For some teams, winning a Super Bowl takes an extraordinary set of circumstances. However, the Seattle Seahawks' run to a Super Bowl title in 2025 shouldn't be viewed as them catching lightning in a bottle.
After the Los Angeles Rams dominated headlines this offseason, Colin Cowherd argued that the Seahawks are being overlooked ahead of the 2026 season.
"Vegas has the Baltimore Ravens, an 8-9 team last year, with better Super Bowl odds than the Seahawks. Nobody thinks they can repeat. It was a one-off. No way will [Sam] Darnold play mistake-free playoff football again. Things went in their favor," Cowherd said on Wednesday's "The Herd."
"No, actually, they did not go in their favor at all. The opposite is true. Sam Darnold goes to arguably the best division in football, has a new coach, a new coordinator, a new O-line, a bad O-line, and a new receiving core, JSN (Jaxon Smith-Njigba)."
Seattle enters the season with the fourth-best Super Bowl odds (via DraftKings Sportsbook), trailing Los Angeles, Baltimore and the Buffalo Bills. But Cowherd thinks even that's too low, pointing to the rare continuity Darnold will have this season as a key reason why the Seahawks should be viewed as a contender.
"Darnold — four teams, four years — for the first time in years, [he has the] same head coach, same locker room, same culture, same city, same house," Cowherd said. "That kind of continuity to me seems like a huge benefit."
Darnold had a strong opening season with the Seahawks. He was fifth in the league in passing yards (4,048) to go with 25 passing touchdowns as he helped Smith-Njigba win Offensive Player of the Year.
But Darnold wasn't the key reason for Seattle's success. The Seahawks' defense was arguably the best in the league. They finished with the best scoring defense in the regular season before putting up a dominant performance in the playoffs, including in their Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots.
Cowherd added that head coach Mike Macdonald has established a strong identity in Seattle, comparing him to another Super Bowl-winning coach in the same division.
"Boy, Mike Macdonald is really impressive. The head coach, he's Sean McVay [on the] defensive side." Cowherd said.
"They're not aging out of this. Their older players don't get hurt much. Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Charles Cross, and their best players are all young and getting better."
And beyond that, Cowherd likes the Seahawks' infrastructure heading into the new year.
"Their old guys are healthy. Darnold's a young 29, never had a lot of injuries," Cowherd said. "They have the best GM, arguably, defensive coach, arguably, the best receiver, arguably. And over the last two years, they've been 15-2 on the road. They're the best home team without an argument, and yet they're kind of considered, and they're not really mentioned."