On the Thursday, January 29, 2026, episode of The Excerpt podcast: Super Bowl LX brings the Patriots and Seahawks together again on the NFL’s biggest stage. USA TODAY Senior NFL Columnist Jarrett Bell joins USA TODAY’s The Excerpt to break down the matchup.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Dana Taylor:
The NFL playoffs are now in the books. After a dramatic day of games over the weekend, we now know the New England Patriots will face off against the Seattle Seahawks for Super Bowl LX. What kind of drama can we expect to see on the field?
Hello and welcome to USA TODAY’s The Excerpt. I’m Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, January 29th, 2026. Here to help us dig into all things NFL is USA TODAY Senior NFL Columnist Jarrett Bell. Jarrett, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Jarrett Bell:
Hi, Dana. How are you?
Dana Taylor:
I’m great. It’s good to see you. So we had two very dramatic playoff games over the weekend, and now we’ve got the Pats versus the Seahawks. Let’s talk about each team’s strengths and weaknesses. Tell me about the Patriots, Jarrett.
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Jarrett Bell:
Well, the Patriots are a young team that has just kind of come out of nowhere into a Super Bowl team under the direction of Mike Vrabel. Now, here’s something that is just so interesting. Mike Vrabel is a former NFL player who played with the New England Patriots, and was a teammate of Tom Brady’s, and was a key player in the previous Patriots Super Bowl reign. And now in his first year as head coach of the Patriots, he’s going to the Super Bowl. So it’s really a full circle moment for Vrabel in that sense, in terms of him really establishing himself in recent years as a really, really good NFL coach.
He was head coach of the Tennessee Titans and now he goes back to New England, and in just one year, he takes them to a Super Bowl. And if you talk to the players, and I was in their locker room in Denver after the victory in the AFC Championship game, and one player after another just really, really credited Mike Vrabel for the impact that he had on them individually. Now you take that and put it collectively, and that’s why the Patriots are in the Super Bowl. And oh, by the way, they’ve got a phenomenal young quarterback in Drake Maye, and you will hear a lot about him between now and the Super Bowl.
Dana Taylor:
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Okay. So, those are the Pat’s strengths. What are their weaknesses?
Jarrett Bell:
I think you wonder about experience, you wonder about the offensive line holding up, especially against the Seattle defense. But hey, they played against the Denver Broncos’ defense in the championship game that they were supposedly overmatched against and they won that game. Before that, they played the Houston Texans and a great defense, they held up there. And in the opening playoff round, they played a Los Angeles Chargers’ defense that supposedly they were undermatched against. So all that to say, they are learning on the fly. But I think that’s where you look at the Patriots and you say, “Okay, where is the soft spot? What’s the matchup disadvantage for this team,” and it is the young offensive line. And, maybe they can get a little bit more firepower on offense as well.
Dana Taylor:
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Okay, let’s turn to the Seahawks. What are the team’s strengths? And then, we’ll get into the weaknesses.
Jarrett Bell:
The Seahawks, I think, are the most balanced team in the NFL. And by balance, I mean offense, defense, and special teams. They’ve got dynamic players all across the board. And then even when you break down, say the offense, they’ve got balance between running and passing. They’ve got a quarterback too who’s going to be a major storyline for the Super Bowl in Sam Darnold. Now, Sam Darnold, unlike Drake Maye in his second year, Sam Darnold has been around the NFL block for a few years. He’s on his fifth team, and he’s been not for not really living up to the status that he had coming into the NFL. Well, now surrounded by such a phenomenal supporting cast with the Seahawks, Sam Darnold is now in the Super Bowl. But, I think the Seahawks strength is definitely the balance that they have and led by an incredible defense.
Dana Taylor:
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And, tell me their weaknesses.
Jarrett Bell:
Well, I’ll tell you what, they haven’t lost in a long time, so maybe that’s a weakness. The Seahawks have no apparent weaknesses that you can point to and say, “Hey, this is a problem area.” Just like the Patriots, the Seahawks were not in the playoffs last year. In fact, both of these teams were listed at 60 to one odds to make it to the Super Bowl before the season, and now here they are. But, I think one of the weaknesses of Seattle is that nobody knows them. Here’s a team that has been pretty consistent all season long as a team to beat in the NFC and they have not gotten a lot of attention, but that’s going to change on a Super Bowl stage.
Dana Taylor:
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The New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers are tied for the most Super Bowl wins as a team, six wins each. The Pat’s had an impressive season so far this year. Jarrett, is this a sign that they’re back in their winning era? Let’s talk through that.
Jarrett Bell:
Yeah. Well, it’s unfair to try to compare where they are right now to the previous Super Bowl era because that one lasted for so long. They won six championships with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. But it is a sign that they are back to being a legitimate contender because, hey, here they are in the Super Bowl with a chance to win the franchise’s seventh Super Bowl trophy.
So I think the impressive thing is that they went in the wilderness, if you will, after Tom Brady, and then Bill Belichick is gone. And so the team owner, Robert Kraft, is still there, and he’s definitely the one that sets the course and supports the organization. But, it’s been several years since they’ve been to the Super Bowl and even been in the playoffs. And so the fact that they have been able to turn it around now with a new direction, with a new coach and a new quarterback, it is a sign that perhaps the Patriots will build on this from this year to next year. Because again, when you’ve got a young quarterback and he’s a good quarterback and there’s no reason to believe that Drake Maye won’t get better with time and experience, they can look at themselves now, the Patriots and their fans and think that, “Hey, we are now a team that can be in the running year after year, at least competing to get in the Super Bowl mix.”
