Super Bowl winners and losers, plus two Seahawks players who stole the show and 14 wild stats from game

Welcome to the Monday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

I’d like to extend a special welcome to any Seahawks fans who are reading this, because I’m guessing you haven’t slept a single minute since last night. This Super Bowl really couldn’t have gone any better for the Seahawks: Their fans took over the stadium, their defense had a historically great game and they got to smoke victory cigars in the 49ers’ home locker room. The 49ers are going to be smelling this Seattle win for the next five years. 

As you can imagine, we have a lot to cover today, and 95% of it is Super Bowl related. We’ll be taking a look at almost every aspect of the game, so let’s get to the rundown.

As always, here’s your reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. 

1. Winners and losers from Super Bowl LX

We’re going to hand out our winners and losers because that’s what we do after big games. And I have to say, if you saw the final score at the end, then you probably already know how the winners side of this list is going to shake out. 

Here’s our list of winners via Zach Pereles. 

Winners from Super Bowl LX

• Sam Darnold. We won’t try to spin this: Darnold did not play well. He missed some throws he should have made, he tried to make some throws he shouldn’t have, and he got lucky when several dangerous throws fell harmlessly to the ground. The stats are not particularly inspiring: 19-for-38, 202 passing yards (5.3 yards per attempt), one touchdown. But Darnold is a Super Bowl champion. He’s the first starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl on the fifth (or later) team in his career.
• Mike Macdonald. In the battle of the “Mike” head coaches, Macdonald throttled Vrabel. Macdonald’s defense was absolutely overwhelming. Yes, there was a massive talent differential, but there was a massive scheme differential between Macdonald’s defense and Josh McDaniels’ offense. … Now he’s not only a Super Bowl champion but one of the brightest and best coaches in the game.
• John Schneider. Schneider has now built the Seahawks into Super Bowl champions twice, and he did it with a different coach and an entirely different roster. It wasn’t always a straightforward path. After building his first Super Bowl champion, Schneider had some misses in the draft. Then he absolutely crushed it. The 2022 draft produced six significant contributors to this championship team, including Walker. The 2023 draft — thanks to the Russell Wilson trade — had Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. … You don’t become a Super Bowl champion without risks — big and small — from a personnel perspective. Schneider pressed the right button over and over again.
• The Happy couple during Bad Bunny’s halftime show. Yes, that was a real wedding during Bad Bunny’s halftime show. And I loved Bad Bunny as a whole, though I wish we got more “DtMF.”

We also had a list of losers and if you want to see that list, be sure to check out out our full story here. And if you want to read more about Bad Bunny’s halftime show, we’ve got all the details here. 

2. Super Bowl MVP: Kenneth Walker III takes home the award

Kenneth Walker III was also on our winners list, but we didn’t mention him because we’re giving him his own section here. That’s what you get when you’re named Super Bowl MVP. 

Here’s a look at why he won the award: 

• Walker carried Seattle’s offense. The Patriots had one of the best run defenses all season, but the Seahawks decided to attack it anyway and the plan worked to perfection. In the first half alone, Walker had two runs that went for at least 25 yards: a 29-yard run and a 30-yard run that came two plays apart in the second quarter. Walker finished with 94 yards on just 14 carries during a first half where he ran wild. He ended up finishing with 135 yards on the ground, which was the most by any running back in a Super Bowl since 1997. 
• Walker was a weapon in the passing game. Not only did he finish with 135 yards on the ground, but he also caught two passes for 26 yards. With that performance, he became just the third player in Super Bowl history to finish with at least 125 rushing yards and 25 receiving yards, joining Thurman Thomas (Super Bowl XXV) and Emmitt Smith (Super Bowl XXVIII). 
• Rare for a running back to win the award. With his MVP win, Walker became the first running back in 29 years to win the award. The last time it happened came in 1997 when Terrell Davis rushed for 157 yards in a win over the Packers. Overall, Walker is just the eighth running back to win the award. During the first 32 years of the Super Bowl, a running back was named MVP seven times, but Walker is the only one to win it since Super Bowl XXXIII. Walker also pulled off a rarity by winning MVP in a game where he didn’t score a touchdown. He’s now just the fifth offensive player in Super Bowl history to win MVP without scoring or throwing a TD pass. 

For our full story on Walker’s MVP win, be sure to click here.

3. Seahawks’ secret weapons: Jason Myers and Michael Dickson played at an MVP level

Kenneth Walker III was voted MVP, but you could make a strong case that the award actually should have gone to Seahawks kicker Jason Myers. If you read this newsletter regularly, then you may know that I am very pro-kicker and if I had been given an MVP vote last night, I would have given it to Myers. 

The Seahawks actually had two “special” weapons in the Super Bowl — Myers and Michael Dickson — and those two guys were a big reason why Seattle won. 

