Seahawks vs. Patriots: Seven legacy-building NFL records/milestones at stake in Super Bowl LX

Mike Vrabel: The legend of franchise legends?

Mike Vrabel, who started at linebacker for eight seasons in New England, solidified himself as a Patriots legend before he ever put on the headset. Being an integral part of three championship teams, while also being a fan favorite, will secure that status.

But turning a 13-loss squad into an AFC Champion in one offseason? That’s next-level.

On Sunday, Vrabel has a chance to become just the fifth person in NFL history to win a Super Bowl as both a player and a head coach — and the only person to accomplish the feat with the same franchise.

At 23 years old (and 162 days on game day), Drake Maye would be the youngest starting quarterback in NFL history to win a Super Bowl, surpassing former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger, who was 23 years and 340 days old when Pittsburgh defeated Seattle in Super Bowl XL.

A win would also bring Maye’s career playoff record to 4-0, making him the first quarterback since Tom Brady to win each of his first four postseason starts. Brady was 24 years old when he won his first Super Bowl to cap off the 2001 postseason.

Big tip of the hat to NFL Research’s Samuel Reno for this cross-sports context: A win would make Maye the fourth-youngest player in the history of the NFL, MLB or NBA to lead a championship-winning team in touchdown passes (NFL), runs batted in (MLB) or points scored (NBA). He’d be joining pretty good company:

• Joe DiMaggio: 22 years old when the Yankees won the World Series in 1937.
• Tim Duncan: 23 years and 61 days old when the Spurs clinched the NBA Finals at the end of the 1998-99 season.
• Willie Mays: 23 years and 149 days old when the Giants captured the World Series in 1954.

Sam Darnold: The ultimate journey, man

With a win in Super Bowl LX, Sam Darnold will have a strong argument for having pulled off the greatest career turnaround in NFL history. And he could earn that honor before his 29th birthday.

In 2018, at just 21 years old, Darnold — drafted third overall by the Jets that offseason — became the youngest quarterback in the Super Bowl era to start in a season-opener for his team.

Darnold’s Jets tenure ended in a trade to the Panthers prior to the 2021 season. His Carolina stint started off hot (3-0) before fizzling out in the form of seven losses over his final eight starts. After losing the Panthers’ QB1 job, Darnold moved on to San Francisco, serving as Brock Purdy‘s backup in 2023.

Fast-forward to 2024, when Darnold joined the Vikings and became the first quarterback to win 14 games in his first season with a team. After a disastrous final two games to wrap the campaign, he then became the first quarterback not to return to a team that he won 14 games with the previous year.

The Seahawks signed Darnold to a three-year deal during the 2025 offseason, and in Week 1, he became the only quarterback in NFL history to start a season-opener for four different franchises prior to his 30th birthday (Darnold turns 30 in June 2027).

What better way to cap his career renaissance (and second consecutive 14-win season) than by setting a new Super Bowl milestone? A victory on Sunday would cement Darnold as the first starting QB to win a ring while on his fifth team.

There have been other unlikely Super Bowl champions, of course. Brad Johnson was a ninth-round pick whose journey to Super Bowl glory included a pitstop in London with NFL Europe, and Trent Dilfer wasn’t even the Ravens’ starter until Week 9 of Baltimore’s 2000 championship season.

But a Seahawks win would make Darnold singular in the annals of league history.

Mike Macdonald: History for a defensive play-caller

The last time the Seahawks won the Super Bowl (February 2014), Mike Macdonald had not yet held an NFL job. The following season, he served as a 27-year-old coaching intern for the Baltimore Ravens.

Fast-forward to the present, and the 38-year-old Seahawks coach has a chance to join the most exclusive list of defensive coaches in modern NFL history. Macdonald was hired by the Seahawks after serving as the Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022 and ’23, with Baltimore allowing the fewest points in the NFL over the latter season.

This season, Macdonald’s Seahawks accomplished the same feat, ranking first in points allowed (with 292) for the first time since the peak of the Legion of Boom era (Seattle paced the league in every season from 2012 to ’15).

