The NFL season opens with a familiar matchup and a familiar broadcast partner: the New England Patriots, the Seattle Seahawks and NBC. This year’s Kickoff Game is a Super Bowl LX rematch, and it lands on a Wednesday night in Seattle, with the Seahawks ready to raise their championship banner before the crowd at Lumen Field.
It’s the kind of opener that comes loaded with storylines. Seattle gets the celebration.
New England gets the chance to answer for February’s loss. And yes, the whole thing still carries the feel of “Sunday Night Football” even if it’s arriving on a Wednesday.
Here’s the setup: Patriots at Seahawks, Wednesday at 8:20 p.m. ET from Lumen Field in Seattle.
NBC and Telemundo will carry the game, with streaming available on Fubo. NBC is also free over the air and available with Peacock’s premium plan.
NBC’s coverage has become part of the league’s annual reset, and this marks the third Week 1 to feature a Super Bowl rematch. The last one came in 2016, when the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers. It’s also only the second time an NFL season has opened on a Wednesday, following the Dallas Cowboys-New York Giants opener in 2012.
Mike Tirico will handle play-by-play, with Cris Collinsworth as analyst. Melissa Stark and Kaylee Hartung will report from the field, and all four were on the Super Bowl LX broadcast as well.
The pregame show, “NFL Kickoff Special,” begins at 7 p.m. ET with Maria Taylor hosting.
Devin McCourty, Mike Tomlin, Mike Florio and Jason Garrett round out the desk.
Seattle enters with the look of a team that has already proven it can do just about everything. In 2025, Mike Macdonald’s group finished No. 3 in scoring offense, No. 1 in scoring defense and earned the top seed in its conference. Even with some offseason turnover, the Seahawks still come into this opener with real back-to-back-champion energy.
The backfield has changed, though. Kenneth Walker III is gone after signing with the Kansas City Chiefs, leaving George Holani and Jadarian Price to handle the load while Zach Charbonnet recovers from knee surgery. The offense also has a new coordinator in Brian Fleury, who replaces Klint Kubiak after Kubiak took the head coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders.
Sam Darnold returns as QB1, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba is back after winning Offensive Player of the Year. He’ll draw attention everywhere he goes, which should help create space for Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed.
On the other side of the ball, Seattle’s “Dark Side” defense brings back a front and secondary built to control games. Leonard Williams and Devon Witherspoon both received contract extensions, while Derick Hall, Byron Murphy II and Ernest Jones IV are back in key roles.
Terrion Arnold will not play in Week 1 because he remains on the commissioner’s exempt list while facing kidnapping and armed robbery charges. DeMarcus Lawrence is also beginning what he says will be his final season; the 13-year veteran plans to retire after the year.
New England arrives with plenty of its own confidence after a dominant 2025, when it went 14-3 and finished second in points scored and fourth in points allowed. The offseason, though, brought no shortage of noise.
Mike Vrabel’s name got caught up in a scandal with Dianna Russini, who was then The Athletic’s NFL insider. The team also traded for A.J.
Brown in June and worked through a long contract dispute with Christian Gonzalez before giving him a record extension just days before the season began.
Vrabel and offensive play caller Josh McDaniels are still running the show. Zak Kuhr has officially moved from inside linebackers coach to defensive coordinator, and Terrell Williams is now assistant head coach after undergoing treatment for prostate cancer last season.
Drake Maye remains the centerpiece in New England. He finished just shy of the MVP race in 2025 and enters his second year with a lot more around him, including Brown and Romeo Doubs at receiver. If the passing game needs a jolt on the ground, Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson offer a strong one-two punch - though Henderson is out Wednesday with an ankle injury.
The Patriots’ defense also got a boost from two notable additions. Dre’Mont Jones should help pressure the pocket, while Kevin Byard III arrives after leading the league with seven interceptions.
This is a difficult Week 1 assignment for New England, but it’s also the kind of game that can tell you a lot right away. A win in Seattle would say plenty, both to the rest of the league and to the Patriots themselves.
The series history adds even more weight to the night. Seattle leads the regular-season matchup 11-8, and this will be New England’s first game in front of the 12s since 2012. The Patriots did visit Seattle in 2020, but the stadium was empty because of pandemic protocols.
The teams have split their two postseason meetings. Seattle won February’s Super Bowl 29-13 after building a 19-0 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Walker had 161 yards of offense and earned MVP honors, while Hall and Murphy had two sacks apiece and Julian Love and Uchenna Nwosu each intercepted a pass. Before that, Super Bowl XLIX delivered one of the great finishes, from Jermaine Kearse’s catch to Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception.
Tom Brady won MVP in New England’s 28-24 victory, the fourth title of what became a six-ring dynasty.
As for the betting line, the Seahawks are among the many home teams favored in Week 1.
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Melbourne will be the first major stage for that effort, with the two clubs set to co-host a kids AFL and NFL crossover flag football clinic. For Seattle, the move is less about a single event than about showing it is serious about planting roots abroad, using a local partner to connect with fans who may already know the sport through a different lens. [Read more 🡒]
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For Seattle, the bigger picture is not just the logo on the other sideline but the shifting cast around it. New Englands offensive line and receiving corps have both been upgraded, which gives the Patriots a better chance to stress a Seahawks defense that will have to answer some different problems this time around. However it plays out, it is the kind of opener that can tell a lot about where Seattle stands right away, and it sets up a meeting that feels less like a replay than a test of how far both teams have come. [Read more 🡒]