Super Bowl 60: Ranking Patriots, Seahawks at every position group

Estimated Reading Time: 8minutes

Super Bowl week is finally here. Naturally, we’re all looking at each team's edges to figure out who will lay claim to victory. Here, we’re going to look at which of the Patriots and Seahawks has the superior position group heading into Super Bowl 60.

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Quarterback: Seahawks

If you had posed this question to us in the regular season, we likely would have gone with the Patriots and Drake Maye. After all, Maye is among the favorites to win the NFL MVP award, whereas Sam Darnold is not among the finalists for any major awards.

However, despite winning each of his first three playoff starts, Maye has not looked sharp this postseason, failing to record a PFF passing grade above 60.0 in any of those outings. While he has faced three stellar defenses, things won’t get any easier against a Seahawks unit that ranks third in EPA per play allowed.

Darnold, on the other hand, has been consistently strong throughout the postseason, posting nearly identical PFF passing grades of 72.1 and 72.0 against the 49ers and Rams, respectively. The Patriots also have an elite defense, ranking second in EPA per play, so things won’t be easy for Darnold, either, but his recent run of playoff success has us more confident in him than Maye.

Running Back: Patriots

While Kenneth Walker III may be the top running back in this game, Zach Charbonnet‘s knee injury gives the Patriots the edge from a depth perspective. Walker has been dominant this season, carrying a 91.2 PFF rushing grade that leads the NFL, while Charbonnet’s 90.5 mark ranks third. But after Charbonnet, there is quite a drop-off in depth in Seattle’s running back room. George Holani is expected to be the team's No. 2 back in this game, and he carries just a 55.6 PFF rushing grade on only 59 offensive snaps this season.

Meanwhile, the Patriots feature a dynamic one-two punch between veteran Rhamondre Stevenson and rookie TreVeyon Henderson. After a slow start to the season during which he struggled with fumbles, Stevenson rattled off five straight games with a PFF overall grade above 70.0 to end the year and open the playoffs.

Henderson struggled to see the field early in his career but, like Stevenson, found his groove as the season went along, leading the team in rushing and establishing himself as a finalist for Offensive Rookie of the Year. 

Wide Receiver: Seahawks

After the season Jaxon Smith-Njigba just had, this spot has to go to Seattle. His 93.4 PFF overall grade — and 93.7 PFF receiving grade — ranks second among all wide receivers. His counterpart is a former Super Bowl MVP in Cooper Kupp, who, despite alleged urges from his previous team, the Rams, to retire, continued to show he still has plenty left in the tank with a 73.1 PFF overall grade and a 73.8 PFF receiving grade.

Also looking to be a factor in this matchup is Rashid Shaheed, who is not just a speed demon but is also a dynamite return man, always a threat to take one to the house.

For the Patriots, Stefon Diggs has had a huge bounce-back year following a torn ACL, finishing as the league’s 10th-ranked receiver in PFF overall grade (84.4). The depth in New England has been good, as Kayshon Boutte, Demario Douglas and Mack Hollins all posted PFF receiving grades above 70.0, but they lack the upside that Seattle’s group brings to the table.

Tight End: Patriots

This one was closer than expected. AJ Barner has quietly put together a solid sophomore season, as his 73.0 PFF overall grade ranks 17th among 75 qualifying tight ends. However, Hunter Henry was a bit better with a 73.4 mark, placing him 14th, and Austin Hooper’s 66.9 figure ranked 28th.

The next qualifying Seahawks tight end after Barner was Eric Saubert at 65.4, which ranked 34th, giving the Patriots the slight edge.

Offensive Line: Seahawks

The Seahawks have notoriously featured some poor offensive lines over the years, but 2025 has been a different story. While not world beaters in any sense, the unit owns more-than-respectable PFF grades of 65.0 in pass blocking and 68.6 in run blocking.

The Patriots have posted similar figures — 72.8 in pass blocking and 62.6 in run blocking — but like in the quarterback section, we're going to give the edge to the Seahawks thanks to playoff performances.

