after nine games. The Packers lost Tucker Kraft too to a ACL he was really coming one.

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Hockenson started the season on IR and then when he was activated, kinda saw a similar year he always has had. He had one year in MN where he went up for 90 receptions for almost 1000 yards. Otherwise, he is a perpetual ~60 catches for 450-500 yards. Henry has had a far more consistent career and is always north of 10 ypc, while Hockenson finds himself south of that mark year-in-and-out.

He may be getting cut this year; could be a cheaper pickup to pair with Henry if he has juice? Henry & Hockenson TE Firm? Just down the street from Henderson & Stevenson Turf Consultants?

SVN said:

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One of the things that Vrabel has that other coaches don't is that he's been there. He's had a team not offer him a contract (Pittsburgh). He's had a team trade him because of his contract (Pats). He's been to 4 Super Bowls and he know, as a player, what it takes. He's a hard-ass when he needs to be. But he's still a smart-ass, as he said.

It's amazing how he gets to know his players on such a personal level as well. Which really helps with the loyalty and with wanting them to do their best.

DaBruinz said:

6'0 5/8" technically..

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DOH