Mike Macdonald and Mike Vrabel lead Seahawks and Patriots to Super Bowl in quick turnarounds

Two years ago, the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots made the decision to move on from Super Bowl-winning coaches Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick.

Those decisions have been validated now that Mike Macdonald and Mike Vrabel have engineered quick turnarounds to get the two franchises back to the Super Bowl, with Macdonald doing it in his second season in Seattle and Vrabel in his first in New England.

This marks just the fourth Super Bowl featuring two head coaches in their first or second year. It last happened in the 2008 season when Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin bested Arizona's Ken Whisenhunt in a matchup of second-year coaches.

Macdonald took over a Seahawks team that failed to win a playoff game in Carroll's last four seasons and won 10 games in 2024 before going 14-3 this season, earning the top seed in the NFC and a spot in the Super Bowl.

The Patriots won just four games last year under Jerod Mayo before hiring Vrabel and undergoing a remarkable turnaround. New England went 14-3 in the regular season and won three playoff games as Vrabel became the eighth head coach to reach the Super Bowl in his first year on the job.

Now he tries to join Gary Kubiak (2015 Broncos), Jon Gruden (2002 Buccaneers), George Seifert (1989 49ers) and Don McCafferty (1970 Colts) as the only coaches to win a Super Bowl in their first year with a team.

This marks just the sixth Super Bowl featuring two teams that missed the playoffs the previous season, with that last happening in 2003 when the Patriots beat Carolina for their second title.

New England is also just the fifth team to make it to the Super Bowl a season after winning four or fewer games, with only the 1999 Rams completing that turnaround as champions. Cincinnati lost the Super Bowl following four-win seasons in 1988 and 2021, while San Francisco fell short in 2019.

The numbers Matthew Stafford produced in his last two trips to Seattle against the league's top scoring defense were staggering: 861 yards passing, six TD passes and no turnovers.

The results weren't so good for the Los Angeles Rams as special teams blunders and shoddy defense led to two losses in those game, including a 31-27 defeat in the NFC title game.

Stafford threw for 374 yards and three TDs on Sunday and became the only quarterback ever to lose a playoff game when throwing for at least 350 yards and three TDs with no turnovers.

Stafford's 961 yards passing in three games against the Seahawks — he had 130 in a Week 11 win — are the most ever in a season for a quarterback against one opponent without an interception, topping Daunte Culpepper's 932 against Green Bay in three games during the 2004 season.

But he lost on Sunday because Seattle counterpart Sam Darnold was almost as good, going 25 for 36 for 346 yards and three TDs in a turnover-free performance.

That made the NFC title game the second conference title game ever with both quarterbacks throwing for at least 300 yards and three touchdowns. It also happened in the 1984 AFC championship game when Miami's Dan Marino outdueled Pittsburgh's Mark Malone.

The series between the Rams and Seahawks was a memorable one this season, with Los Angeles winning the first by two points and Seattle winning the next two by one and four points, respectively.

Only four other matchups have featured three games in a season decided by four points or fewer, with only one including a game in the conference or league championship game. That happened in 1933 when the Bears and Giants split two close games in the regular season before Chicago won 23-21 in the NFL title game.

While the offenses shined in the NFC, the AFC title game was a defensive grind as both teams struggled to move the ball early and then couldn't do much of anything once the snow started falling in the third quarter.

That's been the formula this postseason for the Patriots, who have allowed only 26 points through three playoff games, tied for the second fewest ever by a team that needed three wins to reach the Super Bowl. Baltimore gave up 16 in 2000.

New England allowed three points to the Chargers in the wild-card round, 16 to Houston in the divisional round and seven to Denver in the title game. The Patriots have allowed two TDs in the three games while the defense scored one against the Texans and recovered a fumble to set up a 12-yard TD drive in a 10-7 victory over the Broncos.