Seattle's and New England’s postseason PFF pass-blocking grades are almost identical (69.3 to 69.2), but Seattle’s run blocking has far outclassed New England’s (83.4 to 62.6). In fact, the Seahawks own the league’s best run-blocking offensive line this postseason by a comfortable margin.

Defensive Line: Seahawks

Seattle’s defensive line has been a menace all season, with DeMarcus Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Boye Mafe, Byron Murphy II and Derick Hall powering the league’s sixth-best group by PFF overall grade (74.3), including the fourth-best run-stopping unit.

New England’s defensive line, made up of the likes of Milton Williams, K'Lavon Chaisson, Christian Barmore and Harold Landry (whose status for the Super Bowl is up in the air), has been solid, ranking 14th in PFF overall grade, but they’ve struggled mightily against the run (47.0 PFF run-defense grade, 27th). New England's 70.4 PFF pass-rushgrade doesn’t trail the Seahawks by much (72.8), but the unit's deficiencies in the run game have to give the Seahawks the nod.

Linebacker: Patriots

This is another tight win for the Patriots that came down to some de facto tie-breakers. Patriots linebackers ranked eighth in PFF overall grade (73.8), while the Seahawks were right behind them in ninth place (73.5).

Seahawks linebackers have a slight edge as run defenders (78.5 to 77.0) and are much better as pass rushers (76.4 to 63.9). However, Patriots linebackers were among the league's best in coverage this season, as their 70.0 PFF coverage grade ranked fifth. The Seahawks’ linebackers were no slouches, notching a ninth-ranked 62.4 PFF coverage grade, but in a passing league, we’re going to prioritize a linebacker’s coverage ability over their run defense, giving the Patriots another victory where we’re splitting hairs.

Cornerback: Patriots

Devon Witherspoon and Christian Gonzalez were considered the top two cornerbacks in the 2023 NFL Draft class, and both have delivered on their pre-draft evaluations. While we can argue over which has been the better lockdown coverage defender, the Patriots simply have too much depth with the likes of Carlton Davis and one of the league’s top defensive playmakers in Marcus Jones.

The Seahawks' Tariq Woolen has shown flashes of being a dominant cornerback, but he’s too inconsistent as the team's No. 2 (60.1 PFF overall grade ranked right around the middle of the pack) to give the Seahawks the nod over the Patriots here.

While Seahawks' cornerbacks do rank seventh in PFF overall grade (72.7), Witherspoon is doing a lot of the heavy-lifting with his 90.4 PFF overall grade. No other Seattle cornerback owns a PFF overall grade higher than Woolen’s 60.2. Meanwhile, the trio of Gonzalez, Davis and Jones all rank among the league’s top 25 cornerbacks, with each sporting PFF overall and coverage grades above 70.0.

Safety: Seahawks

This was a tough decision. Both the Seahawks and Patriots field top-five safety units by PFF overall grade, but the Seahawks rank first in PFF overall grade (84.5) and PFF coverage grade (90.4). The emergence of Nick Emmanwori, Coby Bryant and Ty Okada, all of whom rank in the top half among safeties in PFF overall grade, has been huge for a team that’s reminding fans of the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom years.

While not playing as many snaps as the others due to injury, Julian Love has been stellar when on the field, as his 85.5 PFF overall grade places him third at the position, and his 89.2 PFF coverage grade leads the pack.

The Patriots have had to rely on some less-heralded safeties, who each are quietly making big contributions to the defense. Fourth-round rookie Craig Woodson earned the starting job in Week 1 and made the team comfortable in moving on from Jabrill Peppers, while Jaylinn Hawkins, a sixth-year veteran, won the starting role over long-time incumbent Kyle Dugger.

Hawkins' 78.8 PFF overall grade ranked ninth among safeties, while Woodson’s 73.9 figure ranked 19th. However, that’s about it for the Patriots, as only one other safety on the roster, Dell Pettus, played more than 100 snaps this season — and he barely qualified for that distinction with 137 defensive snaps. The Seahawks have four different safeties making big contributions, giving them the win at this position group.