Let’s break it down: 

• Myers sets Super Bowl record. The Super Bowl record for most field goals in a game was four, but Myers broke that against the patriots by hitting five kicks. Through the first three quarters of the game, Myers was the ONLY player who scored. And if you include his two extra points, Myers scored 17 total points, which was the most ever by a kicker in a Super Bowl and the eighth most by any player. The Seahawks kicker also ended the season with 204 total points (regular season and playoffs combined) making him the first player in NFL history to top 200 points. 
• Dickson was on fire. Dickson is the only player on the Seahawks’ roster who is the highest-paid at his position in the NFL and he showed why he’s so deserving of that money. He punted seven times in the game and he pinned the Patriots inside their own 6-yard line with THREE of those punts, including two that came in the fourth quarter. It was a punting clinic by one of the best punters in the game. Dickson was also the holder on Myers’ five field goals, including one kick that happened after Dickson got the hold down following a shaky snap. 
• Seahawks take care of their specialists. The Seahawks have two of the best specialists in the NFL and they paid up to make that happen. There’s only one team in the entire NFL that pays their kicker and punter combined more than $9 million and that’s Seattle. John Schneider understands the importance of special teams and that’s why the Seahawks have invested so much in the two positions. 

As the special teams guru here at CBS Sports, I offered to break down these two ‘special’ Super Bowl performances and if you like reading about punters and/or kickers, then you’ll definitely want to check out my story here.

4. 14 crazy stats about Super Bowl LX

Every Sunday night, I get an email from our research department here at CBS Sports, and every Sunday, that email always includes some amazingly wild stats about the game, and the Super Bowl was no different. The research department was working overtime to get these to me for today. 

With that in mind, here are 14 crazy facts about Super Bowl LX: 

1. Sam Darnold makes NFL history. The Seahawks QB became the first quarterback in NFL history win his first Super Bowl after playing for five different teams. Darnold played for the Jets, Panthers, 49ers and Vikings before signing with the Seahawks last March. Darnold was also the first member of the 2018 draft class to win a Super Bowl, which is mildly surprising, when you consider that the class also included Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Although Darnold got the win, he wasn’t great: He completed just 50% of his passes, which was the fifth-lowest completion percentage by a Super Bowl winning QB ever. 
2. Patriots have the most Super Bowl losses. Well, well, well, the tables have turned here. The loss to Seattle was New England’s sixth Super Bowl loss, which is the most by any team in NFL history. The Patriots had been tied with the Broncos for the most losses at five, but now they have the record to themselves
3. Kicking butt. Seahawks kicker Jason Myers set a Super Bowl record with five field goals. Going into the game, there had been four kickers in Super Bowl history who hit four field goals in a single game, but no one had ever hit five. With five field goals, Myers also now has the fifth-most CAREER field goals in Super Bowl history. Also, his 17 points was the most by a kicker in Super Bowl history. Myers’ finished his season with 206 total points, making him the first player in NFL history to crack the 200-point mark. 
4. Young Macdonald had a farm. Young quarterbacks stand no chance against Mike Macdonald. In his two seasons on the job in Seattle, Macdonald has faced a first- or second-year QB in seven games and the Seahawks have gone 7-0 in those games. Young quarterbacks simply look lost when facing his defense and that’s what happened with Drake Maye in Super Bowl LX. 
5. Young Macdonald, Part II. Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald is just 38 years old, which means he’s now the third-youngest coach ever to win a Super Bowl. Only Sean McVay (36) and Mike Tomlin (36) were younger when they won their first Super Bowl.  
6. Seahawks defense is dominant. The Seahawks pitched a shutout through the first three quarters marking the first time in 52 years that a team held their opponent scoreless heading into the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl. The last time it happened came in Super Bowl IX when the Steel Curtain held the Vikings scoreless through three quarters of a game that Pittsburgh would win 16-6. Macdonald has turned the Seahawks defense into a dominating unit and if you want to know how that was done, we’ve got the details here. 
7. Defense wins championships. This was the 19th time that the No. 1 scoring defense has been in the Super Bowl and thanks to the Seahawks’ win, the NFL’s top defense is now 15-4 in the big game. This was also the seventh time that a No. 1 defense faced an All-Pro QB (Drake Maye was second-team All-Pro this year) and the No. 1 defense has gone 6-1 in those matchups. 
8. Seahawks beat top two MVP finishers. With their Super Bowl win, the Seahawks became just the fourth team in NFL history to beat the top two MVP vote-getters in back-to-back games. Matthew Stafford won the award with Drake Maye finishing in second. The Seahawks beat Stafford in the NFC title game before beating the Maye in the Super Bowl. The last team to pull that off was the Broncos, who beat Tom Brady in the 2015 AFC title game before beating Cam Newton in the Super Bowl. 
9. Turnovers disappeared. The Seahawks became the first team in NFL history to win a Super Bowl during a postseason where they turned the ball over ZERO times. Sam Darnold led the NFL in turnovers during the regular season, but he had zero during the playoffs. With his performance, Darnold became just the second QB in NFL history — joining Eli Manning — to win a Super Bowl after a regular season where he led the NFL in turnovers. 
10. Drake Maye is probably hurting. The Patriots QB was sacked six times in Super Bowl LX, bringing his postseason total to a record-setting 21. Going into the season, Joe Burrow held the record for most sacks taken by a QB in a single postseason when he got taken down 19 times in 2021, but the record now belongs to Maye. Maye has now been sacked at least five times in four different postseason games, which puts him just two away from the CAREER record (Roger Staubach was sacked at least five times in six career playoff games).  
11. Maye sets fourth-quarter passing record. With the Patriots in desperation mode, Maye ended up throwing for 235 yards in the fourth quarter, which is a Super Bowl record for the final quarter of the game. Overall, Maye threw for 295 yards and two touchdowns while also throwing two interceptions. Maye had just 60 passing yards heading into the game’s final quarter. 
12. A running back finally wins MVP again. With his MVP win, Kenneth Walker III became the first running back to win the award since Terrell Davis in 1997. Walker became the fifth offensive player to win MVP without scoring or throwing a touchdown, joining Jets QB Joe Namath (Super Bowl III), Raiders WR Fred Biletnikoff (Super Bowl XI), Patriots WR Deion Branch (Super Bowl XXXIX) and Patriots WR Julian Edelman (Super Bowl LIII).
13. Cooper Kupp joins exclusive clubb. The Seahawks receiver picked up his second Super Bowl win. Back in Super Bowl LVI, he was the game MVP in the Rams’ win over the Bengals. Kupp is now just the sixth receiver in NFL history to win a Super Bowl MVP and at least one more Super Bowl, joining Lynn Swann, Jerry Rice, Julian Edelman, Deion Branch and Hines Ward. 
14. Long shot Seahawks win the Super Bowl. Before the season started, the Seahawks had a 60-1 chance of winning the Super Bowl, making them the biggest long shot to win the big game since 2001, when the Patriots also won as a 60-1 long shot. One gambler at BetMGM put $50,000 on Seattle to win the Super Bowl back in August and he ended up making a cool $3 million on Sunday. 

