As Jake Bobo navigated through restricted free agency this past NFL offseason, there was the thought of a homecoming.
The New England Patriots were one of a small handful of teams to check in with the Super Bowl champion wide receiver, who made a name for himself with the Seattle Seahawks as a willing blocker in the run game, a contributor on special teams and with his fun-loving presence in the locker room.
But that thought of putting on the jersey of the team he rooted for as a kid growing up in North Andover was a fleeting one for Bobo.
“They were,” Bobo told the Herald when asked if the Patriots were one of the teams to show interest in him during free agency. “And I made the mistake of telling my mom that, who then got very, very excited. She doesn’t realize there are varying degrees of ‘sniffing around.’ I think once the Pats realized what they might have to pay the slow, skinny white kid I think they bowed out of it.”
The Patriots went in a different direction at wide receiver, signing Romeo Doubs to a four-year, $68 million contract while also trading for A.J. Brown.
It ended up being a two-team race for Bobo in free agency between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Seahawks. The soon-to-be 28-year-old admitted he thought his time was over in Seattle, a place that found a spot in his heart as he signed as an undrafted free agent there in 2023 before spending three NFL seasons with the Seahawks.
The Jaguars gave Bobo a two-year, $5.5 million offer, which the Seahawks had the right to match. Seattle did, which officially locked in his return with a nice pay raise, too – he has $4.5 million guaranteed with his contract.
And he never had any second thoughts about that possibility of playing for the Patriots. Once considered a longshot for the NFL, Bobo said he would have been happy playing anywhere, “whether that’s in Iceland, Antarctica, it doesn’t matter to me.”
But he’s absolutely thrilled it’s in Seattle.
“(Massachusetts) is where I grew up. That’s where my friends and family are still based. But at the end of the day, I’d go play anywhere,” Bobo said. “I obviously have now this link emotionally to the city of Seattle, which is weird to even think about just being connected emotionally to a city that’s not Boston. It’s a little odd. But to be back in Seattle ultimately, that’s where I wanted to be and I’m very, very grateful that we were able to work that out.”
Jake Bobo of the Seattle Seahawks catches a pass in front Cobie Durant of the Los Angeles Rams for a touchdown during the third quarter in the NFC Championship Game at Lumen Field on Jan. 25, 2026 in Seattle. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)
Jake Bobo of the Seattle Seahawks catches a pass in front Cobie Durant of the Los Angeles Rams for a touchdown during the third quarter in the NFC Championship Game at Lumen Field on Jan. 25, 2026 in Seattle. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images)
‘More fun to watch’
The last time Bobo took the field for an NFL game was against those same Patriots he saw lift up the Lombardi Trophy time after time when he was a kid. Bobo got to experience that feeling in February at the expense of his childhood team.
Bobo and the Seahawks beat up the Patriots, 29-13, to win Super Bowl LX. Bobo played 16 snaps on offense — the high mark for him in the playoffs — and 19 more on special teams, but it was an accomplishment just to even be on the field.
Bobo, who had a big moment in the NFC Championship Game when he hauled in a touchdown pass from Sam Darnold, played in the Super Bowl just 13 days after having surgery on his broken right hand, something he and the Seahawks kept under wraps right until the day of the big game.
Bobo is fully healthy now and has gone back to watch the film of the Super Bowl a few times this offseason. For him, “that one’s a little more fun to watch” than it is for Patriots fans.
“We executed very well,” Bobo said. “Obviously, that’s a very talented group on the other side of the ball in white. I think it was more of a battle than people saw on TV. But it wasn’t a whole lot different from the 10 games we played before that. We were in a bit of a groove.”
Bobo, no matter what he does for the rest of his career, will always have Super Bowl champion as a precursor before his name. It’s not something he’s reflected upon much, though, despite the magnitude of it.
