Seahawks beat Patriots in Super Bowl: Predicting when both teams will return
By Andy Davies
The Seattle Seahawks earned their revenge on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX, with their 29-13 win at Levi’s Stadium, avenging the Malcolm Butler shaped demons of 11 years ago.
Neither team was fancied to win a Super Bowl going into the season. A spot on the playoffs was seen as realistic for both teams but neither were seen as the teams to represent their conference in America’s biggest sporting event.
For the Seahawks and Patriots, along with all 30 other teams in the NFL, the long offseason begins. There will be many questions asked of both teams, and whether they repeat their 2025 successes and return to the Super Bowl.
However, history suggests that this is not going to be the case for both teams. In the Super Bowl era, there has only been one occasion where the same two teams return a year later. This was the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills in the 1992 and 1993 seasons, the former winning both.
Here is a prediction of when both teams will return to the Super Bowl.
Predicting when the New England Patriots will return to the Super Bowl
For the Patriots, they completely overachieved in comparison to many NFL fans’ predictions going into the season.
Due to an easy schedule on paper, many predicted the Patriots to have their first winning season since 2021 and reach the playoffs. However, a place in Super Bowl LX was not in the gameplan.
In Mike Vrabel’s first season as Patriots head coach, he guided the team to their first AFC East division title since 2019, former quarterback Tom Brady’s last with the team.
Current quarterback Drake Maye was just one vote off tying with Matthew Stafford in the MVP race and only three quarterbacks had more passing yards than his 4,394 and only two had more touchdown passes than his 31.
It was a remarkable season for Maye and the team, but they perhaps had the easiest run to a Super Bowl in NFL history.
They only faced three playoff teams in the 2025 regular season, with one of these in the Carolina Panthers having a losing record.
Four of the first five teams picking in April’s NFL Draft in Pittsburgh faced the Patriots in 2025, a statistic which extends to seven of the first 11 teams picking and 11 of the first 15.
As a result of winning their division, they will face a much tougher schedule in 2026 and this will be a true test of the true strength of this Patriots team. Whilst they have a young and upcoming quarterback in Maye, his Super Bowl appearance appeared to come way too early in his career.
They also have one of the most exciting young cornerbacks in the league in Christian Gonzalez, along with an excellent running back duo of
However, their run to the Super Bowl felt fortunate, with the stars aligning in a conference that was unusually devoid of its usual stars.
It is hard to see the Patriots having a run back to the Super Bowl any time soon, but with Vrabel and Maye, one of the league’s best cornerbacks in Christian Gonzalez and one of the league’s best running back tandems of Rhamondre Stevenson and Tre’Veyon Henderson, there are pieces there that should give New England fans hope of a return. It just may not be for a few years.
Next Super Bowl appearance: 2033 season
Predicting when the Seattle Seahawks will return to the Super Bowl
It was a storybook season for the franchise, earning their second Super Bowl in franchise history.
As a result, they are the bookmakers favourites to win it again. As history has proven, it is hard to repeat. The Kansas City Chiefs ended a long streak of no repeat winners when they beat the San Francisco 49ers in Las Vegas. Despite this, there has only been two episodes of repeat winners this century.
The Detroit Lions will be back and the Philadelphia Eagles will be a team to watch. The Green Bay Packers can be a force to be reckoned with if they have Micah Parsons available all season and the Los Angeles Rams will be looking for blood as they hope to once again play in a Super Bowl in their own stadium in February 2027, just as they did in the 2021 season.
The one thing that the Seahawks do have in their favour is their contract situations. Nick Emmanwori’s deal runs out in 2028 and Grey Zabel’s in 2029.
Quarterback Sam Darnold also signed a three-year deal when he arrived at the franchise in the last offseason. Whilst the likes of Devon Witherspoon, DeMarcus Lawrence, Julian Love and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s contracts end after next season, the Seahawks may have enough cap space to account for this.
At time of writing, the Seahawks will have $61.9 million available in cap space this offseason, the sixth highest in the league as per Over The Cap.
Over The Cap are also projecting the Seahawks to have the 14th highest cap space in 2027 ($128,336,534) and the eighth highest in 2028 ($274,378,799).
Given this, there’s a chance that they could keep a lot of their star players beyond the 2026 season.
With the aforementioned lack of back-to-back winners this century, repeat Lombardi Trophies may be hard to achieve. However, the following season may be one that could see the Seahawks return to the big game.
Next Super Bowl appearance: 2027 season
ANDY DAVIES
NFL ANALYST
ANDY IS A SPORTS JOURNALISM GRADUATE WITH OVER SIX YEARS EXPERIENCE OF NFL WRITING AND PODCASTING. ANDY HAS BEEN TO EVERY NFL STADIUM AND IS THE HOST OF THE ACROSS THE POD PODCAST. HE HAS PRESS PASS EXPERIENCE AT THE LONDON GAMES AND MANY OTHER NFL BASED EVENTS SUCH AS SUPER BOWL LIX, HAVING INTERVIEWED THE LIKES OF AARON RODGERS, JUSTIN JEFFERSON, JASON BELL, OSI UMENYIORA, PATRICK MAHOMES, TRAVIS KELCE, DERRICK HENRY, SAQUON BARKLEY AND JALEN HURTS