Welcome to the Friday Five, postseason edition!

Every week until the Patriots’ Super Bowl run is over, I will drop five team-related thoughts on Friday to recap the week that was in Foxboro and look ahead to kickoff.

Ready, set, football.

1. Tall task, secret weapons

Only two teams scored more than 27 points and racked up more than 400 yards on the Seahawks’ top-ranked defense this season: the Rams and the Buccaneers.

The Rams did so twice. How did they do it?

Explosive plays. Los Angeles recorded nine explosive plays (defined as passes of 20-plus yards and runs of 12-plus yards) in the NFC Championship Game, the most Seattle allowed in any game all season. Earlier this year, they had seven in a shootout loss to the Seahawks, and the Bucs had eight over a regular-season road win. Overall, Seattle allowed the second-lowest rate of explosive plays in the NFL, per SumerSports.

On Thursday, Mike Vrabel said cracking the Seahawks defense for big plays will be critical for a Patriots offense that relied so heavily on them this season and has slowed down in the playoffs. The Pats, in fact, led the league in explosive play rate at over 10%.

“I think we’ll try to look at every single thing that we can that could potentially help us, but that’ll be critical,” Vrabel said. “Our ability to create some of those (explosive) plays that maybe we haven’t had as many of and we’ve had in previous games. Whether we hand it off, we’re going to need to gain some chunks, and if we throw it, we’re going to need to do the same.”

So how can the Pats repeat what the Rams did, aside from importing big-play receivers like Puka Nacua and Davante Adams?

That’s a question Patriots tight ends coach/pass game coordinator and ex-Rams assistant Thomas Brown can ask Sean McVay. Or perhaps vice president of football operations and strategy John “Stretch” Streicher. Streicher worked for McVay last season as the Rams’ game management coordinator, though his responsibilities also extended into coaching special teams and advising the head coach. McVay calls offensive plays for the Rams, who scored 27 points in the NFC Championship Game and 37 in their prior trip to Seattle on Dec. 18.

Over the summer, McVay spoke highly of Streicher in an interview with the Herald, saying: “He understands the game from an All-22 perspective. He’s special as it relates to the situational stuff, and he’s got a great eye for talent. And so you put all those things together, and his big-picture understanding of the landscape of the league, offensive and defensive football and special teams, schematics and tactics, meshing all that together, he was a difference-maker for us. And I loved being around him.”

Hopefully, for the Patriots, he loved it enough to spill some secrets.

2. A Cooper Kupp what-if

Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp (10) leaps over Los Angeles Rams cornerback Cobie Durant (14) after a catch during the second half of the NFC Championship NFL football game Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)

Back in March, ex-Ram wide receiver Cooper Kupp became a cap casualty after the team failed to trade him before the start of the league new year. Shortly before Kupp received his expected release and hit free agency, I reported he was curious about the prospect of playing in New England, where he had a few connections.

Kupp instead signed a three-year, $45 million contract with the Seahawks, then beat his old team in the NFC Championship Game to advance to play the Patriots next Sunday. Which begs the question: what if Kupp had instead signed in New England?

According to a source, the Patriots were not all that close to signing the 32-year-old despite lukewarm mutual interest. Kupp had shown signs of decline in Los Angeles, ever since clinching the wide receiver triple crown in 2021 when he led the league with 145 catches, 1,947 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.

If the Pats had signed Kupp, though, it stands to reason they may not have pursued Stefon Diggs two weeks later. Both signed three-year contracts with similar guarantees (Kupp for $17.5 million and Diggs at $16.6 million).

Statistically, however, the two didn’t compare this regular season. Kupp caught 47 passes for 593 yards and two touchdowns opposite Jaxon Smith-Njigba, a top-5 receiver in the league. Meanwhile, Diggs, who occasionally saw extra attention as the Patriots’ No. 1 option, finished with 85 catches, 1,013 yards and four touchdowns.

Score one for the front office.

3. Hall of Excuses

Yes, the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s voting process is broken.

The Hall should not be pooling legendary head coaches, like Bill Belichick, with owners like Robert Kraft, and former players who have been passed over for decades, such as Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood. Yet that’s exactly what their process calls for when electing new members in the Coach/Contributor category.

All five of those figures were lumped together, and by extension pitted against one another, in the final round of voting this year. Because Hall of Fame voters are only permitted to vote for three candidates, there was always a chance the greatest coach of all time or the most successful owner in league history would not be elected. According to ESPN, Belichick has been left out.

In the days since Belichick’s reported exclusion, voters who did not select him have decried this system. And it’s true the Hall’s process is a mess.

But let me be the latest to decry the nonsensical, idiotic, shameful decisions those voters made to leave Belichick off their ballot. If the process is broken, do your best to fix it. Both things can be true here: the system forces unnecessarily difficult choices, and the decision to vote for Belichick was a no-brainer.

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The task of a Hall of Fame voter is to enshrine the most deserving candidates, and the man who won six Super Bowls as a head coach, two more as an assistant and ranks second all-time in head-coaching wins is the most deserving coach to be considered in decades, if not ever.

Shame on the Hall. Shame on its voters.

4. McDaniels’ help

No one on the Patriots’ coaching staff has more experience preparing for Super Bowls than Josh McDaniels.

McDaniels has coached in eight Super Bowls and won three as the Pats’ offensive coordinator. That experience is coming in handy this week for Mike Vrabel, whose staff is mostly composed of coaches who have never prepared for the Big Game. With an extra week to scout, prepare and practice, Vrabel says he’s leaned on McDaniels when scripting the team’s schedule this week.

“I think we have a good balance. Coaches have been a good resource. Josh (McDaniels) has been a good resource. Obviously, he’s coached in these with the extended break,” Vrabel said. “So, there’s just trying to find that sweet spot of doing enough here, but then also still having stuff out there that will keep (the players) engaged.”

In his five Super Bowls as the offensive coordinator, the Patriots started slowly in every game. They scored three first-quarter points combined, hitting one field goal in Super Bowl LII against the Eagles.

5. Did you know?

Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold has never beaten the Patriots.

He’s 0-4 in his career as a starter, and it gets worse from there.

Over those four starts — three with the Jets and another in Carolina — Darnold has thrown one touchdown pass, one pick-six and taken a safety.

Meaning, in all the times Darnold has dropped back to pass against them, the Patriots’ defense has scored more points than his own offense.