Only two other teams won a conference title game with 10 points or fewer, with Buffalo beating Denver 10-7 in the 1991 season and the Los Angeles Rams topping Tampa Bay 9-0 in 1979.

That has taken a significant load off Drake Maye and the offense as he has already won two games this postseason when his team scored 16 points or fewer. Only Terry Bradshaw has more career playoff wins (three) when his team scores that few points, doing it in 19 starts compared to the three playoff starts for Maye.

Only three other quarterbacks since starts began being tracked in 1950 have two playoff wins when their team is held to 16 points or fewer, with Tom Brady doing it in 48 starts, Bart Starr in 10 and Nick Foles in six.

The Patriots are averaging 15.7 points per game on offense this postseason for the second-lowest mark for a team that reached the Super Bowl in the last 38 seasons. New England scored 13 points per game on offense in two wins leading up to the Super Bowl in the 2001 season.

Brady won the Super Bowl that season and is one of four QBs to win it all in his first or second season. Maye can join Brady, Kurt Warner (1999 Rams), Ben Roethlisberger (2005 Steelers) and Russell Wilson (2013 Seahawks) as the only others to do it.

A season that will end at the Super Bowl didn't get off to quite as good a start for New England.

The Patriots lost the season opener at home to Las Vegas 20-13. The Raiders won only two other games all season, earning the No. 1 overall draft pick as the worst team in the league.

Only three other teams made the Super Bowl in a season when they lost to the team that “earned” the No. 1 pick based on their record. Green Bay lost a Week 12 game to Indianapolis in 1997 before losing the Super Bowl to Denver. The Colts finished 3-13 and drafted Peyton Manning.

It also happened in 1987 when Washington lost to Atlanta in Week 2 before winning the Super Bowl that season. The Falcons went 3-12 before drafting Aundray Bruce.

The other time occurred in 1968 when Joe Namath's New York Jets lost to Buffalo in Week 4 before beating Baltimore in the Super Bowl. The Bills went 1-12-1 and drafted O.J. Simpson.

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Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold warms up before the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye scores past Denver Broncos linebacker Justin Strnad during the first the half of the AFC Championship NFL football game, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo (11) watch from the sideline in the closing minutes of a loss to the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Michael Strahan left stands next to Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald after a win over Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel celebrates with the trophy after the AFC Championship NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/John Locher)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has begun his much-anticipated congressional testimony about Venezuela, defending the Trump administration’s military operation to oust and arrest then-President Nicolas Maduro as Republican and Democratic lawmakers offered starkly different readings of the current situation.

Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that President Donald Trump had acted to take out a major U.S. national security threat in its own hemisphere with the Jan. 3 operation to depose Maduro. Trump's top diplomat said America was safer and more secure as a result and that the Republican administration would work with interim authorities to stabilize the South American country.

“We’re not going to have this thing turn around overnight, but I think we’re making good and decent progress,” Rubio said. “We are certainly better off today in Venezuela than we were four weeks ago and I think and hope and expect that we’ll be better off in three months and six months and nine months than we would have been had Maduro still been there."

The former Florida senator said that Venezuela's interim leaders are cooperating and would soon begin to see benefits. Venezuela will be allowed to sell oil that is now subject to U.S. sanctions, with the revenue set aside to pay for basic government services such as policing and health care, Rubio said. He said money from oil sales will be deposited in an account controlled by the U.S. Treasury and will be released after Washington approves monthly budgets to be submitted by Venezuelan authorities.

“The funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said. Venezuela, he said, “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”

The committee chairman, Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, praised Trump’s decisions to remove Maduro, continue deadly military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean and seize sanctioned tankers.

Risch also offered new details on the operation in Caracas, saying it involved “only about 200 troops” and a “firefight that lasted less than 27 minutes.”

“This military action was incredibly brief, targeted and successful,” Risch said, adding that the U.S. and other nations may have to assist Venezuela when it seeks to restore democratic elections. ”Venezuela may require U.S. and international oversight to ensure these elections are indeed free and fair,” he said.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the committee's top Democrat, questioned whether that operation was worth it, considering most of Maduro's top aides and lieutenants still run the Venezuela and the economic situation there remains bleak.

