Looking for New Mexico ties to the Super Bowl? The Seahawks roster has an abundance of them

New Mexico might be particularly keen in rooting for the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX.

Remarkably, there are six members of the team, either players or coaches, with New Mexico ties who are headed to Santa Clara, California, as Seattle faces New England on Sunday, Feb. 8.

No fewer than four of the six played their high school football in New Mexico. Three are former players at Eastern New Mexico. The six represent Albuquerque, Farmington, Clovis and Portales. Given New Mexico’s rather modest football roots, it’s an astonishing number to be attached to a single Super Bowl roster.

“It’s been crazy,” said Bryce Cabeldue, a rookie offensive lineman for the Seahawks and also a former Clovis High Wildcat. “New Mexico is definitely not known for its football.”

The Journal this week caught up with former La Cueva star Connor O’Toole, plus Cabeldue, ex-St. Pius star Mike Byrne, who is a running backs coach, and Jeff Howard, a one-time standout from Portales and longtime NFL assistant coach who coaches the Seahawks' safeties.

Seattle also has two strength and conditioning coaches — Tim Ojeda and Thomas Garcia — with New Mexico ties.

Connor O’Toole

The former La Cueva and University of Utah standout is a special teams member for the Seahawks. He is on the field for the big four of special teams: punts, punt returns, kickoffs and kickoff returns.

Earlier this year, he recovered a fumble on a national TV game against Washington. Two weekends ago, he threw a key block that delivered teammate Rashid Shaheed for a game-opening kickoff return for a touchdown in the divisional round against San Francisco.

“It’s kind of crazy, huh?” O’Toole said, contemplating the list of New Mexicans employed by Seattle.

As this conversation took place, O’Toole said he was waist-deep in preparations, like finding game tickets for family.

“Things move so fast,” he said. “You look up and dang, we’re really going to the Super Bowl. It’s a childhood dream of everybody, and it’s something you never envision for yourself.”

O’Toole’s participation is especially unique, since he was an undrafted free agent coming out of Utah. But he earned his way onto the 53-man roster and made himself invaluable to the cause for the Seahawks.

“Imagine winning the Super Bowl your first year in the NFL,” O’Toole said, thinking ahead. “To be able to sit here and be lucky enough to do that.”

O’Toole said Seattle veterans were talking enthusiastically about their title hopes back in the summer.

“I remember sitting in meetings during training camp, and the vets were talking about, this is the year for us to win the Super Bowl,” O’Toole said. “To watch that belief come to life, has been really cool.”

O’Toole has been a proverbial sponge since he arrived in Seattle, he said.

“It’s been awesome. In college, you start out as a freshman, but by senior year, guys are looking to you, like you’re responsible for setting the standard,” he said. “This year, taking that rookie role where our (defensive line) has so many experienced veterans, I could sit back and learn from.”

It has, O’Toole opined, been a combination of all three phases for Seattle: an offense spearheaded by QB Sam Darnold, a top-five defense, and outstanding special teams.

“All three phases clicked so often,” O’Toole said. He also spent a couple of weeks on the field-goal block team.

One important question that had to be asked: Was there any decent green chile to be found in Seattle? The Journal asked this of O’Toole, Howard, Cabeldue and Byrne; the consensus was, it could be found if one looked hard enough.

“You’d be shocked,” O’Toole said. “In New Mexico, there’s a breakfast burrito place on every block. You come to a place like this, it’s not the same.”

Mike Byrne

Byrne, 40, is an assistant running backs coach for the Seahawks. Once upon a time, he was a stellar offensive skill-position athlete for St. Pius X (2004 graduate) and coach San Juan Mendoza.

He’s been in the NFL for only two seasons. He coached with Klint Kubiak with the Saints in 2024, then joined Seattle (as did Kubiak) almost exactly a year ago.

“After coaching college and recruiting and everything like that, you’re all over the map. To have (this many) guys at a pretty high level, it’s pretty wild, and it makes it all the more sweeter,” he said.

Byrne has had a varied career. He worked for Pro Football Focus as an analyst, and he was the director of football analytics at Pacific Lutheran where he was once an all-conference quarterback in 2008. He also has two coaching stints at Texas A&M, and a short stay at West Texas A&M.

The NFL has been a whirlwind, Byrne said.

“I’m as green as it gets when it comes to this stuff,” he said.

But he said it was pretty obvious early on that the Seahawks had something unique brewing this season.

“Like, you know, we can, if we take care of ourselves, we can hang with anyone,” he said of an early observation. “The best thing is that our head coach (Mike MacDonald), he gives structure, regimen, the attitude and focus. It helps you set up a really good routine.”

Although he has little family remaining in Albuquerque, Byrne said he continues to follow the exploits of his high school alma mater.

Byrne, who grew up in Paradise Hills, spends game days with the Seahawks in the booth upstairs. When Seattle closed out the Rams in the NFC Championship game, he said he practically sprinted down to the locker room.

And now, he’s in the Super Bowl.

“Growing up in New Mexico, it’s something you just saw on TV,” he said. “You’d see Brett Favre and John Elway and Troy Aikman and Tom Brady, and you’re like, so cool.”

