{"id":736661,"date":"2026-02-07T22:45:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736661\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T22:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T22:45:22","slug":"5-takeaways-from-super-bowl-week-drake-maye-the-next-eli-update-on-kylers-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/736661\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Takeaways From Super Bowl Week: Drake Maye the Next Eli? Update on Kyler’s Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Super Bowl<\/a> LX just two days away, let\u2019s take a closer look at some of the major storylines from this week in anticipation of the big game \u2014 a rematch of Super Bowl XLIX between the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> and the New England Patriots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, most Seahawks fans I bump into here don\u2019t want to be reminded of that game, a 28-24 heartbreaker in which Malcolm Butler famously intercepted a Russell Wilson pass at the 1-yard line intended for Ricardo Lockette.<\/p>\n

Yes, Pete Carroll failed to hand the ball off to his best player on offense, Marshawn Lynch, in one of the most important plays in franchise history. As one fan told me, though, Sunday\u2019s rematch is not about revenge: “We just want to get back what we deserve.”<\/p>\n

That said, let\u2019s get into five takeaways from this week heading into the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Seahawks embrace Mike Macdonald\u2019s vulnerability, laser-like focus on football<\/p>\n

The leader of “The Dark Side” \u2014 Seattle\u2019s nickname for one of the dominant defenses in the NFL<\/a> \u2014 defensive tackle Leonard Williams<\/a> said it plainly when asked to explain the personality of his head coach, Mike Macdonald.<\/p>\n

“We joke around and say that he\u2019s pretty much like an AI and that he\u2019s learning how to be human,” joked Williams. “It\u2019s just an inside joke, though. He\u2019s just a really smart guy. He\u2019s all about football. I mean, the way he treats us in the building is like his family.”<\/p>\n

Seahawks offensive lineman Abraham Lucas<\/a> offered another window into the stoic McDonald\u2019s personality.<\/p>\n

“Mike is a great guy,” Lucas told me. “He is who he is. Who you see is Mike Macdonald, which I think is what I respect about him. He doesn\u2019t try to be anybody else.”<\/p>\n

However, Seahawks special teams coach Jay Harbaugh provided the most detailed opinion on McDonald, stressing his humility. And much like Harbaugh\u2019s father, Jim Harbaugh \u2014 who Macdonald worked for as the defensive coordinator of the Michigan Wolverines<\/a> \u2014 Macdonald, at his core, is a football coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Mike kind of sets that tone of excellence and improvement,” Harbaugh told me. “And after that, also an accountability. You\u2019ll hear him say he should have called a better game or had a better game plan. And there\u2019s a real trickle down to that for the coaches and the players.<\/p>\n

“You don\u2019t have to be perfect. It\u2019s not your job to get every single thing right. And if you don\u2019t, you own up to it. When the headman sets that tone, it does a lot for the organization in terms of not having egos.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Seattle wins on Sunday, Macdonald will become the third-youngest coach to win the NFL championship in league history. Sean McVay and Mike Tomlin both won it at 36 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is Drake Maye<\/a> the next \u2026 Eli Manning?<\/p>\n

At 23 years and 162 days old on Sunday, Maye will be the second-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl. If the Patriots win, Maye would be the youngest quarterback to lead a team to victory in the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Ben Roethlisberger currently holds that distinction, at 23 years and 340 days old. Patrick Mahomes<\/a> and Tom Brady<\/a> were both 24 years old when they won their first Super Bowl title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maye could become the fifth quarterback to win the Super Bowl in his first or second season, joining Pro Football Hall of Famer\u00a0Kurt Warner, Russell Wilson, Brady and Roethlisberger.<\/p>\n

Maye has expectedly drawn comparisons to Brady because of the team he plays for and the fact that Vrabel is a defensive head coach, like Brady\u2019s head coach, Bill Belichick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, because of his mobility, struggles in college and knack for making big plays at crucial moments so far in his career, Mahomes is another apt comparison for Maye. While the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> missed the playoffs for the first time in his NFL career this season and is rehabbing from a season-ending knee injury, Mahomes has still won three Super Bowls in his first nine NFL seasons and remains in his prime at 30 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Maye could be entering the start of a Mahomes-like run if he can lead the Patriots to a victory on Sunday. However, an NFL front office personnel executive offered another quarterback to compare Maye to \u2014 two-time Super Bowl champion Eli Manning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Young Eli was a good athlete [like Maye],” the personnel executive told me. “Maye has poise, anticipation, accuracy, with good pocket feel and subtle slides. Nothing fazes him in-game.”<\/p>\n

The front office executive pushed back on the Mahomes comparison.<\/p>\n

“I just see him different,” he told me. “There\u2019s not enough body of work to say he\u2019s clutch, but it\u2019s trending that way. Maye\u2019s athletic but is a pocket passer. Mahomes is rare outside the pocket. \u2026 I love Maye, and he is just scratching the surface.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nick Wright unveils his Super Bowl LX pick, Patriots and Seahawks prop bets \ud83d\udcb0 | First Things First \"Nick<\/a> Could Kyler Murray<\/a> stay with the Cardinals?<\/p>\n