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Dana Taylor:
Seattle, of course, has only won one Super Bowl. Head coach, Mike Macdonald has also had an impressive season, really pulling the team together and making it work. What does that say about Mike as a head coach? And then, you mentioned Sam Darnold as their new quarterback.
Jarrett Bell:
Yeah. Mike Macdonald’s a guy, this is his first job as a head coach. So he’s only been on the job in this position for a couple of years, but it’s been impressive because he was one of these guys that was identified. He came from the Baltimore Ravens. He was a defensive coordinator and he’s had a couple of other stops as well. But when the Seahawks hired him, he was viewed as one of the rising stars in the coaching ranks. You hear that about different coaches from here and there just because of the nature of the business, always looking for that next, teams are always looking for that next rising star coach when they have an opening.
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Well, I think the Seahawks hit a home run, to use a baseball analogy, in hiring Mike Macdonald. Now, his background is on defense. So lo and behold, the Seahawks have one of the NFL’s best defenses. The Seahawks gave up the fewest points in the NFL this year. So when you talk about a defense, yeah, there’s that.
So that’s Mike Macdonald, and the impact that he’s had on really redeveloping the Seahawks as a contending team. Another thing to note though is that their general manager, John Schneider, has been there before. He was there when the Seahawks were in the Super Bowl and in fact they played the Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX, so what, 11 years ago, but he’s been able to build this team back into a contender.
And even this year from not making the playoffs last year, they made some key moves. They drafted well, including a rookie, Nick Emmanwori, I think is how you pronounce his name, but he’s been a phenomenal pick for them. In the second round, they got Sam Darnold as a free agent to be the quarterback, so they’ve steadied that position. And then they made a trade right before the trade deadline to get a guy, Rashid Shaheed, from the New Orleans Saints who has been a dynamic punk returner for them, but also giving them a boost in the passing game. So credit John Schneider for that in terms of getting the personnel to get the Seahawks over the hump, if you will.
Dana Taylor:
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Jarrett, I have to ask, what excites you most about this Super Bowl matchup?
Jarrett Bell:
The fact that the NFL has been so crazy all season, year after year. And in fact, you can go back years, it’s part of the NFL’s doctrine to have parody where any team can rise and be a champion. Now, it doesn’t always work out that way, and there are some teams that have never tasted championship glory. Those fans know those teams, and what those teams are. But the point being that, you could have two teams that didn’t make the playoffs a year ago advance all the way to the Super Bowl, I think that’s incredible. And so I’m looking for more drama, more games coming, a game that probably will come down to the wire.
Now, when the Patriots and the Seahawks met in the Super Bowl, in Super Bowl XLIX, which I mentioned 11 years ago, that game wasn’t decided until the final seconds when the Patriots got an interception at the goal line and won that game, surprisingly in the fashion that they did. None of those players are still here and the coaches from both of those teams. They’ve gone on.
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But I think one of the things that’s interesting to note, look at Seattle, and I talked about their defense, well, when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl before, they had a great defense. It was called the Legion of Boom. Well, this defense has a nickname too. It’s called The Dark Side, but different players, different cast, but still that tradition has shown up again for the Seahawks. The Patriots, of course, had a strong coach in Bill Belichick, and now they have another strong coach in Mike Vrabel.
To answer your question on what I expect about this Super Bowl, I think maybe an extension of this wild NFL season where you had more games decided in the last minute than ever, you had more games decided by a point margin of fewer than seven points ever. And of course, you’ve had some officiating controversy along the way. So hopefully, we will have a Super Bowl without a major officiating controversy, but no one can guarantee that.
Dana Taylor:
Of course, the Super Bowl is an event. It’s more than a game, and I want to touch on the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Bad Bunny is one of the most streamed artists in the world. He was Spotify’s most listened to artists globally for the fourth time in five years, and he holds the distinction of being the first male Latin artist to headline the Super Bowl. Why does this moment matter, not just for him, but for Latino representation on one of the biggest stages in American culture?
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Jarrett Bell:
A couple of things stand out to me. A, the NFL is really diversifying its taste when it comes to Super Bowl halftime acts. And, this has kind of gone on for a while. Last year, they had Kendrick Lamar, a rapper. So this is an extension of that thinking, where I think the NFL wants to continue to grow culturally and be culturally diverse.
And, why is that important for the NFL? Well, think about this, Dana, the NFL wants to expand its market globally, and they’ve had more games now internationally this season than ever. And, that is only going to expand in the future in terms of having more games played in venues from Germany to London to Brazil, Australia. So, that is part of the NFL’s marketing strategy is to go global. Now, I don’t think that the NFL is at the point, nor will it be at the point anytime soon, to have a franchise internationally, but to have the games, telecast globally and the Super Bowl has always been that. But to also have the regular season games, telecast globally, to have games in different countries as part of their normalcy, if you will, moving forward, I think this represents that thinking to really engage with a market that’s much larger than just the mainstream American market. But, I’m looking forward to seeing the show.
Dana Taylor:
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Jarrett Bell is a senior NFL columnist for USA TODAY. Jarrett, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Jarrett Bell:
I appreciate you having me. And let’s enjoy the Super Bowl festivities: the game, the act, the halftime show, the music. It’s going to be fun.
Dana Taylor:
Thanks to our senior producer, Kaely Monahan, for her production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts@usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I’m Dana Taylor. I’ll be back tomorrow morning with another episode of USA TODAY’s The Excerpt.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Super Bowl LX mixes Seahawks, Patriots and Bad Bunny | The Excerpt
