Seattle wins SB using steelers old method.

Patriots were underneath the radar this year with easy schedule got some lucky breaks in the playoffs. This will not be the situation in 2026. They will continue to be competitive and Pats FO is excellent at acquiring talent where it will be needed on OL and skill players. Vrabel is an above average coach. Plus, the AFC East is weak again with Dolphins and Jets doing their usual floundering. Bills are not as good as they were 5 years ago. With that said... the AFC will be stacked again with teams who will have Patriots in the bullseye. It won't be easy for Patriots next year.

 

just as an aside:

My car was parked on my driveway with a steelers license plate frame and this young sales kid walks up to me, sees the steelers frame and starts bragging that Brady is the best ever and that he has 7 super bowl rings. I said so what and reminded him that the steelers and patriots are still tied at 7.

i cant stand patriot fans. (And the seahawks can use any Steelers method they want)

 

Tied at 6... not 7.

 

Thanks, meant six, thinking ahead.

yes we’re tied.

 

Yeah. I can find 3 places that say Denver, Steelers, and Chicago in that order. So I would guess someone is wrong, but who??
Like most stuff on the internet, You can find different things from different places.

 

Why wasn't the Pats OL just coached up better??
You know the magical just coaching up better.
LoL

 

What unusual amount of talent have the Pats been acquiring? I mean they have a good team...but we just watched their OL get pantsed in the SB and no one seems to want to talk about their inability to stop basic running plays.

Seattle played a sound game and made almost no mistakes. But they didn't do anything complicated on either side of the ball. The Pats just were not good enough to win any matchups up and down the roster. Christian Gonzalez. That was it.

They are not a loaded team by any stretch. They have some high draft picks playing well and the rest....meh?

 

Milton Williams was a good free agent signing for them, and Spillane was okay they did spend like $300 million in free agency.

 

Obviously Patriots have been better at acquiring talent than Steelers have recently. Most of the expensive, aging FA's we acquired on defense played like practice squad scrubs.

 

Ok.

But they are not "excellent" at acquiring talent. Or at least not exceptional compared to the other teams.

Seattle is an example of what excellent talent identification looks like. They had back-up DL walking the Pats OL back into the QB on multiple occasions just using a 4 man rush. Seattle had guys on both sides of the ball just beating the dude across from them in a way that was sometimes comical to see.

I do not know if Seattle's DBs are all fast or the Pats WRs are slow....but Seattle routinely beat guys to spots.

 

Ok. If you want to argue that they signed better players than Echols, Slay, and Chuck Clark -- have at it. No one will debate that. But that was not what you said. You said they were excellent.

What evidence of excellence do you have? They just gave up how many yards rushing and got their guy sacked how many times?

 

I agree.
Gonzalez was their only real reason it wasn't a bigger margin. I knew that kid would be good. Of course I've said this a lot about different players that haven't turned out as good, so I gotta brag on the ones I actually get correct. LoL

 

Any team who makes it to the final game of the year out of 32 teams.... is pretty excellent.

Last time I checked, it's quite difficult for a NFL team to make a Super Bowl. Just ask us Steelers fans.

 

The Patriots spent over $300 million in free agency last year the Steelers not so much, Khan went the cheap route because he wanted to acquire those comp picks.

 

Well, maybe the comp picks will pay off this year.

 

I think Khan was betting on this QB class to be great and he would have to trade up to get one, but now he can use those picks to fix the depth on the roster.

 

The Steelers' defense was the highest-paid unit in the NFL for the past two seasons, and they were average at best.

Spending money doesn't guarantee success in the NFL...A team still need the right players and coaching.

 

Hmmm. Maybe so. But everywhere I've looked, the Steelers topped the chart. And I heard it from announcers throughout the season that we had the highest paid D in the leauge.

Regardless if it was the highest or 3rd highest, it didn't live up to its expense.

 

Announcers usually parrot what they hear. Let's not act like this defense didn't win most of the games we won this year, and had our Offense done anything, and I mean anything in our last playoff game, we could have won easily. There is more to playing D than just giving up yards.

 

Totally agree, and I figured this is why I'm finding so many different list. We are always in the top 5, but not always number 1.

 

19-0 going into the 4th quarter... clearly NE didn't belong.

 

I agree.
I think khan is reconsidering a QB in 2026 and has the option to trade 2026 picks for higher 2027 picks where he will then pick his QB.
Just a guess.

 

I don't believe people fully understand what @Ytownsteeler means when he says that Seattle won using Pittsburgh's Old Method. While he is specifically stating on how Seattle's game plan was akin to what Pittsburgh used to be (still is technically but just don't have the horses on both sides), what he is actually referring to is something the Steeles used to be good at frequently; drafting and developing. That is the massive difference now between Seattle and Pittsburgh.


For a time, Pittsburgh was the Gold Standard on how a team should draft and develop for a time (late 90s to 2017ish) Now?! That title generally belongs to the likes of Philadelphia, Baltimore and most of all in Seattle. Success is no accident and John Schneider of the Seahawks understands this. Just about every draft pick he has made even since 2010 has been either a home run to even a solid hit. His bust rate is low and has become comically since 2021. The only major issue with him up until the acquisition of Charles Cross has been Offensive Lineman. Since 2021, John has done a phenomenal job at it.


In comparison of the same time period, Pittsburgh has had bad misses from 2018 to 2022; a lot of them. As of today, there is only 5 Players from those respective draft classes that are still on the roster; Alex Highsmith, Pat Freiermuth, Isaiahh Loudermilk, Calvin Austin the Third and Connor Heyward. That is it. Every First Round Pick made from Colbert's Final Five Classes have either busted out entirely or were disappointments during their time with the team. That is unacceptable. Now with both Khan and Weidl, things do look to change for the better. That said, time will tell for the 2023 Draft Class looks to be yet another Fifth Year Decline in Broderick Jones. Thankfully, the rest of the picks have been solid to exceptional.

 

This thought crossed my mind

Just because you have a savings account doesn’t mean you have to spend it this year