When it came to offensive plays in Santa Clara back in February, Super Bowl LX belonged to one man. Kenneth Walker III spent the fourth quarter doing something no back had managed against this Patriots front seven all postseason — cracking 40 yards, then 80, then triple digits, then 135, with 26 more coming out of the backfield on catches New England simply couldn’t stop. Final score: 29-13, Seattle’s second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, and Walker walks off with Super Bowl MVP — the first running back to win it since Terrell Davis in Super Bowl XXXII.

Sam Darnold threw for 202 yards and a touchdown, efficient and unspectacular, because on this night he didn’t need to be anything more. New England had no answer. That’s the part that lingers into summer.

Offseason Ravages Seattle While New England Retools

What happened next tells you almost as much as the game itself. Seattle, fresh off watching its Super Bowl MVP author the signature performance of the franchise’s recent history, let him walk to Kansas City in free agency rather than pay him market rate — a call that only makes sense if you believe you can replace production, not just a player. Zach Charbonnet, the presumed heir, is still rebuilding from the ACL he tore in the playoffs, on a timeline nobody in Seattle’s building will commit to publicly. Meanwhile in Foxborough, the plan was simple: Hand Drake Maye some weapons… boy, have they done that.

While the Seahawks have lost several key members of their vaunted ‘Dark Side’ defense, as well as the departure of Walker, the Patriots have strengthened significantly. The biggest acquisition of them all? Only receiving ace A. J. Brown, who links up with Mike Vrabel once again to give Maye the downfield target he was crying out for at Levi’s Stadium.

The pendulum has shifted, and online betting sites know it. Despite the upcoming rematch between the two teams on kickoff night in September taking place on Seattle’s home turf at Lumen Field, the early Patriots vs Seahawks odds make New England a 3.5-point underdog, one point fewer than they were in Santa Clara, even though they are no longer competing on neutral ground. But while Brown is the main offseason move between both these heavyweights, several rookies will also be looking to make their mark in Week 1. Here are our four to watch.

Jadarian Price — RB, Seahawks (Round 1, Notre Dame)

Picture Jadarian Price in the Lumen Field tunnel come September, still hearing Walker’s name from a highlight package that isn’t even about him anymore. That’s the strange inheritance he’s stepping into: not replacing a weakness Seattle needs fixed, but instead replacing a Super Bowl MVP the front office decided wasn’t worth the check.

Price spent most of his Notre Dame career in a timeshare, playing second fiddle behind Heisman finalist Jeremiyah Love in 2025, still managing 113 carries for 674 yards and 11 touchdowns at 6.0 a pop, with six catches for 87 yards and two more scores through the air. Zoom out to his final two seasons, and it’s 1,420 yards at 6.1 per carry, 18 total touchdowns, plus first-team All-American recognition as a kick returner who took three of them the distance.

None of that answers the question that actually matters here. He fumbled once every 70 carries in college — a rate considerably worse than either Walker or the injured Charbonnet ever posted — and he’s about to take his first hits as a pro from the same defense that just watched a Seahawks back torch New England for a title. The Patriots will be baying for blood after that embarrassment in Santa Clara, and Price must somehow stand up to the impending onslaught.

Bud Clark — S, Seahawks (Round 2, TCU)

Bud Clark’s TCU career started slowly, a redshirt in 2020 followed by four starts in an injury-limited 2021, before he broke out during the Horned Frogs’ 2022 playoff run — five interceptions, including a 41-yard pick-six of J.J. McCarthy and a fumble recovery in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal against Michigan. After three years as team captain, his senior season produced 56 tackles, four interceptions, and seven pass breakups, punctuated by a 25-yard pick-six against North Carolina.

Seattle’s safeties actually shone in the Super Bowl — Coby Bryant delivered a jarring hit on a contested catch, and Julian Love picked off Drake Maye in the fourth quarter — but Bryant left in free agency, cracking open a room that looked settled in February. Ty Okada currently looks like the favorite to replace Bryant at free safety, but Clark is squarely in that competition.

Caleb Lomu — OT, Patriots (Round 1, Utah)

Caleb Lomu’s rise was rapid. After a redshirt year of mop-up snaps, he took over as Utah’s starting left tackle as a redshirt freshman in 2024, allowing just two sacks and 17 pressures across 425 pass-blocking snaps. His 2025 season made him a first-rounder outright — zero sacks allowed on 357 pass-blocking opportunities, just eight total pressures surrendered, First-Team All-Big 12.

He isn’t walking into a starting job. Will Campbell and veteran Morgan Moses are entrenched at the tackle spots. But the position wasn’t as settled after the Super Bowl as it looked beforehand — ESPN’s Matt Miller has reported real chatter that Campbell struggled at left tackle in the loss, and Moses turning 35 could push New England toward sliding Campbell inside to guard.

Is there a more loaded subplot in this rematch than a rookie left tackle potentially protecting Drake Maye’s blindside against the exact defense that got to him six times in the Super Bowl? It would certainly be a brave move.

Gabe Jacas — EDGE, Patriots (Round 2, Illinois)

Gabe Jacas is walking into a building that watched its quarterback get sacked six times in the biggest sporting event this side of the Atlantic, one of them a strip-sack that gift-wrapped Seattle’s opening score. Illinois’s second all-time sack leader — 27 for his career, capped by a senior season where he led the Big Ten with 11.0 — is now tasked with erasing his new franchise’s most humiliating defensive night, against the exact team that inflicted it, in Week 1.

He won’t start outright. But every rotational snap he takes against Seattle’s front will be read, by beat writers and front-office types alike, as evidence of whether New England actually fixed what broke in February.