Seattle Seahawks Win Super Bowl 60 Over New England Patriots: Is the Superstar QB Era Over?

While it wasn’t exactly a nail-biter, the 2025-26 NFL season came to a close with an ending that few people could have saw coming in September. Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks, on the heels of a strong defense, defeated second-year quarterback Drake Maye and the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl 60.

This was a rematch of Super Bowl 49, where the Patriots emerged victorious. It was Seattle’s second Super Bowl victory following their Super Bowl 48 win over the Denver Broncos.

On the football field, it was a pure mismatch, as Maye and the Patriots couldn’t get anything going. The Patriots offense didn’t exactly explode against the Los Angeles Chargers or Denver Broncos earlier in the AFC playoffs, and statistically, Maye had one of the worst postseasons for a quarterback ever. Maye also managed to enter the Top 10 list in all-time playoff fumbles in just one postseason, over four games.

**SEE ALSO:** Super Bowl 60 Prediction: New England Patriots vs. Seattle Seahawks

It’s become clear that the “real” Super Bowl was the NFC Championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams: two NFC West powerhouses, who both had a shot at the conference’s #1 seed. Seattle held off Los Angeles 31-27 in a scoreless fourth quarter to reach Super Bowl 60, and it’s hard not to imagine that if Matthew Stafford and the Rams had advanced to the Super Bowl, they would have emerged victorious.

Even the San Francisco 49ers team that showed up against the defending Super Bowl 59 champion Philadelphia Eagles in the Wildcard Round probably would’ve beaten the Patriots: a third NFC West team, without even getting in to other possibilities.

My point here isn’t to bash on New England, but to highlight that the AFC Playoffs were a slug fest, and the Patriots may not have been the best team pound-for-pound, they were just the one that survived the gauntlet. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills may have been a worthy representative for the AFC, but Buffalo was dispatched by the Denver Broncos. The Broncos very nearly made Super Bowl 60 despite Bo Nix’s ankle injury, but I can’t imagine the Jarrett Stidham-led Broncos would’ve fared much better against Seattle than New England did.

For years, some of the most threatening teams in the league; Josh Allen’s Bills, Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs, Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens, Justin Herbert’s Los Angeles Chargers, are labeled Super Bowl contenders. But now, in back-to-back years, the NFC has emerged victorious in February. Jalen Hurts is a star, but isn’t even a pure passer. Sam Darnold, statistically, has been amazing for the past two seasons, but is still hardly a household name.

But both the Philadelphia Eagles last year and the Seattle Seahawks this year had well-rounded rosters, disciplined players, strong offensive lines, and opportunistic defenses. This winning formula feels more like classic football, where the margins are thin but the best teams come out on top. In contrast, for most of last decade, having Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes on your team was usually more than enough to at least get a seat at the table in the Super Bowl.

Could the era of superstar quarterbacks be coming to an end in favor of a more well-rounded team approach? It’s too early to tell, but the last two years of Super Bowl winners have at least proven that building a strong roster from the ground up is still a tried and true way to win a Lombardi trophy.

Which team could that favor next year? Only time will tell: stay tuned to Sakmann Sports for more.