In 2025, the Seahawks and Rams were arguably the best two teams in the NFL. They met three times.
In 2026, they won’t meet at all until Week 16.
The first game happens in Seattle on Christmas Day. Two weeks later, the rematch will take place at SoFi Stadium to end the regular season
By late December, who knows how both teams will look? Chances are that they’ll both be in contention. And maybe, like last year, their two games will have a direct impact not only on the NFC West title buy the No. 1 seed in the conference.
However it plays out, here’s hoping that the series, the division, and the top seed won’t come down to whether someone calls the league office to point out that a key play possibly should get a second look — in order to see whether its was a forward pass or a lateral.
Seahawks Clips
The Seahawks are the defending Super Bowl champions, but the Rams were given the most primetime games in 2026.
The Rams’ seven primetime games tied the all-time record for most primetime games. The 2025 Chiefs and the 2023 Bills also played in seven primetime games.
The Packers, Chiefs, Bills and Seahawks each have six primetime games, and the Cowboys, Eagles, Bears, Patriots and 49ers each have five primetime games.
The Vikings, Giants, Steelers, Ravens, Lions and Texans all play four primetime games. The Jaguars, Broncos, Bengals, Falcons, Panthers, Chargers and Bucs each have three, and the Colts, Saints and Browns all have one.
The Rams’ seven primetime games are:
Week 1: Thursday, Sept. 10, vs. 49ers, 8:35 p.m. ET, Netflix (Australia)
Week 2: Monday, Sept. 21, vs. Giants, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN
Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 27, at Broncos, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC
Week 5: Monday, Oct. 12, vs. Bills, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN
Week 12: Wednesday, Nov. 25, vs. Packers, 8 p.m. ET, Netflix
Week 13: Thursday, Dec. 3, vs. Chiefs, 8:15 p.m. ET, Prime
Week 16: Friday, Dec. 25, at Seahawks (Christmas), 8:15 p.m. ET, Fox
Yes, the 2026 NFL regular season opens with the same game that ended the 2025 postseason. It’ll be a Super Bowl rematch in Seattle, with the Seahawks hosting the Patriots on the night the defending champions hang a banner.
It’s an interesting choice, to say the least. The Super Bowl wasn’t close. And that was at a neutral site. In Seattle, what will happen?
The Seahawks have opened as 3.5-point favorites at DraftKings. Our guess is that will move in Seattle’s direction.
Beyond the game, the selection of the Patriots will bring into focus the Mike Vrabel-Dianna Russini situation. It will require NBC to deal with the issue, at some point during the broadcast.
It also opens the door, frankly, for a potential sit-down by Russini with Oprah (or whoever) on Tuesday, September 8.
Look at it this way. Memorial Day is coming. Things will slow down during the summer months. Labor Day lands on Monday, September 7. With the Patriots-Seahawks game only two days later, Tuesday night becomes the perfect time to attract maximum attention — and to create maximum chaos.
Russini may not decide to tell her story on the record. If she does, Tuesday, September 8, has instantly become the perfect night to do it.
Get ready to see plenty of the reigning Super Bowl champions in 2026.
The Seahawks will have six primetime games in the upcoming season, beginning with the kickoff game — a Super Bowl LX rematch between Seattle and New England on Sept. 9 on NBC.
Seattle will then have a string of three consecutive primetime games in October and November. The club will be in Denver to take on the Broncos in Week 6 on Thursday Night Football. In Week 7, the Seahawks will be at home to face the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football. And in Week 8, the club will stay at home to face the Bears on Monday Night Football.
After a bit of a break, Seattle will host Dallas in Week 13 on Monday Night Football.
Then the Seahawks will host the Rams on Christmas Day in primetime on FOX.
Of course, Seattle could also be featured in Week 18 against division-rival Los Angeles should that matchup be the most compelling in the last week of the season.
The first Monday night matchup of 2026, between the Chiefs and Broncos, was announced earlier this week.
Now we know the complete MNF schedule for the coming season.
Unlike the last few years, there are no longer simultaneous Monday night doubleheaders on ABC and ESPN.
As the network has been heavily advertising recently, Super Bowl LXI will be the first broadcast on ESPN in February from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
All games are set to kick off at 8:15 p.m. ET on Monday night.