He said he hadn’t quite wrapped his head around coaching in the Super Bowl.

“I can hardly comprehend what next week is,” Byrne said. “I live in such the moment. What are the immediate tasks to get done?”

His mind turned to his wife and children.

“Sharing those moments with my family, especially my kids … I’m gonna be watching them enjoy these moments (at the Super Bowl) more than being in my own moment,” he said.

Bryce Cabeldue

The ex-Clovis High and University of Kansas offensive lineman will unfortunately not be participating in Super Bowl XL. He was placed on injured reserve (knee) two days ahead of the Seahawks’ NFC Championship contest against the Rams.

That makes him unable to suit up for the Super Bowl. But the sixth-round draft pick (No. 192 overall) will be gleefully along for the ride, to be sure.

“Football-wise, it’s been a crazy journey,” said Cabeldue, 24, a 2020 graduate of Clovis. “I mean, it’s really been amazing.”

The Clovis-born Cabeldue was an all-conference lineman for the Jayhawks — New Mexico was once seriously in the mix to sign him and he said he was going to commit to UNM before the offer from Kansas — but admitted he was didn't expect to be drafted. And he found himself even more surprised to be on this magic carpet ride with Seattle. Of note, he and O’Toole were district rivals once in high school.

“I kind of knew he’d be an NFL player because of how good he was,” Cabeldue said. “This is a pretty special moment for the both of us.”

Cabeldue finished his rookie season with 56 snaps played between offense and special teams. He appeared in roughly half of Seattle’s 17 regular-season games.

“Really, my goal was to go in there and get as good as I possibly can, soak up as much knowledge as I possibly can,” he said. “Something you learn in your first year is how your process goes.”

He echoed O’Toole as they spoke of the value of being around veterans, all of whom, both said, seemed to have a sense that this Seattle team was onto something.

“One thing every person has said,” Cabeldue said, “is that this team is different. Another thing. It doesn’t matter who you are on the roster. Everyone treats everyone exactly the same.”

As for what he’s most looking forward to as Seattle gets ready to board a plane Sunday bound for Santa Clara, Cabeldue couldn’t say for sure.

“This doesn’t feel real,” he said.

Jeff Howard

Howard, 43 and a 2001 Portales High grad, is a veteran of over a dozen NFL seasons as an assistant coach. He coached with Minnesota, Cleveland and the Los Angeles Chargers before joining the Seahawks in February 2024.

Howard was a standout high school player in Portales, and then later at nearby Eastern New Mexico where he was an All-American linebacker. His No. 3 jersey number was retired by ENMU in 2006, and he is a member of the Greyhounds’ Hall of Honors.

“I’ve been in the NFL for 13 years, and I definitely haven’t had this many New Mexico (connections) on a team,” Howard said. “It’s kind of cool.”

Howard quickly ascended to the NFL following his playing days. He coached four years at Odessa (Texas) Permian, joined Texas Tech’s staff in 2011, became the Red Raiders’ safeties coach in 2012 and was coaching with the Minnesota Vikings the next year.

It’s no surprise he delved into coaching; his father, Mike, was a longtime football coach and he grew up spending Friday nights and Saturdays hanging around the teams his father coached. “I didn’t know anything else,” he said.

His original plan was to become a doctor, since he had a degree in biology and chemistry. 

“But once I finished playing football, for the first time in my life I wasn’t associated with a team. It was so different, and I didn’t really like it,” Howard said. “And I thought, maybe I should go coach.”

His entrance into the NFL tied in to his father’s coaching relationship with Leslie Frazier at what was then called Trinity College in suburban Chicago. Frazier had become Minnesota’s head coach when he hired Howard, and Howard spent seven seasons in Minneapolis under Frazier and then later Mike Zimmer. Then Howard moved on to Cleveland, then the Chargers, and now the Seahawks where Seattle was basically one of the NFL's elite defenses all season.

“I think I just felt this overwhelming sense of accomplishment,” Howard said, asked his emotions as it became clear Seattle was headed to the Super Bowl. “And gratitude for being part of such a special team. These opportunities don’t come around often.”

Howard’s wife, Laci, was also an outstanding athlete at Portales and ENMU, and she once coached basketball at Permian.

Howard and Ojeda, a strength and conditioning coach for Seattle, were once teammates at ENMU. Another interesting tidbit: Howard’s sister-in-law once taught Cabeldue at Clovis.

Tim Ojeda, Thomas Garcia

Ojeda, from Riverside County in California, did not play his high school football here, but he did play linebacker at ENMU from 2005-06. He was added to the Seahawks staff as a strength and conditioning assistant last April after serving 14 seasons as the strength and conditioning coach at USC. He’s worked in that capacity with various teams in football, volleyball and water polo.

He was the outside linebackers coach at Eastern prior to moving to USC.

Garcia, 46, was born in Farmington and has been with Seattle for seven seasons; the first six, he was a sports science specialist. He, like Ojeda, is a strength and conditioning assistant for the Seahawks. He also has experience working for the Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe, plus the University of Florida and Texas Tech, and also MLB’s San Francisco Giants.

James Yodice covers prep sports for the Journal. You can reach him at jyodice@abqjournal.com or via X at @JamesDYodice.