With a win in Super Bowl LX, Macdonald would become just the third coach in NFL history to:

• Lead a top-ranked scoring defense as a coordinator (2023)
• Lead a top-ranked scoring defense as a head coach (2025)
• Win a Super Bowl as a head coach

The only two coaches in NFL history to accomplish those feats are Chuck Noll and Bill Belichick, who combined for 10 Super Bowl victories as head coaches.

Achieving all of this at just age 38, and in the span of three seasons, would be unprecedented.

But Macdonald’s no stranger to setting NFL records, having already made history earlier this season when the ‘Hawks beat Atlanta to clinch their 10th win of the campaign. With that victory, Macdonald became the first head coach in the Super Bowl era to win double-digit games with different starting quarterbacks in each of his first two seasons (he went 10-7 with Geno Smith in 2024).

Jaxon Smith-Njigba: A step above his teammate — and the G.O.A.T.?

Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a very productive 2024 campaign (100 catches, 1,130 yards), but he took his game to another stratosphere this season. He led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards during the regular season (on 119 receptions) to earn Offensive Player of the Year honors, and then tacked on another 153 yards in the NFC Championship Game to help the ‘Hawks advance to Super Bowl LX.

A win in the Big Game would make him the fourth player ever to lead the NFL in receiving yards and win the Super Bowl in the same season, joining his teammate Cooper Kupp (who also won OPOY the year he did it, in 2021) and Hall of Famers Jerry Rice (who did it twice) and Drew Pearson (who did it in 1977).

But unlike the trio before him, Smith-Njigba — who turns 24 on Feb. 14 — would be in a category of his own should Sunday go Seattle’s way. No player has led the NFL in receiving yards and won the Lombardi Trophy before turning 24 years old, let alone in the same season.

The city’s back atop the hill

Boston sports fans have had to endure a tortured period of eight whole years in which their teams — the Patriots, Bruins, Red Sox and Celtics — mustered only one title between them (the Celtics in the 2023-24 NBA season).

Boo-hoo.

The Patriots went six seasons without winning a playoff game after defeating the Rams in Super Bowl LIII, an excruciating span for a franchise that had been one of the final four teams standing in each of the previous eight seasons (including 2018). A win in Super Bowl LX would earn New England its seventh Lombardi Trophy, breaking a tie with the Steelers for the most Super Bowl wins by any team in NFL history. It would also make the Pats the only franchise across the major North American professional sports leagues (NFL, NBA, WNBA, NHL, MLS and NWSL) to win seven championships since 2000.

Their previous six titles were, of course, won during the team’s unprecedented run with Bill Belichick on the headset and Tom Brady under center. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say there are 31 other fan bases that hope Super Bowl LX is not the beginning of another Patriots dynasty.

John Schneider: The difference between two rings

When Pete Carroll and John Schneider were hired to lead the Seahawks in 2010, Schneider was given the GM title, but Carroll was given “final say” over personnel in his role as head coach and VP of football operations.

That relationship appeared to work well, as the Seahawks’ football brain trust quickly built the Legion of Boom and won the first Super Bowl in franchise history during the 2013 season.

Super Bowl XLVIII over the Broncos was won with second-year quarterback Russell Wilson (a third-round pick), and a dominant defense anchored by Richard Sherman, Bobby Wagner, Earl Thomas, and Kam Chancellor — all players drafted between 2010 and 2012.

When the Seahawks and Pete Carroll parted ways after the 2023 season, Schneider took on full personnel authority, including final say on the coaching staff. After hiring Mike Macdonald, drafting impact players like Byron Murphy II, Grey Zabel and Nick Emmanwori, trading for Ernest Jones IV and Rashid Shaheed and, of course, signing Sam Darnold in free agency, Schneider has the Seahawks back in the Super Bowl with a dominant defense and a newcomer at quarterback.

Schneider is the first general manager in NFL history to lead a franchise to multiple Super Bowls with two different head coaches and completely different rosters. The Seahawks can join the 2020 Buccaneers, 2015 Broncos and 2009 Saints as the only teams in the last 20 seasons to win a Super Bowl with a free-agent quarterback they did not draft. Those three quarterbacks? Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees, respectively.

A win on Sunday would solidify Darnold on the list of best QB signings in recent history. It would also cement Schneider as one of the greatest team-builders of all time.