Seahawks' Super Bowl-winning 'Dark Side' defense: the new 'Legion of Boom'?

Undeterred by all the rules favoring the offense and quarterbacks bringing more athleticism than ever to the field, the Seattle Seahawks verified that defense can still dominate the NFL in 2026.

Seattle's Mike Macdonald became the first head coach to win a Super Bowl as his team's primary defensive play caller when the Seahawks topped the New England Patriots 29-13 on Sunday, a triumph fueled by their “Dark Side” defense — the worthy successor to the “Legion of Boom” that brought home their first Lombardi Trophy 12 years earlier.

It may not be a one-off, either.

Three teams shifted toward defensive-minded leadership this coaching cycle with a trio of defensive coordinators getting head coaching jobs.

The Tennessee Titans hired former 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, who used to coach the New York Jets. The Miami Dolphins hired Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley and the Baltimore Ravens turned to Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter.

Macdonald, 38, who served as the Ravens' defensive coordinator for two years before replacing Pete Carroll in Seattle two years ago, is the first head coach with primarily defensive roots to lift the Lombardi Trophy since Bill Belichick following the 2018 season.

Macdonald's defense dominated the Super Bowl from the start and held the Patriots out of the end zone until the fourth quarter. The Seahawks sacked Drake Maye six times and forced him into a pair of costly turnovers they turned into 14 points. They had three takeaways overall.

Seattle's defense made sure it didn't matter that Sam Darnold only threw for one touchdown and couldn't do much in the red zone.

“It’s insane, man," Seattle linebacker Ernest Jones IV said. "I’ve never been around a bunch of guys where literally nobody thought it was a Super Bowl. It was just our next game, and that’s how we approached it. And defensively, we came out and said it early in the year: To win the Super Bowl, it was going to be on our backs, so like I said, I’ll be damned if we get one game away and this defense doesn’t show up like we’re supposed to.”

In the lead-up to the Super Bowl, NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth had high praise for Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who stewarded Maye into an MVP-worthy season and helped him navigate a 10-7 win at snowy Denver in the AFC championship despite throwing for just 86 yards.

This was McDaniels' 10th Super Bowl as an assistant — and it turned out to be his worst. He never took the pressure off Maye, who had a painkilling injection in his throwing shoulder before the game and was hounded relentlessly throughout.

Maye conquered three top-5 defenses on his way to the Super Bowl in his second season, but he wasn't up to the task against the Seahawks, who sported the NFL's top-ranked scoring defense.

“We got to be better with the football and make better decisions and I got to make better throws when the game goes like that," Maye said. "I got to make some throws to help us move the football.”

And McDaniels needed to adjust way quicker than he did. Through three quarters, the Patriots had nine punts, five three-and-outs and just 78 yards of offense.

McDaniels never protected his young QB by calling for more handoffs or quick screens, even though rookie left tackle Will Campbell — the fourth overall pick out of LSU in last year's NFL draft — allowed a whopping 14 pressures in the Super Bowl.

Given how the Super Bowl played out, there are two other former Broncos head coaches who probably deserve another shot at being a head coach before McDaniels: Vic Fangio and Vance Joseph.

Fangio, Philadelphia's defensive coordinator, helped the Eagles win last year's Super Bowl by throttling Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.

Joseph, Denver's defensive coordinator, has seen his stock rise by leading a unit that's collected an NFL-high 141 sacks over the last two years, including the playoffs. He interviewed with the Raiders, Cardinals, Titans, Falcons, Ravens and Giants this cycle but didn't get that coveted second chance this year.

Other defensive play-callers who might find their phones ringing a year from now, especially if another Super Bowl is dominated by defense like this one was, include Chris Shula of the Rams, Brian Flores of the Vikings and Anthony Campanile of the Jaguars.

Seattle's dominance Sunday raised the question about where the “Dark Side” ranks among all-time great defenses. Right next to the “Legion of Boom,” maybe?

“I know we're the best defense this year,” said Seattle cornerback Devon Witherspoon, “and that's all that matters.”

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Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald kisses the Lombardi Trophy between quarterback Sam Darnold and Seattle Seahawks chair Jody Allen after the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike MacDonald holds the Lombardi Trophy while posing during a news conference the morning after Super Bowl 60 between the Seahawks and the New England Patriots in San Francisco, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Seattle Seahawks Byron Murphy II (91), Devon Witherspoon (21), and the Seahawks defense celebrate after Murphy recovered a fumble after a sack during the third quarter of Super Bowl 60 in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (Scott Strazzante/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Uchenna Nwosu (7) celebrates his touchdown on a fumble recovery with safety Nick Emmanwori (3) during the second half of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Boye Mafe celebrates after the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game against the New England Patriots, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Steve Luciano)

Luka Doncic is almost certainly going to win the NBA scoring title this season. And it's now very possible that he doesn't make the All-NBA team.

That's rare, but it might be this season's reality.

The roster of award-caliber players who won't be winning awards this season continues to grow, with Doncic — the Los Angeles Lakers standout guard and MVP candidate — now out with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain that will force him to miss the rest of the regular season. Minnesota guard Anthony Edwards is certain to miss the league's 65-game award eligibility threshold as well after he was held out Thursday because of illness.