Considered a foregone conclusion that the Arizona Cardinals<\/a> would move on from Murray this offseason, the Cardinals placed the quarterback on season-ending injured reserve with a foot injury last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Selected No. 1 overall in the 2019 NFL Draft<\/a>, Murray failed to play to his draft status in Arizona. He\u2019s posted a 38-48-1 record, completing 67.1% of his passes for 20,460 yards, with 121 touchdowns and 60 interceptions for a 92.2 passer rating.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Murray still has $36.7 million in guarantees remaining for the 2026 season, along with another $19.5 million of his 2027 salary that will be guaranteed if he\u2019s on the roster in March. However, at 28 years old, Murray is still a young quarterback who could have a more productive second chapter of his career like Sam Darnold<\/a> with the Seahawks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, the Cardinals don\u2019t have a long-term answer at quarterback ready to replace Murray. Last year\u2019s starter, Jacoby Brissett<\/a>, remains on the roster but is considered a backup at this point of his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

New head coach Mike LaFleur did not close the door on Murray staying with the team for the 2026 season. LaFleur said he\u2019s touched base with Murray.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ll say this, being in this division for seven years, it was never fun [to play him],” LaFleur said. “I have a lot of respect for him as a player. He was never a fun challenge to go against.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur speaks during his introductory press conference. (Chris Coduto\/Getty Images) <\/p>\n

A league source echoed those sentiments, saying that the Cardinals potentially moving on from Murray shouldn\u2019t be set in stone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Steelers<\/a> and Saints<\/a> are the best examples when you don\u2019t have a succession plan at QB, you run the risk of setting your organization back for years,” a league source told me. “And while Kyler is far from perfect \u2014 particularly in the leadership category \u2014 he has proven to be an above average QB on the field, and he\u2019s still [in his] young \u2018QB years.\u2019<\/p>\n

“If you\u2019re moving on from an above-average QB with warts, who are you moving onto? There\u2019s no clear answer to that question in Arizona, so why do you make the move?”\u00a0<\/p>\n

NFL\u2019s players not sold on 18-game schedule<\/p>\n

Considered an inevitability because of NFL owners’ desire to add another game, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pumped the brakes on the idea that an 18th game will be consummated in the near future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is not a given that we\u2019ll do that,” Goodell told reporters this week. “It is not something that we assume will happen. It’s something we want to talk about with the union leadership.”<\/p>\n

That jives with what NFL Players Association interim executive director David White said later this week, stating his members had “no appetite” for an 18th regular season game. His predecessor, Lloyd Howell Jr., made it seem like an inevitability that players would agree to an 18th game, so White\u2019s comments are a way to gain leverage in negotiations with the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“You heard that last year when the executive committee was up here, and they were talking about what happens to their bodies when they\u2019re with their families, when they\u2019re with their kids,” White said. “They were very open and candid about that. It\u2019s punishing, and we can see that on the teams that have deep postseason runs. \u2026 When your average career is already three to four years, which becomes something that is existential. So, the 18th game is not casual for us. It\u2019s a very serious issue. It is something that comes out of negotiations.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2030 but could be reopened to negotiate an 18th game. However, for now, the players aren\u2019t interested in expanding the regular season.<\/p>\n

Grass vs. Field Turf debate continues\u00a0<\/p>\n

NFL players continue to push for grass fields at all NFL stadiums, stating that they curb injuries and are better for the longevity of players’ careers. However, NFL owners are still not fully on board. Currently, 15 NFL stadiums have grass fields.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our members have stated, over 90% of them have stated that they prefer grass,” White said. “The data that we do have access to shows that the energy return from a synthetic surface is significantly higher than it is on natural grass, which reinforces what players say just from their experience and from common sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s just harder. It\u2019s harder on the body. \u2026 We need this data if we\u2019re going to standardize fields and have them be at the level where our players are truly going to be safe.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

But former players like NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent and Sean Lee, who works for data and analytics firm Adrenaline, said they preferred to play on turf because of the consistency of the surface.<\/p>\n

“Playing on turf, you could wear the same cleats, week in and week out,” Lee said. “You get on grass, and if it\u2019s muddy, you need to put different cleats on or put studs on. There\u2019s just so much that goes into preparing for games, and I know each player has their different way of preparing. But I preferred playing on turf.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Super Bowl LX just two days away, let\u2019s take a closer look at some of the major…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736662,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,833,7,4827,122,249,6,1878,261,505],"class_list":{"0":"post-736661","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-drake-maye","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-kyler-murray","15":"tag-national-football-league","16":"tag-new-england-patriots","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-sam-darnold","19":"tag-seattle-seahawks","20":"tag-super-bowl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116031778103473613","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}