Super Bowl LX nearly gave us a showdown of this season’s top two Most Valuable Player candidates.
Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks had something to say about that. Instead, it’s the upstart club from the Pacific Northwest heading south to Santa Clara to take on a New England Patriots team nobody saw coming, quarterbacked by a youngster in Drake Maye whose development has exceeded all expectations.
How did we get here? Let’s trace the paths of both Darnold and Maye to Super Bowl Sunday.
Darnold’s pro career began with great promise.
After two seasons as USC’s quarterback — a prolific tenure highlighted by his record-setting performance in the Trojans’ memorable 52-49 Rose Bowl win over Penn State — the redshirt sophomore entered the 2018 NFL Draft as one of the leading figures in a dazzling quarterback class, heard his name called third overall by the Jets … and promptly plunged into football hell. New York proved to be a house of horrors for Darnold, so much so that he infamously admitted he was “seeing ghosts” while trying to find breathing room to operate in a blowout loss to the rival Patriots on Monday Night Football.
Eventually, the Jets moved on from Darnold, trading him to the Panthers for a collection of picks. It didn’t work out for him in Charlotte, either.
In the interest of time, we’ll fast-forward to Darnold’s redemption arc. It began in San Francisco, home of Kyle Shanahan’s school of reputation rehabilitation, where Darnold spent the 2023 season as a backup to Brock Purdy, receiving a valuable, pressure-free opportunity to observe and grow. Darnold then headed to Minnesota in 2024 with the expectation he’d compete for the starting job as a veteran option following the Vikings’ top-10 selection of J.J. McCarthy. After McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason, Darnold took the QB1 reins and ran with them, producing the greatest campaign of his life to that point: 4,319 passing yards, 35:12 TD-to-INT ratio, 102.5 passer rating, 14-3 regular-season record and his first Pro Bowl nod.
However, Darnold did experience late-season struggles — with back-to-back ghastly performances in Week 18’s de facto NFC North title game at Detroit and a Wild Card Weekend loss to the Rams — and the Vikings did not extend him, freeing the reborn signal-caller to seek employment elsewhere. With new Seattle offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak seeking a QB to fit his system after the team traded away Geno Smith, the Seahawks jumped at the opportunity, handing Darnold a three-year, $100.5 million contract.
The investment has already paid off immensely. Darnold followed up his spectacular 2024 showing with a stellar 2025 campaign, completing a career-best 67.7 percent of his passes for another 4,000-yard season, with 25 touchdowns and a 99.1 passer rating. He just did a lot to shed his reputation for folding in big moments, too, outgunning Matthew Stafford‘s Rams in the NFC Championship Game.
Darnold is only 28, but it feels as if he has already lived a full NFL life, replete with adversity, failure, redemption and plenty of lessons learned. His greatest opportunity to date awaits him in Levi’s Stadium, the place he once called home back in his 49ers days. When Super Bowl LX kicks off in Santa Clara, Darnold will have the chance to complete his rise from bust to champion.
In many ways, Maye’s story is the inverse of Darnold’s. Sure, both were top picks — in fact, both went third overall (six years apart) to a team in the AFC East. But their paths couldn’t be more different from there.
Maye landed with New England, a bygone era’s ruler that was struggling to find its identity in the present. As a rookie, he began the regular season on the bench behind veteran Jacoby Brissett. But once Maye took over in Week 6, the young signal-caller quickly showcased enticing ability. Amid the dysfunction that preceded coach Jerod Mayo’s firing, Maye gave Patriots fans renewed reason to follow their team. In 2024, the only thing that mattered to them was Maye’s development.
Over the course of 13 games (12 starts), Maye demonstrated plenty of encouraging progress. He was an accurate passer who didn’t allow the speed of the game to overwhelm him, even while playing behind a leaky offensive line. He was eager to use his legs as a scrambler, racking up 421 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just 54 attempts, giving him a robust average of 7.8 yards a pop on the ground. By the end of Maye’s debut campaign, it was evident New England had a quarterback to build around.
Then, Mike Vrabel arrived.
The Patriots legend-turned-sideline savior instituted a culture of organization, discipline and accountability that meshed perfectly with the collection of youngsters and veterans brought in by New England’s front office. In one offseason, Maye welcomed in the likes of Stefon Diggs, Mack Hollins, Garrett Bradbury and Morgan Moses, plus rookies TreVeyon Henderson, Kyle Williams, Will Campbell and Jared Wilson, injecting talent into what was once a woefully undermanned offense.
From there, Maye and Josh McDaniels — who returned last January for a third stint as Patriots offensive coordinator — were off and running. After a bitter Week 1 loss to the Raiders (a true stunner in hindsight), Maye became the most efficient passer in the NFL by spreading the ball among a collection of pass catchers that included Diggs (team-high 1,013 receiving yards), Hunter Henry (team-high seven TD receptions), breakout playmaker Kayshon Boutte, Hollins, holdover DeMario Douglas and others. Maye even developed an occasional, explosive connection with Williams while powering the NFL’s third-ranked offense (and fourth-ranked passing attack).
Maye truly landed on the league’s radar, however, because of his willingness to air it out. His favorite downfield target became Boutte, the recipient of five deep-target touchdowns (20-plus air yards), including the playoffs. Boutte finished the regular season with the fourth-highest mark in yards per catch (16.7) and currently produces an absurd 140.6 passer rating on deep targets (postseason included). It’s an incredibly explosive and productive pairing made possible by Maye’s composure, arm strength and accuracy, and Boutte’s nose for hauling in deep strikes.
While Maye-to-Boutte connections filled highlight packages, the quarterback routinely posted incredible completion percentages. The 23-year-old actually just became the youngest player in the Super Bowl era to lead the NFL in completion percentage (72.0). He posted the second-highest passer rating by a QB age 23 or younger (a league-best 113.5), trailing only Patrick Mahomes‘ 2018 mark (113.8), and he broke Tom Brady’s franchise record by posting a 100-plus passer rating in 14 games (including playoffs).
There are plenty of reasons Maye is a strong MVP candidate. We’ll see if he can use his preternatural skills to power the Patriots to a seventh Lombardi Trophy.
