The Seattle Seahawks will open the 2026 NFL season against the New England Patriots, the same team they vanquished to win Super Bowl 60. Given the Super Bowl wasn’t exactly a classic from a neutral perspective, reaction has been generally underwhelming to an immediate rematch, especially when the Chicago Bears looked like a prime option for Week 1.
Well, it turns out the Bears were never really in serious contention as Seattle’s first opponent. Our friends at Windy City Gridiron have the inside scoop on the NFL’s Plan B, which may be a little surprising to come.
Windy City Gridiron has learned that if the NFL went a different direction and didn’t select the Patriots for that game, they would have selected the New York Giants. The NFL believes the Giants are a team on the rise, and with John Harbaugh coaching his first game in New York, the NFL felt that that would have been the best option after the Patriots.
In the end, the NFL decided to have the Patriots be the choice and have the Giants open at home on Sunday Night Football. That Sunday is September 13th, just two days after the 25th anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11, and the NFL felt it was best to have the Giants play at home to open the season to honor that anniversary.
An obvious angle to Seahawks vs. Giants is Mike Macdonald’s first game against his former Baltimore Ravens boss, John Harbaugh. In an alternate universe, he might have been a successor to Harbaugh in the eyes of Ravens fans, but Macdonald was hired by the Seahawks in 2024. The Ravens are probably just hopeful that new head coach Jesse Minter can be their version of Macdonald.
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I gotta admit: the Giants might have something on defense with Abdul Carter, Brian Burns, and Arvell Reese (maybe? He could be an inside backer) in their pass rushing group. Jaxson Dart against the Seahawks pass rush seems like a disaster on paper given his never-ending love of using his head as a battering ram. The Giants are ultimately not a talentless group, and the only very bad team Harbaugh has ever coached was an injury-riddled 2015 Ravens squad. It’s possible they can at least be respectable this year.
Seattle will still see the Bears in primetime in Week 8 on Monday Night Football, whereas the Giants game is just a regionally distributed 1:25 pm PT kickoff on FOX in Week 14.
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