“Winning a championship is something I think I will appreciate and cherish a little more when I’m done playing,” he said. “As for right now, I think a lot the guys in my shoes feel the same way, where as the game was great, the parade was unbelievable, but then you get home maybe a week later, and I get to Florida, and it’s almost like, ‘OK, now we got to turn around and go do it again.’ It was fun to celebrate for a couple days. But then you turn around and you’re right back to work.”
New England Patriots' Marcus Jones hauls down Seattle Seahawks' Jake Bobo during the third quarter of a 2024 regular-season game at Gillette Stadium last season. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
New England Patriots' Marcus Jones hauls down Seattle Seahawks' Jake Bobo during the third quarter of a 2024 regular-season game at Gillette Stadium last season. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Another matchup with the Patriots awaits Bobo and the Seahawks to kick off the 2026 NFL season. This time the game will take place in Seattle with a banner being unveiled.
It’s the third straight season Bobo will have faced the Patriots, including making the trip in 2024 to Gillette Stadium, where during his Belmont Hill days he caught a touchdown pass from Harry Kraft, Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s grandson.
The connection to the Patriots is still there for Bobo, but the emotional attachment isn’t.
“Good for the league. Smart. Very, very smart opening up with the ole Super Bowl rematch,” Bobo said. “But I think at the end of the day, that’s kind of what it comes down to. Going back to the ties to Boston, it was really, really cool two years ago when we came to Foxboro. It was cool to see them in the Super Bowl. It’s weird, it’s not as much of a kind of emotional thing anymore. At the end of the day, I’m happy to be on a roster, especially happy to be on Seattle’s roster for another opening day.”
Jake Bobo began his college career at Duke, and goes back to the school to work out in the offseason. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Jake Bobo began his college career at Duke, and goes back to the school to work out in the offseason. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
Underdog spirit
Being one of 53 on an NFL roster was never really a guarantee for Bobo throughout his career. Bobo, who played college football at Duke and UCLA, didn’t impress scouts and NFL decision-makers in the lead-up to the draft, and his 4.99-second 40-yard dash time lives on in infamy.
He signed on with the Seahawks and kept stacking good play after good play after good play in his first training camp, which earned him a spot on the roster. Bobo played in 45 games over three seasons, including a full 17 in each of his first two campaigns while he compiled 34 receptions for 323 yards and three touchdowns.
Bobo’s dream was always to just play college football, so he called getting to his second NFL contract a “big deal.”
It’s all been part of a whirlwind offseason for Bobo, which included getting a second ring as he married his wife, Mackenzie, last month in Durham, N.C.
That’s where he has done a majority of his offseason training, working out with the Duke staff. He said he likes spending his time down there so he can focus more and not be lured to the Cape if he came home, which he does on occasion.
And Bobo can breathe a little easier down there, especially now with that contract in hand.
“Weirdly, it’s been a lot of fun,” Bobo said of his offseason. “A lot of the offseasons that I’ve had in the past, at least since entering the NFL, there was a level of uncertainty. And there was some uncertainty obviously as to where I was going to end up at this time of year, but the certainty of being on a roster is something I haven’t necessarily experienced before, and it’s actually allowed me, I think, to almost focus a little bit more on what I need to do to become a better player weirdly enough because you kind of have a little bit of a monkey off your back.”
But even with his NFL career secured just for the time being, Bobo isn’t satisfied. He wants to do more and will battle in the upcoming training camp for the No. 4 wide receiver spot behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed. He wants to bring another Super Bowl title back to Seattle, too.
Even with all that went right for him since the start of 2026 — Super Bowl win, new contract, marriage — Bobo still feels like an underdog in the NFL, and probably always will.
He has his Massachusetts roots to thank in part for that.
“I don’t know if that’s coming from where we come from. Maybe, that’s kind of just built in,” Bobo said. “Whether it’s a 4.9 or a 4.4, you’re going to have a certain chip on your shoulder. And I’m going to find a reason this fall and this summer to have a chip on my shoulder, even if I don’t have a reason quite yet. We’re definitely working on finding that reason and I think that chip will still be there for a little while.”