Seventeen weeks from tonight, the 2026 NFL season will begin. It will reportedly begin the same way the 2025 NFL season ended.
Jordan Schultz reports that the Seahawks will host the Patriots on Wednesday, September 9. It will be the first game of the next regular season.
If the report is accurate, it’ll be the first Week 1 Super Bowl rematch in a decade. The 2016 season began with an immediate rematch of Super Bowl 50, which the Broncos won over the Panthers. Denver won the second game, 21-20, thanks to a missed 50-yard field goal from Carolina kicker Graham Gano in the final 10 seconds of the game.
Seattle won Super Bowl LX. The game didn’t seem nearly as close as the 29-13 final score would suggest. It felt, frankly, like a 1970s-style Super Bowl suffocation; if they had played 10 times, the Patriots likely wouldn’t have won once.
Now, the Patriots will reportedly get an immediate chance to do it again. And not at a neutral site, but in Seattle. On the night the Seahawks hang a banner, a ritual the Patriots know very well.
Given that five of Seattle’s nine home opponents for 2026 have already been committed elsewhere for Week 1 (49ers, Rams, Giants, Cowboys, Chiefs), only four options remain for Week 1: the Cardinals, Chargers, Bears, and Patriots. The official announcement of the opening game will come by 8:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night.
