When the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl, Drake Maye will be tasked with one of the most harrowing challenges of his young NFL career: Mike Macdonald's Cover 6 defense.
Widely celebrated for its unique ability to take away the deep ball and effectively combat the run, the Seahawks have won plenty of games in 2025 with some variation of Cover 6 and will almost certainly deploy it once more against the Patriots when they take the field at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara on Sunday.
And yet, while some fans are worried about how the Patriots will be able to attack Macdonald's signature defense, Maye isn't quite so bothered, as every defensive scheme can be attacked one way or another, they just have to make the right adjustments.
“I think it's become a thing in the league more and more the past couple of years to play quarter-quarter-half,” Maye said via NBC Sports Boston's Phil Perry. “Whether it's something that they cloud the boundary, they cloud the field, it's kinda depending on what the team does. The challenge is they try to stay two high and take away deep shots, but also you got chances underneath. There’s holes in every coverage. Knowing that, and just trying to exploit where we can. Knowing that we got guys out there that have great feel in zone and can find the zones, and try to sit down. And also we gotta be able to run the football.”
With 17 wins over their last 20 games – including the playoffs – the Patriots have had to find a variety of different ways to win games in 2026, from relying on their aerial attack to ground-and-pound contests where defense won out. Even if the Seahawks have one of the best defenses in the NFL, Maye and company are pretty darn good too; otherwise, they wouldn't be in the Super Bowl.