Doncic has played 64 games, one shy of the threshold. It's worth noting that BetMGM Sportsbook, among others, took Doncic off the list of MVP betting options following his injury Thursday.

“At this juncture of the season, it’s the last thing you want to see,” Lakers star LeBron James told reporters in Oklahoma City after Thursday's game, long before an MRI was performed Friday to determine the extent of Doncic's injury. “Especially anybody on our team, but when you have an MVP candidate on your team, the last thing you want to see is somebody go down with a hamstring injury."

Edwards can now only reach a maximum of 64 games as well, so he won’t be on the ballot for most major NBA awards either.

It was collectively bargained — meaning the league and the players association agreed on the terms — and this is the third season of it being part of the NBA rules.

It applies to player eligibility for five awards — MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, the All-NBA Team and the All-Defensive Team. Players have to either play in 65 regular-season games (with some minutes-played minimums in there as well), or at least 62 games before suffering a “season-ending injury."

But even with Doncic's hamstring hurt badly enough that he'll miss the rest of the regular season, it wouldn't be classified as “season-ending” unless a doctor — jointly selected by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association — says he wouldn't be able to play again through May 31.

There is a grievance process and even a way to challenge the rule citing extraordinary circumstances, but neither would be easily utilized.

Five of the league's six highest-paid players this season — Golden State's Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, Philadelphia's Joel Embiid, Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo and Boston's Jayson Tatum — aren't eligible for awards. Denver's Nikola Jokic is the exception on the highest-paid list, and he'd likely be ineligible if he misses more than one more game down the stretch.

There were 23 players on the list of those winning MVP, MIP, DPOY, All-NBA and All-Defense last season. Of those, at least 10 are out of the running for honors this season: Antetokounmpo, Curry, Edwards, James, Tatum, Detroit's Cade Cunningham, Indiana teammates Tyrese Haliburton and Ivica Zubac, Utah's Jaren Jackson Jr. and Oklahoma City's Jalen Williams. (Most of those 10 have been out of the awards mix because of injuries for some time; Tatum and Haliburton both tore Achilles in last season's playoffs and it was obvious then that they wouldn't hit 65-game marks this year.)

Another four award winners from a year ago — Jokic, Oklahoma City's Lu Dort, Golden State's Draymond Green and Cleveland's Evan Mobley — aren't at 65 games yet this season but, for now anyway, seem on pace to get there.

Never say never. The union wants changes to the policy, and it's certain to come up in their conversations with the league office. But many players — and even Andre Iguodala, now the head of the players' association — have said in recent years that the 65-game rule is a good thing.

The league doesn't seem inclined to make a change based solely on what would appear to be an extraordinary number of award candidates not hitting the threshold in one year.

“I think it is working,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last month. “I think if you look at the numbers, the pre-implementation of this rule, numbers were going in the wrong direction. I may have this a little bit off: I think the three years before we adopted this rule, almost a third of the All-NBA players had not played 80% of the games. That was a huge issue for the league.”

As we said, it's rare, but it has happened. Twice, to be exact.

— 1968-69: Elvin Hayes won the scoring title as a rookie, then wasn't even All-NBA — and didn't win Rookie of the Year, either.

— 1975-76: Bob McAdoo won his third consecutive scoring title and was second in the MVP race — but didn't make All-NBA. Players voted for MVP in those days, and McAdoo was an extremely close second behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Dave Cowens was third in the MVP vote but got the second-team All-NBA nod at center, with Abdul-Jabbar the first-team pick.

Doncic now seems likely to join that list. It's not mathematically certain yet that he wins the scoring title, but it would take something extraordinary for it not to happen.

He's averaging 33.5 points per game, with Gilgeous-Alexander at 31.6 per game. For Gilgeous-Alexander — last season's scoring champion — to overtake Doncic, he would need to go on an unbelievable run. An example: He'd need to score 292 points over the final five games to take over the top spot, and nobody other than Wilt Chamberlain has had a five-game run like that.

Of the previous 79 scoring champions, 64 were first-team All-NBA and 13 were second-team.

Jokic is going to win the league's rebounding and assist titles, while averaging a triple-double yet again. But he's also not assured yet of being on the award ballots.

The thresholds are different.

While the award mandate is 65 games in most cases, players are eligible for most statistical awards if they play in 58 games (or 70% of the season). There are different standards for some stat awards, such as field-goal percentage (minimum 300 made), free-throw percentage (minimum 125 made) and 3-point percentage (minimum 82 made).

A player can win a stat award while appearing in less than 58 games.

For example, last season, San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama played only 46 games but still won the blocked shot title. Even if he played in the minimum 58 games and recorded no blocks in the 12 games needed to reach that number he still would have been ahead of the runner-up, Utah's Walker Kessler.

AP NBA: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NBA

Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) looks to make a shot-attempt in the fourth quarter of a loss to the Detroit Pistons in an NBA basketball game Monday, March 23, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic warms up before an NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rob Gray)

Detroit Pistons forward Ronald Holland II (5) talks with guard Cade Cunningham (2), who did not play due to an injury, during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Toronto Raptors Tuesday, March 31, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)

Los Angeles Lakers forward/guard Luka Dončić (77) drives against Oklahoma City Thunder guard Cason Wallace (22) during the first half of an NBA basketball game Thursday, April. 2, 2026, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Gerald Leong)