Ben McAdoo spent two decades building offensive game plans. Now, he tears them apart for the New England Patriots’ defense, and his scouting report on Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold could be the key to Super Bowl LX.
The former New York Giants head coach has carved out one of the NFL’s most unconventional roles this season: an offensive mind embedded on the defensive side of the ball, studying opposing quarterbacks with the sole purpose of exposing their weaknesses.
How Ben McAdoo’s ‘Unique’ Role Took Shape Under Patriots HC Mike Vrabel
In an exclusive interview with PFSN ahead of Super Bowl LX, McAdoo explained exactly what his role entails.
“I try to show how the other offense plays, the techniques they use, how they try to run their schemes,” McAdoo told PFSN. “You have a lot of the same schemes in the league, but they’re run a little bit differently on how they want to attack you. And then I kind of put some things together on the quarterback and how you can take advantage of the way the quarterback plays, what he does well, what are some weaknesses that you may be able to take advantage of.”
The position itself was Mike Vrabel’s idea, born from his own experience working outside his comfort zone. Vrabel spent the 2024 season as a coaching and personnel consultant with the Cleveland Browns, where he worked with tight ends, the offensive line, and special teams despite his defensive background.
“Coach Vrabel worked on the other side of the ball in Cleveland last year and thought that it’s a position that can help,” McAdoo said. “It can be useful, and I feel like I have been useful.”
McAdoo isn’t new to this kind of cross-pollination. In 2021, he worked as a consultant for the Dallas Cowboys, collaborating with both Dan Quinn and Kellen Moore on both sides of the ball. That experience planted the seed for what he’s doing now in New England.
The 48-year-old joined the Patriots in 2024 as a senior offensive assistant under Jerod Mayo, where his duties included helping develop Drake Maye and working with the scout team. When Vrabel took over in January 2025 and overhauled the coaching staff, McAdoo was one of just five holdovers. His title changed to senior defensive assistant, putting him on defense for the first time in his 20-year NFL coaching career.
The Patriots’ defense ranked fourth in the NFL in points allowed during the regular season and has been dominant in the playoffs, smothering the Chargers (16-3), Texans (28-16), and Broncos (10-7) en route to Santa Clara. During the regular season, New England had the NFL’s 12th-best defense, according to PFSN’s Defense Impact metric.
How Will McAdoo Slow Down Sam Darnold and Co.?
McAdoo’s work this week centers on Darnold, the Seahawks quarterback whose career resurrection has been one of the league’s best stories but whose turnover tendencies remain a persistent vulnerability. Darnold threw 14 interceptions during the regular season, the third-highest total in the NFL behind Geno Smith (17) and Tua Tagovailoa (15).
Since their November loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Seahawks have gone 9-1, with Darnold throwing 12 touchdowns against just four interceptions over that stretch. Still, McAdoo’s job is to find the cracks.
“I just try to do my small little part that way,” McAdoo said, with characteristic understatement.
That small part involves psychological profiling as much as schematic analysis. In addition to learning everything about the opposing offense, he studies how individual quarterbacks process information, where their eyes go under pressure, and what triggers mistakes. For a coach who spent years developing quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and Eli Manning in New York, he knows exactly what to look for.
Interestingly, McAdoo made the decision in 2017 to bench Manning for Geno Smith, a move that in part cost him his job as Giants head coach. Eight years later, he’s preparing a game plan designed to rattle the man who replaced Smith as Seattle’s starter after the Seahawks traded him to the Las Vegas Raiders.
McAdoo has seen how this kind of pressure can unravel even talented quarterbacks. Darnold’s infamous “seeing ghosts” moment against New England in 2019, when the Patriots defense caused four interceptions and a fumble, remains a cautionary tale about what happens when a quarterback’s confidence fractures.
Vrabel’s Patriots won’t need to make Darnold see ghosts on Feb. 8. They just need McAdoo to tell them where to look.
