The Night Before Football: Patriots and Seahawks Open the 2026 NFL Season

Seven months after Super Bowl LX, New England gets an immediate shot at redemption as the champion Seahawks raise their banner in Seattle.

There is something different about the night before football.

For months, we have talked about free agency. We studied the draft. We watched training camp clips, debated depth charts, overreacted to preseason performances and tried to convince ourselves that September would eventually get here.

Now it has.

The helmets are polished. The rosters are set. Fantasy lineups are being adjusted for the hundredth time. Fans are pulling jerseys back out of closets. Across the country, 32 teams can still believe this might be their year.

On Wednesday night, the NFL finally gives us football that counts.

And the league isn’t easing us into the 2026 season.

It is giving us a Super Bowl rematch.

The New England Patriots visit the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field Wednesday, September 9, at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC, just seven months after Seattle defeated New England 29-13 in Super Bowl LX. It is the first season-opening Super Bowl rematch since Denver and Carolina met to start the 2016 season. (NFL)

Seven Months Later, They Meet Again

Before the football begins, Seattle gets its moment.

The Seahawks will unveil their Super Bowl LX championship banner in front of the 12s, putting one final exclamation point on a season that ended with the franchise’s second Lombardi Trophy. Then the celebration stops, the ball gets kicked, and the championship defense begins. (Seattle Seahawks)

Waiting on the opposite sideline will be the team Seattle denied.

For New England, nobody is going to pretend a Week 1 victory can erase a Super Bowl loss. There is only one way to settle that score, and it would require another trip deep into January and February.

But don’t underestimate what Wednesday represents.

The Patriots spent an entire offseason knowing exactly which team had ended their championship run. Now Mike Vrabel’s club doesn’t have to wait months for another opportunity. Their first measuring stick of 2026 is the champion that exposed them on the biggest stage.

And the most important player in that equation is Drake Maye.

Drake Maye Gets Another Shot

Maye’s 2025 season helped propel New England back into the championship conversation, but Seattle gave him one of his toughest nights when the stakes were highest.

In Super Bowl LX, the Seahawks sacked Maye six times and generated pressure on more than half of his dropbacks, according to Patriots.com’s film review. Seattle’s defense confused New England with Mike Macdonald’s fronts, pressure packages and coverage rotations, and the Patriots struggled to consistently protect their quarterback. (New England Patriots)

Seven months later, Maye gets the rematch.

This time, New England believes it has surrounded him with more answers.

The Patriots added A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs to the receiving corps and brought in Alijah Vera-Tucker to strengthen the offensive line. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is back, giving Maye another year in the system rather than forcing the young quarterback to start over with another offense. (New England Patriots)

Against Seattle, those additions won’t need much time to prove whether they matter.

If New England can protect Maye, Wednesday could look very different.

If it can’t, the Seahawks already have the blueprint.

Seattle Begins Life Without Its Super Bowl MVP

The Seahawks are defending champions, but this isn’t exactly the same roster that walked off the field holding the Lombardi Trophy.

The biggest departure came in the backfield.

Kenneth Walker III, the MVP of Super Bowl LX, left Seattle for Kansas City in free agency. The Seahawks will instead turn toward first-round rookie Jadarian Price, creating one of the most fascinating Week 1 debuts anywhere in the league. (New England Patriots)

Seattle also has a new offensive coordinator. Brian Fleury takes over after Klint Kubiak left to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.

The foundation, however, remains formidable.

Sam Darnold returns at quarterback. Jaxon Smith-Njigba remains the centerpiece of the passing game. Stars Devon Witherspoon and Leonard Williams remain critical pieces of Macdonald’s defense.

That’s the challenge of defending a championship. The NFL doesn’t allow teams to simply bring the same group back and run it again. Successful teams get raided for coaches. Players get paid somewhere else. Depth disappears.

Seattle’s first test will be finding out how quickly the replacements can make the championship machine operate again.

The Battle That Could Decide It: Up Front

Forget the quarterbacks for a moment.

Watch the line of scrimmage.

Seattle took control of the Super Bowl in large part because New England could not consistently handle its pass rush. Five of Seattle’s six sacks in that game came while rushing only four defenders, according to Patriots.com’s film study. (New England Patriots)

That changes everything.

If a defense can reach the quarterback without having to blitz, it can keep extra defenders in coverage, eliminate throwing windows and force an offense to methodically execute.

New England must prove its reconstructed offensive line is better.

The Patriots also need to establish something on the ground, but that task became more difficult Tuesday when running back TreVeyon Henderson was officially ruled out with an ankle injury after missing all three practices. Center Ben Brown is also out. That puts even more responsibility on veteran Rhamondre Stevenson. (New England Patriots)

Seattle has injury questions of its own. Starting safety Ty Okada is out with a hamstring injury, while Nick Emmanwori is questionable as he works back from offseason ankle surgery. (New England Patriots)

In Week 1, when timing isn’t perfect and offenses are still finding their rhythm, winning the physical battle can matter even more.

There Is No Sneaking Into This Season

Most years, contenders get at least a week or two to figure themselves out.

Not these teams.

Seattle has to raise a championship banner and immediately prove last season wasn’t the end of something but the beginning of something.

New England has to walk directly back into the stadium of the team responsible for its longest offseason.

Maye has to solve the defense that frustrated him.

Darnold has to show Seattle’s offense can remain dangerous without Walker and with a new coordinator.

Vrabel gets another crack at Macdonald.

And by the end of Wednesday night, one team will already have made the NFL’s first statement of 2026.

CrossTalk’s Key to the Game

For New England, everything starts with keeping Maye upright.

The Patriots don’t need to completely dominate Seattle’s defensive front. They simply cannot allow the Seahawks to dictate the game the way they did in February. Give Maye time to work with Brown, Doubs and the rest of his weapons, and New England has enough offensive talent to make this a four-quarter game.

For Seattle, the equation is almost the opposite.

Make Maye uncomfortable early. Get Lumen Field involved. Establish Price and the running game. Let Darnold work off manageable downs rather than asking him to win a shootout.

Whichever team controls the first 15 minutes may dictate what kind of night this becomes.

One More Sleep

That’s what makes tonight special.

There are no records yet.

No playoff standings.

No eliminated teams.

No fanbase wondering when next season starts.

Everybody is 0-0.

For one final night, every prediction can still be right and every possibility is still alive.

Tomorrow, the graphics change from projections to scores.

Tomorrow, somebody throws the first touchdown of the season. Somebody makes the first game-changing mistake. Somebody becomes the first unexpected star of 2026.

And tomorrow night in Seattle, the defending champions will raise their banner while the team they defeated watches from the opposite sideline.

Then the lights come on.

The ball goes on the tee.

And after seven long months, we get to say the four words football fans have been waiting to hear:

The NFL is back.