If you see any other fun facts about the Super Bowl, feel free to shoot them my way on Twitter. 

5. Ranking Seattle’s possible Week 1 opponents 

The team that wins the Super Bowl generally gets to host the Thursday night opener the following season, so we decided to take a look at the Seahawks schedule to see who they might play.

First, let’s take a look at the home games on Seattle’s schedule for 2026: Patriots, Rams, 49ers, Cardinals, Chiefs, Chargers, Cowboys, Giants, Bears. 

The Rams and 49ers are playing in Australia next season and that game is expected to happen in Week 1, so we’re going to take them out. With that in mind, Jared Dubin decided to rank his top three choices for who the Seahawks should open with: 

1. Bears. The Bears were the cardiac kids all year in 2025, and giving them a matchup with the defending champs in Week 1 would serve as a strong test of whether they can put together a similar season in 2026.

2. Cowboys. The league always loves putting the Cowboys in prime time, as we saw this past year when they opened the season against the defending champion Eagles on “Thursday Night Football.” The appeal of this game, though, is the explosive Dallas offense against the Seattle defense.

3. Chiefs. This ranking assumes that Patrick Mahomes will be healthy to start the season, which is obviously not a guarantee. It wouldn’t exactly be light work for Mahomes to go up against the ferocious Seattle defense in his first game back from a torn ACL. 

As Dubin mentioned, Patrick Mahomes’ injury could certainly factor into this, so if I’m the NFL, I probably leave the Chiefs out. My top three would probably be Cowboys, Patriots and Bears, but the Chiefs would have definitely been on my list if I knew that Mahomes was definitely going to play, but the NFL won’t know if he’s going to play when the schedule comes out in May, so I’d say the Chiefs probably won’t be the Week 1 opponent. 

If you want to see Dubin’s full ranking, you can check that out here.

6. Extra points: Derek Carr might come out of retirement

It’s been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything, I put together a quick roundup for you.

• Derek Carr might unretire. If Carr can find the right situation, it appears that he’s open to playing again in 2026. The only issue is that the Saints still own his rights, so if Carr wants to play for a team that’s not New Orleans, then the Saints will have to trade or release him. You can read more on Carr’s situation here. 
• Kirk Cousins landing spots. The Falcons are expected to release Kirk Cousins before the new league year starts next month, which means he’ll be able to sign anywhere. Tyler Sullivan came up with five possible landing spots for the veteran QB and you can check those out here. 
• Falcons rookie arrested. James Pearce Jr., who was taken in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft, is facing some serious charges after being arrested over the weekend. The Falcons pass rusher was arrested Saturday in South Florida on charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon (two counts), aggravated stalking and fleeing and eluding police. The charges stem from a domestic dispute that involved his girlfriend, Rickea Jackson, who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks in the WNBA. We’ve got the full details on the case here. 
• Cowboys likely to use franchise tag on George Pickens. The Cowboys receiver was expected to be one of the top free agents available this offseason, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to hit the market. The Cowboys are expected to use the franchise tag on Pickens, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be staying in Dallas. NFL Media reported that the Cowboys could be open to a sign-and-trade. You can read more about the Pickens’ situation here.