Week 1: Broncos at Chiefs
Week 2: Giants at Rams
Week 3: Eagles at Bears
Week 4: Falcons at Saints
Week 5: Bills at Rams
Week 6: Commanders at 49ers
Week 7: Cowboys at Eagles
Week 8: Bears at Seahawks
Week 9: Bills at Vikings
Week 10: Chargers at Ravens
Week 11: Bengals at Commanders
Week 12: Panthers at Buccaneers
Week 13: Cowboys at Seahawks
Week 14: Steelers at Jaguars
Week 15: Patriots at Chiefs
Week 16: Giants at Lions
Week 17: Texans at Packers
We don’t know if Fernando Mendoza will be starting at quarterback for the Raiders in Week 1 of the regular season, but we do know who the Raiders will be playing in the first overall pick’s potential debut.
The NFL’s schedule reveal on Thursday night shows that the Raiders will host the Dolphins at 4:25 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 13. The game will be on Fox.
Mendoza will have to get the nod over Kirk Cousins in order to start for the Raiders. Offseason addition Malik Willis is expected to make his first appearance for the Dolphins. Both teams will definitely have head coaches making their offseason debut as Las Vegas hired Klint Kubiak in February and Miami hired Jeff Hafley in January.
Sunday will also feature a pair of divisional games in the late afternoon window. The Packers will visit the Vikings while the Commanders will be in Philadelphia to renew their acquaintance with the Eagles. The NFC North matchup will be on CBS while the NFC East clash will be broadcast by Fox.
The other late game on Sunday afternoon will see the Cardinals visiting the Chargers on CBS. Arizona could have Jacoby Brissett, Gardner Minshew or rookie Carson Beck at quarterback for that contest.
The 1 p.m. ET games will send the Bills to Houston for a date with the Texans while the Browns go on the road against the Jaguars. The Colts will host the Ravens, the Saints will visit the Lions, the Buccaneers will travel to Cincinnati for Dexter Lawrence’s first game as a Bengal, and the Steelers will kick off the Mike McCarthy era — with or without Aaron Rodgers — at home against the Falcons.
Previous reports revealed that the Jets will be in Tennessee and that the Bears will head to Charlotte to face the Panthers. The Jets-Titans game will be on CBS along with the Bills-Texans, Ravens-Colts and Browns-Jaguars games. All the other 1 p.m. games will be on Fox.
The entire Week 1 slate will kick off on Wednesday, September 9 with a Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl rematch in Seattle on NBC. Thursday will bring a Netflix game between the 49ers and Rams in the NFL’s first game in Melbourne and Sunday night will find the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium to meet the Giants on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. Those games were all announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal, which was also the case for the ESPN Monday night game between the Broncos and Chiefs in Kansas City.
The Rams and Seahawks played three nail-biters during the 2025 season and the NFL is banking on another one on Christmas night.
The matchup of NFC West teams will cap a three-game slate on Christmas this year. The Friday night game on December 25 will take place in Seattle and it will be broadcast by Fox.
Los Angeles won 21-19 at home last November, but lost 38-37 in overtime in Seattle later in the regular season. The final meeting between the clubs came in the NFC Championship Game and was a 31-27 Seahawks win.
Netflix will kick off the day’s games with a doubleheader that starts with the Packers visiting the Bears at 1 p.m. ET. The Bills will be in Denver at 4:30 p.m. ET in a rematch of last season’s divisional round game that the Broncos won in overtime.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Thursday, there will also be a game on Amazon Prime Video that night. The Eagles will travel to Houston to face the Texans, so all four games around the Christmas holiday will feature matchups of teams that were in the playoffs last season.
One of the most highly anticipated games of the season will take place in Week 7, according to Jordan Schultz of The Schultz Report.
That’s when the Seahawks will host Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
Mahomes is expected to be back by then after undergoing surgery to repair a torn ACL and LCL in his left knee on Dec. 15.
The Seahawks are the defending Super Bowl champions, but Mahomes has won three titles.
The Seahawks last faced the Chiefs in 2022 at Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City last traveled to Seattle in 2018 for a game the Seahawks won 38-31 on Sunday Night Football.
The reigning champions have made a few roster moves on Thursday.
Seattle announced the club has signed undrafted rookie receivers Rashad Rochelle and Trayvon Rudolph.
Rochelle started his college career at Rutgers before finishing at Indiana State. Rudolph spent four seasons at Northern Illinois before playing at Toledo in 2025.
To make room on the roster, the Seahawks waived undrafted rookie linebacker Devean Deal.
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.
