The New England Patriots have been quietly optimistic about their Super Bowl matchup with the Seattle Seahawks, and if anything, Mike Vrabel’s bunch will lean into the underdog role.
Behind closed doors, however, it might be a different story, especially when it comes to playing against Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold.
The Patriots have confidence they can disrupt the former first-round pick, and Patriots radio analyst Scott Zolak might have let slip just how good New England feels about the matchup.
“They don’t think much of Sam Darnold, do they?” 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Michael Felger asked Zolak on a Saturday night edition of “Felger and Mazz.”
Zolak replied: “No, no. I don’t either. … They don’t,” Zolak said on Feb. 7. “They’re pretty, I mean, think about the stretch of quarterbacks. They’re playing Sam freaking Darnold in the Super Bowl.”
Patriots Confident They Disrupt Sam Darnold, Seahawks in Super Bowl
Certainly, Zolak wasn’t going to come out and say something overly inflammatory, but pressed further, he didn’t necessarily back down, either.
“You’re saying the team feels the same way (as you)?” Felger followed up.
“How do you not? You’re human. If you know football, you know what this guy is,” Zolak added. ” … I think he’s a trainwreck waiting to happen.”
Darnold’s story is a great one. He was a bust with the New York Jets after they drafted him third overall in 2018. He bounced around the league with stops in Carolina, San Francisco and Minnesota before landing in Seattle. He turned around his career with the Vikings and parlayed that into the Seahawks job, taking his new team to the Super Bowl in his first year in the Pacific Northwest.
He had a fine season, too. He’s been really good in the playoffs, playing the game of his life in the NFC Championship Game against the Los Angeles Rams. However, there are times where looks perfectly average at best, and the numbers speak to someone who’s still better positioned as a game manager. For example, Darnold’s 55.7 regular-season QBR ranked 19th in the NFL, behind QBs like Mac Jones, Bo Nix, Jaxson Dart and Jared Goff. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, meanwhile, led the NFL.
Patriots Might Have Major Advantage Against Darnold, Seahawks Offense
So if the Patriots are confident he’ll give them one or two (he threw 14 interceptions in the regular season), it’s justified.
If the Patriots don’t think Darnold can beat them by himself, it’s likely not just a reflection of how they view him as a player. New England’s defensive line has been especially strong this postseason, and Seattle’s weakness is the interior of its offensive line.
That’s exactly what the Patriots did to Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud in the AFC divisional round, forcing Stroud to throw four interceptions while sacking him three times.
“Milton Williams had said that Sam Darnold is like CJ Stroud in that if you let him sit in the pocket, he’ll pick you apart,” ESPN’s Mike Reiss said on the 98.5 broadcast. “So their job is to do him what they did to CJ Stroud. So I took that to mean that that’s how they view him. He’ll beat you if you let him, but they feel like they can turn him into CJ Stroud.”
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