Top: New England Patriots receiver Kayshon Boutte makes a wondrous one handed catch to ice the Divisional Round matchup between the Patriots and the Houston Texans.
The NFL season has come to its end, and this season has been particularly exciting for most fanbases. With no one knowing who would win the Superbowl going into the season, two teams that didn’t make the playoffs last year rose up from the pack and represented their conferences with 14-3 records: the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. But along the way, plenty of teams had great storylines— the Los Angeles Rams 37-year-old quarterback Matthew Stafford won the league’s MVP, the San Francisco 49ers rode the resurgence of Christian McCaffrey to a playoff berth, and the Chicago Bears flourished under Ben Johnson’s first year as head coach. With all sorts of drama developing each week, it’s time to take a look back on how exciting this year was for NFL fans.
From the start, expectations were all over the place. The teams that were supposed to be good, like the Chiefs, Eagles, Ravens, and Bills, all showed clear weaknesses from the start that culminated in only one playoff win among all four teams. Senior Brendan Kearney, a notorious Josh Allen fan, felt that the Bills defense was “holding them back from being true contenders” for most of the season. Meanwhile, the teams that succeeded were all unexpected newcomers to the conversation; the Bears at one point held the number one seed in the NFC, and the Patriots went from 4-13 the prior season to 14-3 with new head coach Mike Vrabel and MVP finalist Drake Maye leading the charge. Some teams were decimated by injuries, especially the 49ers, with multiple starters and Pro Bowl level talents like Fred Warner and Nick Bosa suffering season ending injuries. But as the postseason approached, the Super Bowl favorites emerged: the Seahawks in the NFC, backed by new quarterback Sam Darnold and the Offensive Player of the Year, Wide Receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba. In the AFC, most agreed either the Patriots, Broncos, or Bills would represent them in the Super Bowl.
However, with all of this excitement, plenty of fanbases suffered from mediocrity or worse. The Las Vegas Raiders went from high expectations to a 3-14 season that mercifully granted them the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft. Senior Brodie Witte watched this season ungracefully unfold, but celebrated when the Raiders lost to the Giants in week 17, saying “this loss got us the number one pick, and if we nail this offseason, Fernando Mendoza could step into a good situation with us.” Other teams had lofty expectations that weren’t met. The Philadelphia Eagles went from Super Bowl Champions to getting trounced in the Wild Card by a wildly underfavored 49ers team; the Commanders had a 5-12 record after making the NFC Championship game the season prior; and perhaps most notably the Kansas City Chiefs were eliminated from playoff contention in week 15 for the first time since 2014. These teams underperforming paved the way for the unpredictability of this season.
To end the season, the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots faced off in Santa Clara. Super Bowl 60 was largely dominated by Seattle’s stifling defense, which sacked quarterback Drake Maye 6 times in a decisive 29-13 victory to give the Seahawks their second Super Bowl victory and first in over a decade. Overall, the 106th NFL season was best summarized as surprising, as many teams rose and fell in ways that many fans across the league wouldn’t have predicted. For the next six months, fans will have to make due with the usual offseason proceedings as we wait for the season to commence.
Jacob Carr is a senior at Washington High School, and this is his first year working on The Hatchet. Jacob grew up in South Carolina, but moved to Fremont in 2019. He’s a captain on the varsity lacrosse team, and enjoys playing guitar and bass in his free time. He looks forward to writing about sports, music, and anything else interesting. Jacob wants to go to the University of Oregon for broadcast journalism in hopes of becoming a commentator.