The Seattle Seahawks are expected to open their 2026 NFL season against the New England Patriots on Sept. 9 at Lumen Field, in a Super Bowl rematch that will put the defending champions back under the brightest lights in football. Kickoff is set for 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC/Peacock, and the night will include the unveiling of the Super Bowl banner.
Jordan Schultz reported Wednesday afternoon that the Patriots will come to Seattle for the league’s first game of the season. If the matchup holds, it would mark the Seahawks’ first game on a Wednesday and the first regular-season opener between Super Bowl teams since 2016, when Denver beat Carolina 21-20 after those clubs met in the previous title game. Seattle is beginning defense of its Super Bowl title in 2026, and the opener gives the team a stage that fits that status.
The game also reaches back into recent history between the clubs. The Seahawks beat the Patriots 29-13 in the Super Bowl on Feb. 8, and the teams last met in Seattle during the 2020 season, when Seattle won 35-30 after stopping Cam Newton on a run from the 1-yard line as time expired. The Patriots have not played in Seattle since that game, and the return comes in the middle of a schedule wrinkle that pushed the opener to Wednesday because the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers are set to play the first-ever NFL regular-season game the following night in Australia.
Seattle has hosted the regular-season opener only once before, in 2014, when it beat the Green Bay Packers 36-16. That history makes the 2026 opener notable even before the opponent is confirmed, though league speculation had pointed at the Chicago Bears before the Patriots report surfaced. There was also talk that the league might avoid the matchup because of the controversy surrounding Patriots coach Mike Vrabel, but the reported pairing suggests the league chose the football and the headlines anyway.
The rest of the Seahawks’ 2026 regular-season schedule is scheduled to be unveiled Thursday at 8 p.m., which will answer the bigger question for fans in Seattle: whether the opener is the start of a favorable run or just the first difficult step in a title defense that begins in front of a national audience.
