With the Seattle Seahawks winning the Super Bowl a couple days ago, the 2025-26 season is officially over. Their success proved several things.
First, the Seahawks showed teams can win many different ways. The Seahawks Head Coach’s, Mike Macdonald, old school philosophy of running the ball, playing defense, and kicking field goals has been written off by most. The idea of taking the points is almost frowned upon by many analysts and fans. While fans call it boring, Macdonald calls it winning. The Super Bowl was a perfect example of how the Seahawks played games all year: great defense, running the ball (controlling time of possession), and taking the points. While it may be boring to casual fans, it is clearly highly effective. The Patriots got destroyed in that game.
Next, they proved you do not need to have a MVP level QB or a top passing attack to be dominant. While Sam Darnold did play at a top level at some points this season (EX: NFC Championship), he also led the league in turnovers and really struggled the last several months of the regular season. An effective running attack can be enough to put teams away. While you may not score a ton of touchdowns, you will control the time of possession and have the opposing defense exhausted by the end of the game. Obviously, it is better to have a balanced run and pass attack, but the pass attack doesn’t necessarily have to be a top unit.
Finally, the Seahawks proved that you can win with defensive minded Head Coaches still. The past 10 years or so have shown that the key to a Super Bowl victory is a offensive minded head coach with an experienced DC at their side. Teams have been scrambling to find the next Sean McVay without realizing defense still wins championships. Just ask the Bengals how their ‘all in on offense’ strategy is going.
The Seahawks proved a lot of people wrong this year and showed the league that there are many ways to win. It will be interesting to see how their success with a more conservative strategy effects how the rest of the NFL plays.
