Christian McCaffrey knows what the New England Patriots are up against. He just won’t say it out loud. Asked during Super Bowl 60 week whether he’d share a scouting report on Seattle’s defense with a friend on the Patriots, the 49ers running back laughed and shut the door immediately. “I would never give another team any intel”, McCaffrey told PFSN, before offering the kind of praise that doubles as a warning.
What Christian McCaffrey Saw: Scheme Over Stars
“It’s an awesome defense,” McCaffrey said. “They got a great scheme. They got players that fly around, play hard, and they play really well together. I think that’s what makes them really good. Obviously, really good individual talent, but they play in that scheme really well together, and they play hard. Definitely a tough defense.”
Coming from most players, that reads as standard Super Bowl week diplomacy. Coming from McCaffrey, it reads as testimony. No one in the NFL logged more snaps against Seattle’s defense this season than he did.
The 49ers played the Seahawks three times in 2025, once in Week 1, once in the regular-season finale, and once in the Divisional Round. Across all three games, McCaffrey managed 127 rushing yards on 41 carries, a 3.1 yards-per-carry average that is a full yard below his season mark of 3.9. His longest rush in the final two matchups went for nine yards.
McCaffrey’s struggles against Seattle dragged on a season that PFSN’s RBi Impact metric already flagged as inefficient. Despite an RB Impact Score of 78.1 (No. 7 in the league) and leading all running backs in targets (129), receptions (102), receiving yards (924), and receiving touchdowns (7), McCaffrey earned just a C+ Impact Grade, weighed down by a yards-per-rush mark that ranked 40th in the NFL and a Boom/Bust Rate of -10.0 percent. He carried 76.8 percent of the team’s rushes, fifth-highest in the league. Volume kept him relevant. Explosiveness did not.
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McCaffrey pointed repeatedly to the collective nature of Seattle’s defense rather than singling out individual players, a distinction that tracks with how Mike Macdonald’s unit operates. The Seahawks blitzed on roughly 19 percent of their regular-season snaps, one of the lowest rates in the NFL, yet still generated 47 sacks and pressured quarterbacks at one of the highest rates in the league. They get after the passer without leaving the back end exposed, a trait McCaffrey experienced firsthand.
In the Week 18 loss that cost San Francisco the NFC’s No. 1 seed, the Seahawks held the 49ers to 173 total yards and three points. McCaffrey’s stat line that night: eight carries, 23 yards, a season low. The Divisional Round was worse. Seattle won 41-6, holding McCaffrey to 35 rushing yards on 11 carries while forcing three turnovers and three turnovers on downs from the 49ers as a whole.
McCaffrey found more room in the passing game, catching 20 balls for 146 yards across the three meetings. But the ground game, the foundation of everything the 49ers do under Shanahan, never got going. Seattle hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher in 26 consecutive games and counting, a streak that includes matchups against McCaffrey, Kyren Williams, Bijan Robinson, and Jonathan Taylor.
What the Patriots Are Walking Into
The numbers behind McCaffrey’s praise are staggering. Seattle allowed a league-low 17.2 points per game during the regular season, per CBS Sports. PFSN’s DEFi Impact metric underscores the point. Seattle posted a DEFi score of 88.4, third in the league, with a B+ Impact Grade and the No. 1 ranking in yards per play allowed at 1.48.
The Seahawks ranked second in turnover percentage (22.9 percent) and fifth in third/fourth-down conversion rate allowed (50.0 percent), reflecting a defense that doesn’t just limit yards — it ends drives. Their sack rate of 36.0 percent ranked seventh in the NFL, and their red zone touchdown rate of 292.0 percent ranked second, further illustrating how difficult Seattle makes life inside the 20.
The Seahawks ranked first in the NFL in opponent success rate and first in EPA allowed per play, according to Next Gen Stats. Their 7.4 percent explosive play rate allowed was the best by any defense since the 2012 49ers. Interior defenders Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II anchor a front that held opponents to 3.7 yards per rush, while cornerback Devon Witherspoon graded out as one of the best cover corners in football this season.
New England has managed just 18 points per game in the playoffs, the lowest by any team entering the Super Bowl since the 1979 Rams. Drake Maye will face a defense that has had two weeks to prepare and thrives on generating pressure without sacrificing coverage.
McCaffrey didn’t offer the Patriots any secrets. He didn’t need to. Three games against the NFL’s best defense told the whole story. This defense plays hard, plays together, and makes life miserable for everyone who lines up against it.
