The Seattle Seahawks have got their 2026 schedule all set, starting with a Super Bowl rematch against the New England Patriots. We’ve still got training camp and preseason to get through, so a lot of the initial takes about win-loss predictions will probably look silly across the NFL, but that doesn’t stop any of us from having an opinion.
Having combed over the schedule details, these are my day-after takeaways from Thursday’s release.
The NFL and television networks believe in the Seahawks
Yes, the Seahawks have the benefit of being Super Bowl champions
and therefore they’re destined to have a lot of primetime and/or standalone nationally televised games. I’d also remind everyone that the last time the Seahawks won it all, the league made up an excuse not to give Seattle any primetime home games outside of opening night because the Seahawks were so dominant at what was then called CenturyLink Field. A defending champion only got primetime offerings, three of them on the road.
We live in a different world where there are way more national broadcasts and networks to satisfy, but lest you think the Seahawks would get shafted or ignored, the NFL went all out for Seattle. Five of their nine home games are primetime, which is remarkable.
What’s also worth noting is that the only games in which the Seahawks are eligible to be flexed out of primetime are Week 13 against the Dallas Cowboys and Week 7 versus the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s two out of six primetime games and seven standalone offerings. It’d take a catastrophic set of circumstances for either the Cowboys or Chiefs games to get bumped to Sunday afternoon.
Another way of looking at this: NFL RedZone will be my friend for eight out of a possible 17 Sundays.
The Super Bowl rematch is not the same game
The top complaint about Patriots-Seahawks being the opener over another matchup is that “we just saw this a few months ago and it sucked.” Well, I personally enjoyed the hell out of the game but I’ve got an extremely partisan view. It’s also not going to be the same game when these sides meet on Sept. 9.
Last I checked, the Patriots didn’t have Romeo Doubs, Dre’Mont Jones, Kevin Byard, Alijah Vera-Tucker, and (if a trade does happen) A.J. Brown on the roster for the Super Bowl. K’Lavon Chaisson and Anfernee Jennings are both gone, likewise Stefon Diggs and Garrett Bradbury on offense. The playoff run for the Patriots was so riddled with poor offensive line play that they signed a guard in FA and drafted Caleb Lomu in the first round.
The Seahawks aren’t the same team, either. The literal Super Bowl MVP is on another team, Coby Bryant, Boye Mafe, and Riq Woolen are all gone and two of those guys will effectively be replaced by rookies. On the plus side, Tory Horton should be back from his injury, there’s a shiny new first-round running back in the stable, but there’s also a first-time offensive coordinator and play-caller for whom our knowledge of how he’ll perform at an NFL level is minimal.
I know your memories aren’t that fleeting. Seattle won a Super Bowl 43-8 against Peyton Manning’s Broncos and the immediate rematch (albeit in Week 3) was a substantially different game but with the same victor. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking the same rosters are being trotted out. There’s still intrigue in this matchup because both rosters may not have undergone sweeping changes, but they’ve changed enough such that you shouldn’t expect the rematch to unfold the same way, even if/when the Seahawks win again.
The toughest turnaround is the Thursday night trip to Denver
For the first time in eight years, the Seahawks are playing a regular season road game at the Denver Broncos. Acclimating to the high elevation and thin air in Denver is difficult enough on a normal week, but the Seahawks have to play a home game in Week 5 against the San Francisco 49ers before a tight turnaround for Denver and one of the other top defenses in the league.
“Blah blah Bo Nix isn’t good/healthy/can’t score on Mike Macdonald” I don’t care. The Broncos should’ve been in the Super Bowl last year if Nix’s ankle didn’t snap so innocuously. It’s very likely this will be a difficult game even under normal circumstances, let alone off a short week.
Thankfully, this is Seattle’s only Sunday-Thursday stretch all season.
The AFC matchups are out of the way early
Seattle’s entire five-game slate against AFC opposition is within the first 10 weeks, which is relevant for tiebreaker purposes. If Seattle drops a game or two and it’s against the Chiefs, Broncos, Chargers, Patriots, or (yes, even the) Raiders, it’s not the end of the world. A loss to any team can be damaging in the standings, but losing to a non-conference opponent is much less hurtful for tiebreaker purposes within the NFC.
After the Week 11 bye, however? Treacherous. Three division games, two road games against the 2025 playoff field, and two NFC East home games against what should be improved Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants squads. If the NFC West is as much of a gauntlet as we think it will be, the second half of the year is going to be crucial for Seattle’s dreams of a repeat.
The schedule breaks favorably for kickoff times, cold weather games
If the Seahawks are going to play Denver in Denver, I’d rather not wait until late December. The weather should be fine in mid-October. When they play the Washington Commanders it’ll be one of just two 10 am PT kickoffs all season, and it’s in September.
The only road game that is likely to have problematic chilly, frigid, maybe snowy winter weather is Week 15 against the Philadelphia Eagles on a Saturday afternoon. I suppose there’s a chance for some wackiness with the Carolina Panthers in Week 17 but Charlotte’s climate tend to be milder.
Consecutive road games to end the regular season… again
From 1997 until 2023, the Seahawks either had their last two regular season games at home or a split of one home, one away. It’s not unusual for an NFL team to end a regular season with consecutive road games, but it’s absolutely not normal to have it happen three straight years.
Much like last year, there will be a heightened importance on the Seahawks to win the NFC West (not even get the 1-seed, per se). The prospect of playing five consecutive road games to get to the Super Bowl is nigh on impossible and never been done before for a reason. It’s probably my least favorite aspect of the schedule, but in fairness the balancing act is Seattle has five home games in six weeks from Weeks 4-9. I’d also argue that Seattle has it good by playing the AFC West in addition to avoiding any international travel for the year, so the distance traveled is shorter than usual for the ‘Hawks.
Yes, playing the Rams twice in three weeks is pretty silly
For all we know, it could be three times in four-to-six weeks when counting the playoffs. I’m not that bothered by waiting until December for the first Rams meeting, but two games so tightly packed together doesn’t seem great. It’s arguably risky if Week 18 is meaningless for at least one of these teams.
And by that, I mean the Seahawks will have clinched the division in Week 16, clinched the 1-seed in Week 17, and Week 18 will be a time to rest starters while the Rams find out that they messed up by drafting Ty Simpson in the first round.
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