Seahawks open the NFL season under pressure from Mahomes, Allen, Jackson and the Rams

The Seattle Seahawks will open the 2026 NFL season on Wednesday against the New England Patriots, returning to the field as defending champions and facing the team they defeated in the previous Super Bowl.

Seattle’s second championship tested a project that had been viewed as being in transition. The new season will show whether that run can continue, while the opening week immediately puts several leading AFC teams under scrutiny. The schedule includes Buffalo against Houston, Baltimore against Indianapolis and Denver against Kansas City.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs enter the campaign after missing the playoffs, an unusual setback for a franchise that dominated much of the past decade. Kansas City will host Denver in the final game of the opening week, with Mahomes still regarded as one of the league’s defining advantages.

Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson again lead Buffalo and Baltimore. The Bills lost to Denver in the divisional round last season, while the Ravens failed to reach the postseason, leaving both quarterbacks under pressure to overcome the AFC’s strongest established teams.

Las Vegas offers another major storyline. The Raiders have appointed Klint Kubiak as coach and expect veteran Kirk Cousins to start, but attention will also focus on Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman winner selected first in the latest draft after leading Indiana to the college championship. The NFL’s international expansion will begin with San Francisco against the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne, followed by Cincinnati against Atlanta at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu on Nov. 8.