"We’ve traded one dictator for another, so it’s no wonder that so many of my constituents are asking, why is the president spending so much time focused on Venezuela instead of the cost of living and their kitchen table economic concerns?" she asked. “From Venezuela to Europe, the United States is spending more, risking more and achieving less.”

As he has often been called to do, Rubio was aiming to sell one of Trump’s more contentious priorities to ex-colleagues in Congress. With the administration’s foreign policy gyrating among the Western Hemisphere, Europe and the Middle East, Rubio was also aiming to address the alarm that has emerged in his own party lately about efforts such as Trump’s demand to annex Greenland.

Maduro, who has pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a U.S. court, has declared himself “the president of my country” and protested his capture.

Congressional Democrats have condemned Trump's moves as exceeding the authority of the executive branch, while most Republicans have supported them as a legitimate exercise of presidential power.

The House narrowly defeated a war powers act resolution that would have directed Trump to remove U.S. troops from Venezuela. As Rubio argued, the administration says there are no U.S. troops on the ground in Venezuela despite a large military buildup in the region.

Democrats had argued that the resolution was necessary after the U.S. raid to capture Maduro and because Trump has stated plans to control the country’s oil industry for years to come.

The pushback has already begun in courts, too. Families of two Trinidadian nationals killed in an administration boat strike filed what is thought to be the first wrongful-death case arising from the that campaign. Three dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean have killed at least 126 people since September.

While keeping pressure on those that the U.S. calls “narcotraffickers” without providing evidence, officials also are working to normalize ties with Venezuela's acting president, Delcy Rodríguez.

Rubio, in remarks prepared for the hearing that he did not use verbatim, said she has little choice but to comply with Trump's demands.

"Rodríguez is well aware of the fate of Maduro; it is our belief that her own self-interest aligns with advancing our key objectives,” according to the remarks.

The administration has said its demands for Rodriguez include opening Venezuela’s energy sector to U.S. companies, providing preferential access to production, using oil revenue to purchase American goods, and ending subsidized oil exports to Cuba.

Rodríguez, who was Maduro's vice president, said Tuesday that her government and the U.S. “have established respectful and courteous channels of communication.” During televised remarks, Rodríguez said that she, Trump and Rubio were aiming to set “a working agenda.”

So far, she has appeared to acquiesce to Trump’s demands and to release prisoners jailed by the government under Maduro and his predecessor, Hugo Chávez. On Monday, the head of a Venezuelan human rights group said 266 political prisoners had been freed since Jan. 8.

Trump had praised the releases, saying on social media that he would “like to thank the leadership of Venezuela for agreeing to this powerful humanitarian gesture!”

In a key step to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the State Department notified Congress this week that it intends to begin sending additional diplomatic and support personnel to Caracas to prepare for the possible reopening of the U.S. Embassy, which shuttered in 2019. Fully normalizing ties, however, would require the U.S. to revoke its decision recognizing the Venezuelan parliament elected in 2015 as the country’s legitimate government.

Later Wednesday, Rubio planned to meet Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the State Department.

Machado went into hiding after Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. She reemerged in December to pick up her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. After Maduro was ousted, she traveled to Washington. In a meeting with Trump, she presented him with her Peace Prize medal, an extraordinary gesture given that Trump has effectively sidelined her.

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain President Donald Trump's policy toward Venezuela following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicolas Maduro, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain President Donald Trump's policy toward Venezuela following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicolas Maduro, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to explain President Donald Trump's policy toward Venezuela following the U.S. military raid that ousted then-President Nicolas Maduro, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., looks on during a press conference with the American delegation, consisting of senators and members of the House of Representatives, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

FILE - Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters while meeting with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan at the State Department in Washington, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)