A few things will come to the Seattle Seahawks after their dominant win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX. There will be rings. A parade will be held. Basking in championship glory will carry on for the next six months. And then comes the NFL's season opener.
Every year, the Super Bowl champion is given the chance to kick off the very next season, and this year, that means the Seahawks will be playing on the first Thursday night of the year against some team already on the list of opponents for 2026. One such team is the Kansas City Chiefs.
Given that the Seahawks will be hosting the NFL's season-opening game, that means that there are only eight possible franchises on the other side of that slate. The Chiefs are one possibility. The New England Patriots are another. But here's the list in full:
- Arizona Cardinals
- Chicago Bears
- Dallas Cowboys
- Kansas City Chiefs
- L.A. Chargers
- L.A. Rams
- New England Patriots
- New York Giants
- San Francisco 49ers
Seattle has the chance to host Kansas City in the NFL's season-opening game but that feels very unlikely.
The idea of a Chiefs-Seahawks might sound tantalizing to the NFL as an exciting game to start the season, given the sustained success of the Chiefs before the '25 campaign in recent years. However, Patrick Mahomes is facing a long offseason recovery from a torn ACL and LCL suffered in Week 15. Optimistic projections could place him under center by the time Week 1 rolls around, but that's a wild roll of the dice for a game the NFL will want to heavily promote ahead of time.
Mahomes' availability should keep the Chiefs from early primetime appearances next season, since no one in the league will want the task of selling a matchup between the defending Super Bowl champs and, say, Gardner Minshew's offense (just as one example of how things could play out). Instead, it makes more sense for the NFL's first game of the '26 season to be a potent divisional matchup—Rams versus Seahawks, anyone?—or an ascending young team potentially ready to make a statement—Caleb Williams and the Bears, perhaps.
The Chiefs have sat in the driver's seat before with the possibility of replaying a Super Bowl matchup in Week 1, but the NFL avoided that clash just last season. The Chiefs and Eagles were saved for Week 2, and instead, it was an AFC West clash in Sao Paulo, Brazil between the Chargers and Chiefs one year ago. That's why it makes more sense for expect an NFC West-centered kickoff to next season's festivities.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs will be sure to get their primetime opportunities, but fans should expect to see them those delayed with the hopes that Mahomes will be back to full strength once again.