Super Bowl 60: Comparing the quarterback performances

Drake Maye‘s turnovers were critical: Both quarterbacks performed eerily similarly, but turnovers were the big differentiator.
Sam Darnold performed better under pressure: Outside of turnovers, Darnold's ability to perform adequately under pressure gave him an edge over Maye in Super Bowl 60.
2026 NFL Draft season is here: Try the best-in-class PFF Mock Draft Simulator and learn about 2026's top prospects while trading and drafting for your favorite NFL team. Get 25% off your PFF+ annual subscription with code PFFFANTASYPODCAST25.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Super Bowl 60 is in the books, and the Seattle Seahawks are NFL champions for the second time in franchise history with a resounding 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots.

This game featured a matchup between two quarterbacks who were not expected to be here at all this time last year. While Drake Maye was a prized prospect who broke out in Year 2, Sam Darnold held a similar pedigree but struggled early and became a journeyman before finding a home in Seattle.

Given Seattle’s convincing win in a game it never trailed, one would think Darnold vastly outplayed Maye in this contest. However, is that really the case?

Here we’ll compare the two performances through a variety of metrics.

Standard passing stats

Darnold: 19-38, 202 yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs
Maye: 27-43, 295 yards 2 TDs, 2 INTs

A quick look at the standard passing stats would suggest that Maye had the more prolific game, completing 62.8% of his passes as opposed to Darnold’s 50% while throwing for 93 more yards and one more touchdown. Maye's two interceptions shift the line much more into Darnold’s favor because he didn’t turn the ball over once. Adding to this caveat, Maye earned four turnover-worthy plays, the second time in his career he’s thrown that many, while Darnold finished with just one, suggesting that Darnold was much safer with the football than Maye was.

Passing depth

Darnold: 10.8 ADoT, 47.4 SS%, 42.1 PS%, 42.6 YAC%
Maye: 10.9 ADot, 44.2 SS%, 51.2%, 46.1 YAC%

We’re getting a little more advanced here with this next series of statistics as we’re looking at how far Darnold and Maye’s throws were typically traveling. Their average depth of target (ADoT) is nearly identical, as Maye earned the slightest of edges at 10.9 yards versus Darnold's 10.8 yards. This is a trend that carried on through much of the season, though, as Maye’s 9.5-yard ADoT in the regular season tied for fourth-highest amongst quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks and tied Trevor Lawrence and Matthew Stafford for the highest among all quarterbacks who didn't miss a game. The 10.8-yard figure is high for Darnold, whose 8.7-yard ADot tied with Tyler Shough for 15th, though it was still one of the higher numbers in the league.

Additionally, 47.4% of Darnold’s passes were thrown short of the sticks (SS%) while 44.2% of Maye’s throws did not cross the first-down marker. In the regular season, both Darnold and Maye finished among the bottom of the league in SS%, as Maye’s 47.6 SS% was 10th-lowest among quarterbacks with at least 100 dropbacks, while Darnold’s 50.1% figure was 17th-lowest out of 45 qualifying quarterbacks.

In targeting past the sticks (PS%), Maye finished with the fifth-highest frequency at 46.1%, which makes his 51.2 PS% not too surprising. Darnold, however, finished in the middle of the pack in terms of how frequently he threw past the first-down markers, as he was 22nd with a 39.6 PS% that tied Tyrod Taylor. That number was relatively consistent with his 42.1 PS% from the Super Bowl.

The yards-after-catch rate (YAC%) were also reflective of how these two quarterbacks typically performed on the season. In the regular season, only five quarterbacks’ passing yardage totals were affected by yards after the catch less than Maye’s 40.5% figure. Darnold’s 43.5% regular season rate was the 11th lowest and was much closer to his Super Bowl performance, but they were close enough to each other in this regard that it’s hard to give an edge one way or another.

Pressure passing

Darnold: 7-16, 71 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT when pressured (18 dropbacks)
Maye: 6-13, 75 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT when pressured (23 dropbacks)

Pressure was a big story of this game, as the Seahawks got after Maye repeatedly and never allowed him to get into a rhythm. Maye’s stats under pressure might seem OK on the surface; however, a deeper dive shows a much more frustrating tale. Maye’s passing grade under pressure came in at 24.5, and he committed three of his four turnover-worthy plays when pressured, while Darnold stayed out of harm’s way by committing no such plays. In fact, if Darnold’s 65.2 passing grade under pressure in this game was converted into a full season, it would rank fourth in the NFL, trailing only Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy and Matthew Stafford. One thing to note is that Maye’s extremely low passing grade in this game is not reflective of his overal season. Maye’s 61.8 passing grade under pressure in the regular season was fifth-best in the league, while Darnold’s regular season figure of 48.6 was 19th.

Clean passing

Darnold: 12-22, 131 yards, 0 TDs, 0 INTS when kept clean (22 dropbacks)
Maye: 21-30, 220 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT when kept clean (30 dropbacks)

This may come as a surprise when looking at these stats, but Maye was only slightly better when kept, but it wasn’t by much, as Maye had a 52.2 passing grade from a clean pocket, while Darnold earned a 51.4. These passing grades are shockingly low considering how well they played in the regular season when kept clean. Both of them were elite passers when kept clean, as Maye’s 92.4 passing grade ranked third, while Darnold’s 91.3 clean passing grade ranked fifth. However, if you converted their Super Bowl clean passing grades to the regular season, they would compare closely to the bottom-two clean passers from 2025 in Shedeur Sanders (51.4 clean passing grade in 2025) and Brady Cook (46.3 clean passing grade).

Overall passing grade

Darnold: 57.4
Maye: 30.8

By passing grade standards, neither quarterback had a particularly impressive game, hence the Super Bowl MVP going to running back Kenneth Walker III. However, while Darnold’s performance is just a little below average (a reminder that every player gets a 60.0 starting grade that adjusts based on performance), Maye’s was the worst of his young career. It was even worse than the 32.8 number he put up in a blizzard in the AFC Championship game. These are the only two games of Maye’s two-year career with passing grades below 50, though, so Patriots fans shouldn’t be too concerned about this being a trend.

Final verdict

Watching this game, it was surprising to see how close the stats between Sam Darnold and Drake Maye really were. They had almost identical ADoTs, very similar clean pocket passing grades, and neither quarterback’s passing totals were all that affected by yards after the catch. However, while both received their fair share of pressure from the opposing defense, Darnold handled it significantly better than Maye, and that seemed to go a long way toward Seattle hoisting its second Lombardi Trophy and Darnold completing the his redemption story.