Super Bowl overreactions or reality: Sam Darnold silences all of his doubters

The Seattle Seahawks completed their transformation from being a recent NFL afterthought to becoming the 2025 NFL season’s Super Bowl champions after a dominating 29-13 Super Bowl LX victory over the AFC champion New England Patriots. 

The 2025 Seahawks had the longest preseason championship odds (60-1) by a Super Bowl champion since the 2001 Patriots, New England’s first Super Bowl title team that also had 60-1 odds. They’re also the first team to win the Super Bowl a season after missing the playoffs entirely since the 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a franchise that was transformed by the free agency arrival of Tom Brady. 

Seattle won it all with immaculate play on both sides of the ball: the Seahawks became the first Super Bowl champion ever without a turnover in the postseason, and Seattle’s defense became the first to allow no points through three quarters of a Super Bowl since the 1974 “Steel Curtain” Pittsburgh Steelers defense. 

With Super Bowl LX now in the history books and blue and green confetti raining down at Levi’s Stadium, let’s take a look at some of the key narratives from the Seahawks’ dominating victory and figure out if they are overreactions or reality. 

Sam Darnold silenced his doubters with turnover-free postseason

Overreaction vs. reality: Reality  

When people discussed the Seahawks throughout the 2025 season, it always felt like there was a “yeah but” around them because of quarterback Sam Darnold. That was fair given Seattle is his fifth NFL team, and he did lead the 2025 regular season in turnovers with 20, 14 off of interceptions and six off of lost fumbles. 

However, he silenced all his doubters by playing turnover free football in his three 2025 postseason games. That put him in elite playoff company, joining Drew Brees, Steve Young and Troy Aikman as the only four quarterbacks to win the Super Bowl and have no postseason turnovers in a postseason across the last 35 postseasons. He’s also now the first quarterback ever to win a Super Bowl as a starter after playing for at least five teams. 

Darnold’s final 2025 playoffs stat line ended up as follows: 61.5% completion percentage (second-best this postseason), 672 pass yards (third-most this postseason), 7.5 yards per pass attempt (third-most this postseason), five passing touchdowns (third-most this postseason), no interceptions and a 102.4 passer rating (second-most this postseason). People can now say the following sentence without a hint of sarcasm, “You can win a Super Bowl with Sam Darnold as your quarterback.” 

Cornerback Devon Witherspoon is a legitimate star

Overreaction vs. reality: Reality

Seahawks cornerback Devon Witherspoon is just the third defensive back in the past 40 years with a Pro Bowl selection in each of his first three seasons joining Hall of Famer Charles Woodson and 2010s All-Decade Team member Patrick Peterson. 

He backed up his early career accolades in Super Bowl LX by racking up a sack and two quarterback pressures, including THE key quarterback pressure in the Super Bowl. Edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu’s pick six was forced by Witherspoon’s pressure, and he took it all the way back for a 45-yard touchdown that put the game out of reach, 29-7, with 4:27 left to play. That gave him a case to be the game’s MVP. Witherspoon will continue ascending in head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense for years to come. 

Jason Myers had the best kicking season ever capped off with Super Bowl history 

Overreaction vs. reality: Reality  

If Seattle Seahawks kicker Jason Myers’ five made field goals felt like a lot, it’s because they were. His Super Bowl LX performance broke the Super Bowl’s all-time, single-game made field goals record as his leg was responsible for all the scoring through the first three quarters of action on Sunday. Myers made the record-breaking kick from 26 yards out to put the Seahawks up 22-7 with 5:35 left to play. He’s also become the first player in NFL history to score 200-plus points in a season, including the playoffs.

Edge rusher Derick Hall is a rising star

Overreaction vs. reality: Overreaction  

Seattle Seahawks edge rusher Derick Hall, a 2023 second-round pick out of Auburn, registered one of the best defensive performances in Super Bowl history. He became the 10th player with multiple sacks and a forced fumble in a Super Bowl since sacks became an officially tracked sack in 1982, per CBS Sports Research. His strip-sack helped set up the Seahawks’ first touchdown of the game, a 16-yard play-action pass from Darnold to tight end AJ Barner. 

Milton Williams, a current New England Patriot, achieved the feat with the Philadelphia Eagles in their 40-22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX last season. However, this performance is an outlier for Hall, who had just two sacks in the entire 2025 season after playing in 14 games and only starting three of them. However, this performance likely gives the Seahawks enough confidence to let edge rusher Boye Mafe walk in free agency and empower him to start down the road with DeMarcus Lawrence (33 years old) getting up there, relatively speaking for NFL edge rushers. 

Will Campbell needs to move inside to guard if he’s to have a long NFL career

Overreaction vs. reality: Reality  

New England Patriots left tackle Will Campbell, the fourth overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft, experienced a rude awakening this postseason. His four sacks allowed, including one in Super Bowl LX, and his 12 quarterback pressures allowed were both the most this postseason. That’s on top of six sacks allowed in the regular season in 13 games played, that’s nearly a sack every other game. 

Some were worried about Campbell and his wingspan when he came out of the draft this spring, and he’s proved those doubters right. Campbell, who is listed at 6-6, 319 pounds, was measured as having 32 5/8″ arms at the NFL Scouting Combine. Offensive tackles with longer arms have a better opportunity to prevent edge rushers from plowing into their chest because of better reach

Patriots 2010s All-Decade Team left guard Logan Mankins’ arm length was 33 3/8″ — longer than Campbell’s. Just like Campbell at LSU, Mankins was a left tackle at Fresno State. However, he moved inside to guard in the NFL. Campbell would be better served to protect Maye if doing so from the interior. Maye’s 21 sacks this postseason are the most in a single postseason, and his seven fumbles are tied for the most in a single postseason. He was sacked at least five times in all four of New England’s playoff games, which makes Maye tied for the third-most five-sack games in a career after just his first playoff run. Campbell’s inability to protect his blindside played a major role in that statistic.