New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has had about seven months to process the 29-13 beatdown his offense suffered at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks at Super Bowl LX. He came away from that loss with a simple takeaway about the Seahawks: “They’re physical, they’re aggressive, the scheme is really challenging.”

Seattle’s secondary was on another level entirely last season, but for that loss, questions about McDaniels’ play calling have continued to linger three days before the start of a new regular season. In the Patriots’ press conference on 6th September, Sunday, McDaniels was asked how the Seahawks’ defense stressed his pass protection plans. The second-year OC for the Patriots took it all upon himself.

“I think, again, whether it’s the rush concepts that they had when they didn’t blitz or the pressures that they used, you know, they created some opportunities for themselves,” McDaniels said. “I didn’t do a good enough job. Point it at me, you know what I mean? They did a great job; they out-everythinged us in the game. So start with coaching, and that comes back to me.

“So, we have a lot of things we’ve learned. But I think this will be a different game. I think it’ll be a new game. It’s a new year. We have some different players. They have a few guys that are new, and they’re going to be working with. So we’ll see how different it is as the complexion of the game unfolds. But they certainly found some opportunities last year, and hopefully we’ve done a good job of trying to limit those as we go into Wednesday night.”

If we talk about the Seahawks’ blitz in that game, it was quite the surprise. Through their regular season, Seattle had the fifth-lowest blitz rate in the league (20.7%). It was even lower against the Patriots this February (15.1%), but it came with a twist New England hadn’t prepared for.

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald ordered a blitz on Patriots quarterback Drake Maye a whopping 33.3% in the first half itself. That was enough to throw the offense into disarray, but when they came back after halftime prepared to deal with the blitz, Macdonald dropped his blitz percentage to 8%. But beyond that, as Josh McDaniels pointed out, the pressures they used were also different – led by cornerback Devon Witherspoon.

Until this matchup, Witherspoon had spent 4 straight games without being a part of Macdonald’s blitz package. For all the tape they could have studied, New England couldn’t have been prepared for what came at them in the form of the 25-year-old corner.

Witherspoon rushed Maye seven times. While one of those rushes was discredited by a penalty on a fellow Seahawk, Maye felt his presence throughout the game. A sack from Witherspoon in the first quarter had already shown the young quarterback what to expect.

In the final quarter, with 4:27 left in the game, Witherspoon landed what would have been a strip sack on Maye. But when the ball came free, linebacker Uchenna Nwosu caught it and drove it home for a pick-6. Just like that, the Seahawks were suddenly leading 29-7. Nothing but a comeback worthy of Tom Brady could’ve brought the game back to the Patriots.

Seven months on, the chaos of an NFL offseason does lots to change team dynamics. As one reporter in the presser pointed out, Josh McDaniels spent “over 80% of the snaps in the Super Bowl in 11 personnel.” The question was, “How important is personnel diversity” against the Seahawks, and whether the new additions they’ve made could help them battle it. McDaniels, for his answer, sounded optimistic.

“Yeah, I mean, we never want to go in there and be predictable. I think the score really led to what we ended up doing in the game more than anything else,” McDaniels admitted. “But look, we have depth at a lot of different positions. Certainly the receiver group is a little different than it was last year, our tight end – fullback situation is different than it was as well. So hopefully we put together the game plan that we feel best about, which I feel confident in.

“I know our guys have had a good week of preparation here and we need to use them all. That’s the reality. They’re all here. They’re all good players. They all have a chance to help us in different ways and different roles.

“Ultimately, again, how do we get defended? What do they choose to do? They get a vote, too. So, it may or may not be the same as it was. Opening day is completely different than every other week of the year also because you’re hunting and pecking for, you know, how do you want to play the game as the game’s unfolding. And they’re going to tell us some things in the first quarter that maybe we don’t know, and we’ll use that information, hopefully to the best of our knowledge, to try to make decisions going forward.”

Now, the biggest boost in the WR room comes courtesy of AJ Brown. The new veteran addition has already spent the entire offseason being praised by head coach Mike Vrabel and being held to a higher standard than the younger players. Reggie Gilliam came from the Buffalo Bills to lock down the fullback position.

As for the tight end room, that has perhaps seen the biggest overhaul. Behind veteran Hunter Henry, the Patriots brought 3rd-round pick Eli Raridon and UDFA Tanner Arkin from the 2026 draft class, while former Philadelphia Eagles TE Cameron Latu rounds out the room.

A lot has to go the Patriots’ way if they want to erase the stench of that Super Bowl LX loss. Drake Maye has to read the field better, spend less time making throws, and attempt shorter passes instead of forcing big plays while being pressured. The O-line needs to do a better job than letting their QB get sacked 47 times. Josh McDaniels needs to unlock the run game early, so Maye has more options and doesn’t have to stare down three scoreless quarters again. If the Patriots have fixed all of this properly, they still need to figure out how their new team fares against Seattle’s new squad. It’s week 1, but this is a Super Bowl matchup. And from the confident look on McDaniels’ face, he’s ready to even the score. Only three days to go before we find out if he can.