Sam Darnold's 28-6 tear sets stage for Seahawks' bold Super Bowl defense against Maye

Sam Darnold's 28-6 tear sets stage for Seahawks' bold Super Bowl defense against Maye originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

When Seattle parted ways with Geno Smith and handed the keys to Sam Darnold last offseason, plenty of voices around the league treated it as a step backward for the franchise.

That noise faded quickly. Darnold steered the Seahawks to a 14-3 finish in the regular season, then closed out the year by lifting the Lombardi Trophy in his debut campaign with the team.

Now he walks into year two carrying championship weight and a body of work that few quarterbacks in football can match right now. Across the past two seasons, splitting that stretch between Minnesota and Seattle, Darnold owns a 28-6 record as a starter and a 3-1 mark in the postseason. He also cleared the 4,000-yard passing mark for two different franchises in back-to-back years, a stat line that reframes the early chapters of his career.

Colin Cowherd captured the broader picture during a recent segment.

"And No. 10, 35-10 in his last 45 starts, Sam Darnold. Highest win percentage by any quarterback last two years in the league. Big, athletic, risk-taking, no turnovers when it mattered in the playoffs. Still 28, five different teams, won a disaster," Cowherd said. "But if you go, remember he was benched in Carolina, came back, went 4-2. If you take his career starting then, winningest quarterback in the NFL with the second highest passer rating."

That trajectory becomes the launching pad as Seattle prepares to defend its crown against Drake Maye and a rebuilt New England roster.

Seahawks lean on USC pipeline as title defense opens against Patriots

The schedule could not have offered a sharper plotline for week 1. Seattle hosts the Patriots in the season opener, the same opponent it handled in February to claim the title. New England arrives in a different shape this time around, with A.J. Brown expected to line up on the outside and add a vertical threat that Maye did not have access to during the Super Bowl loss. That single addition has been enough to shift the early opening-night bet markets in the Patriots' direction.

What gives the defending champions a structural edge is the cluster of former USC Trojans embedded across the roster. Leonard Williams, Brandon Pili, and Uchenna Nwosu return up front for Seattle, the same group that disrupted Maye on the league's biggest stage.

Their continuity becomes the under-discussed angle that anyone willing to bet on Seattle in week 1 should weigh closely, because schematic familiarity with a young quarterback matters more in September than most opening-week previews acknowledge. Add the possibility that Darnold and Nwosu, college teammates once upon a time, both reach the end zone on the same evening, and the storyline tightens further.

Not everything carries over cleanly. Kenneth Walker, the Super Bowl MVP from February's win, has departed for the Chiefs, leaving a meaningful gap in the backfield rotation.

Even so, the spine of this roster remains intact, and the Trojan core gives Seattle a fingerprint that few rosters in the conference can replicate. For Darnold, an opening-day win over an AFC contender would do more than start the year at 1-0. It would push back hard against any lingering suggestion that last season's run was a safe bet to regress rather than the new baseline in the NFC.

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