NFL Insider Names Only Scenario Where Seahawks Lose Super Bowl LX To Patriots

Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold seems to have fully put his well-chronicled early-career struggles behind him.

Darnold earned his second straight Pro Bowl honor during the 2025 season and posted a career-high 67.7% completion percentage while leading the Seahawks to a spot in Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots.

The 28-year-old’s campaign wasn’t perfect though, as he had a league-worst 20 turnovers during the regular season, including an NFL-high 11 fumbles, while also throwing 14 interceptions, which were the most since his 2018 rookie year.

ESPN.com senior NFL writer Bill Barnwell made his Super Bowl LX prediction on Thursday, picking Seattle to defeat New England, 20-13.

Barnwell said that the one scenario where he could see the Patriots winning though is if Darnold has a “disaster” game on the big stage.

“After taking a closer look, my strongest feeling about this game is that the offenses won’t play very well. The Seahawks are too dominant on the defensive side of the ball, and the Patriots have been much improved there over the past month. I wouldn’t be surprised if both teams leaned into their run games to try to take some of the pressure off their respective quarterbacks, and that could lead to plenty of punts while each team tries to find an opportunity for an explosive play,” he wrote. “In the scenario I see as most likely, though, we get a low-scoring game with the occasional explosive shot as opposed to one with steady gains on the offensive side of the ball. In such a game, I’m always going to like the team that has the better defense and special teams. Barring a disaster outing from Darnold, I think the Seahawks gain a measure of revenge for what happened on the goal line in Glendale, Arizona, 11 years ago.”

Darnold hasn’t faced New England since Week 17 of the 2020 season when counterpart Drake Maye was still a freshman at the University of North Carolina.