Super Bowl 2026 expert picks for Patriots-Seahawks

Super Bowl week has arrived.

The entire sporting world is en route to Santa Clara, site of Super Bowl LX, for a week of buildup ahead of the clash between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks. That means days of analysis, storylines — real and manufactured — and enough analysis to get you ready for Sunday night.

But let’s cut right to the chase: Some of you just want to know now who is going to win.

Here are our picks. What are yours? Sound off in the comments?

Mark Schofield: I would love to sit here, as one of SB Nation’s resident New England homers, and say that the Patriots’ dream season is going to end like one so many years ago, when an upstart team led by a young quarterback and a defensive-minded coach shut down the “Greatest Show on Turf” en route to a 20-17 win in Super Bowl XXXVI.

But Super Bowl LX does not have the same feel that Super Bowl XXXVI did.

That Patriots team had more of a “team of destiny” feel, given how they survived in the snowy Divisional Round game against the Raiders, how they found a way to win in the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh against the Steelers when Tom Brady went down with an ankle injury and Drew Bledsoe, the team’s former first-overall selection, came off the bench to save the Patriots. It was also a year that saw New England fight hard against those same St. Louis Rams in a regular-season game, losing by a touchdown but learning that they could play with the best teams in the league.

This year’s Patriots? They played perhaps the easiest schedule in the league. While they faced some tough defenses in the playoffs, they also faced a Los Angeles Chargers team without their starting tackles, a Houston Texans team quarterbacked by a turnover-prone C.J. Stroud, and a Denver Broncos team without starting quarterback Bo Nix.

Sure, New England has the talent, on defense in particular, to try and force the “Bad Sam Darnold” game. But one thing about that: The Los Angeles Rams did that in the first meeting between those two teams this year.

And the Seahawks still had a long field goal try on the final play to win.

The Patriots are a great story, but not every great story has a happy ending.

Seahawks 24, Patriots 14 — Mark Schofield

James Dator: Seattle Seahawks.

It’s one of the tiredest cliches in sports, but defense wins championships. While the Patriots have a solid defense, what the Seahawks are bringing to the table is unlike anything we’ve seen in the Super Bowl. That might sound like hyperbole, but Mike Macdonald’s new-era defense truly is different.

The Seahawks have stars on both sides of the ball, but what makes the defense tick is a hybrid 3-4 scheme blended with masked pressure. It’s very difficult for opposing offenses to understand where the pass rush is coming from, or who is dropping in coverage – which creates confusion, and the Hawks love confusion. This is the direction NFL defense is headed, and Macdonald is one of the experts in this field.

Couple this factor with a Patriots team that has been struggling on offense throughout the playoffs, seemingly because they’re just a little too young to stand out – and we have a situation brewing where Seattle could put New England in a blender and make it very difficult for them to dig out of their hole.

It just feels like the Seahawks’ year. From finding their new QB in Sam Darnold, to generating an elite defense, Jaxon Smith-Njigba breaking out and more – this team has arrived, and they’re going to see success far sooner than anyone expected.

Seattle Seahawks 34, New England Patriots 10 — James Dator

Ricky O’Donnell: I’m already on the record picking the Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. I’m now getting a little worried that everyone else is picking the Seahawks, too.

It’s always a worrying sign when you see a graphic of expert picks and everyone chooses the same team. We are really in danger of that happening again, aren’t we? I’m still sticking with Seattle because I feel like they are the more complete team. This is a roster that doesn’t need Sam Darnold to do the heavy lifting — they just need him to be solid, and he’s proven he’s capable of that. I’m expecting a closer game than the line would suggest, but Seattle has the edge is every department outside of QB to me, and that should be enough to win the game.

Seattle Seahawks 20, New England Patriots 17 — Ricky O’Donnell