Patriots vs. Seahawks: Five must-know storylines for Wednesday's 2026 NFL Kickoff Game

Our national nightmare is over. After a 212-day break, the NFL officially returns on Wednesday night, with the New England Patriots visiting the Seattle Seahawks to kick off the 2026 season in an instant rematch of Super Bowl LX.

This is the 12th regular-season game between teams that met in the previous Super Bowl, per NFL Research, and the reigning champs are 8-3 in the previous 11 such rematches.

Last we saw these two squads on the same field, Seattle's defense and running game dominated to the tune of a 29-13 victory. Can the Patriots pull off an upset, with marquee offseason acquisition A.J. Brown in tow this time around?

Five must-know storylines

1) Have the Patriots solved their pass-pro woes?

OC Josh McDaniels has vowed that Wednesday's game will be different than Super Bowl LX, pointing the finger at himself and saying Seattle "out-everythinged" New England last time out.

It's hard to argue that point, considering the Pats were scoreless through three quarters and fell behind by 19 before they finally put points on the board. The offensive line clearly wasn't up to the challenge, with MVP runner-up Drake Maye taking 21 sacks in the playoffs, the most in a single postseason in the Super Bowl era. Six of those sacks came via the Seahawks.

New England is counting on improvement from within, given four of the five offensive linemen who started in the Super Bowl are expected to be in the starting lineup on Wednesday. Will a healthier and more seasoned Will Campbell provide better protection on the blind side? How much of a difference does the signing of OG Alijah Vera-Tucker make?

Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald coaches defense in expert mode, so we know he'll have Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy II, Uchenna Nwosu, DeMarcus Lawrence, Dante Fowler Jr. and Derick Hall ready to attack.

2) Can the Seahawks spoil A.J. Brown's Patriots debut?

There's been plenty of hype around Brown's arrival in Foxborough this offseason -- including from yours truly -- and for good reason. While his relationship with Jalen Hurts unraveled last year in Philadelphia, Brown is now reunited with Mike Vrabel, the head coach who helped the receiver blossom as his career began in Tennessee. The guy has posted 1,000-plus yards in six of his seven pro seasons and leads the NFL with 18 touchdowns on deep throws (20-plus air yds) since 2022, per Next Gen Stats.

He's the best receiver Drake Maye has been paired with, which is probably a scary thought for most defenses. I'm guessing not so much for Seattle's shutdown crew, even though roster turnover and injuries (more on those in a bit) have the potential to create some vulnerabilities in a unit that seemed impenetrable at times last season.

The matchup between Brown and Devon Witherspoon -- who was briefly the league's highest-paid cornerback after signing an extension last month -- will be fun to watch.

3) Will the freshly minted highest-paid CB shut down JSN?

Speaking of WR1-CB1 matchups, we'll see another great one when Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba -- the reigning Offensive Player of the Year -- lines up across from New England's Christian Gonzalez.

It was Gonzalez's new four-year, $135 million extension -- reportedly agreed to as of Tuesday morning -- that moved Devon Witherspoon from first to second among the league's highest-paid cornerbacks. The deal ended a months-long dispute that crescendoed with questions about whether the Pro Bowl corner would even play in the season opener.

Outside of Drake Maye, Gonzalez is the most indispensable player on the roster, and now he's being paid like it. How will he fare in his first game since his long-awaited payday? In Super Bowl LX, New England held Smith-Njigba to four catches for 27 yards (6.8 per) on 10 targets, his fewest receiving yards in an NFL game where he was targeted eight or more times.

4) Will the Seahawks be shorthanded in the secondary?

Suddenly, things are looking quite thin in the back end of the defending champions' defense. They lost S Coby Bryant and CB Riq Woolen in free agency, but the Week 1 status for two starters they are counting on in 2026 is now in question.

Nickelback Nick Emmanwori -- a key piece in Seattle's Super Bowl run last season -- has been limited in practice, which isn't a surprise as he works his way back from offseason ankle surgery. The unexpected development was the addition of S Ty Okada -- Bryant's replacement -- to the injury report with a hamstring ailment. (EDITOR'S UPDATE: Ty Okada has been ruled out of Wednesday's game.) Also, the Seahawks lost rookie S Bud Clark for the season to a broken ankle he suffered in the second preseason game. On cutdown day, Seattle traded a draft pick for an undrafted rookie -- CB Avery Smith -- to shore things up.

The 'Hawks still have the aforementioned Devon Witherspoon and trusted vets in Julian Love and Josh Jobe. Plus, Mike Macdonald's defensive front is more than capable of masking deficiencies in the back end. But if Drake Maye gets the protection to do so, the Pats passer will surely be testing this new version of Seattle's secondary down the field.

5) Is Jadarian Price ready for prime time?

Last but not least, the game's most intriguing thing to watch for fantasy football heads might be the debut of Seahawks first-round RB Jadarian Price. He was never the RB1 in college, playing in the shadow of Jeremiyah Love at Notre Dame, and folks are anxious to see how big of a workload the 'Hawks are willing to give him right off the bat.

The Athletic's Andrew Destin recently wrote that he expects Seattle to play Price on early downs and then pull him for RB George Holani in goal-line, third-down and short-yardage situations. Former Packers RB Emanuel Wilson is in the mix for carries, too. That would take a big bite out of Price's fantasy appeal, but not all RBs are ready for three-down duty from Day 1.

Super Bowl LX MVP Kenneth Walker III departed for Kansas City in free agency, while Zach Charbonnet is opening the season on the PUP list as he works his way back from the ACL tear he suffered in January. So, it's on the trio of Price, Holani and Wilson to put QB Sam Darnold in the manageable situations where he can thrive.