Teams head into the 2026 NFL season with plenty to prove, and none more so than Seattle, which will raise its championship banner on a Wednesday night, September 9, just the second Wednesday opener in league history, and immediately has to defend it against the exact team it dismantled seven months earlier. New England and the Seahawks will meet in the 2026 NFL Kickoff Game, marking only the third time in history that the two Super Bowl participants that closed out the previous season have opened the following campaign against each other.
The Vikings and the Chiefs did exactly that in 1970, as did the Broncos and Panthers in 2016. And since 2004, defending champions are 16-5 in season openers, and 8-3 specifically in these next-year rematches, history that offers New England little comfort.
NFL Media executive Hans Schroeder didn’t hide the thinking behind it. Schroeder pointed to last year’s Week 2 rematch between Philadelphia and Kansas City, a lopsided Super Bowl replayed early, and noted it pulled millions of viewers. The league looked at that and decided it wanted more of it, sooner. So, instead of waiting until Week 7 or Week 11 the way rematches have unfolded in years past, the NFL put Seahawks-Patriots in the opener, betting that raw revenge theater beats patience every time.
Rams Head into 2026 as the Overwhelming Favorite
But while it was the Seahawks and the Patriots who stole the show last season, and they will do the same thing in Week 1 in 2026 as well, it’s the Rams who have garnered most of the preseason hype. Their roster was already built around the offensive brilliance of reigning MVP Matthew Stafford, Puka Nacua, and Davante Adams, a trio good enough to reach the NFC Championship Game. Since then, however, they have gone shopping in a big way, completing blockbuster trades for Myles Garrett, the league’s active single-season sack record holder, and former Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie.
Sportsbooks didn’t shrug at that. Online NFL odds providers immediately shortened Los Angeles’ Super Bowl odds from +1000 to +550 within hours of the Garrett trade breaking, instantly making the Rams the only team in the league under +1000 in 2026. But while there are few questions surrounding the Lombardi favorites this summer, the same can’t be said for some of the NFL’s biggest names. Here are three teams that head into 2026 with monumental questions to answer.
New England Patriots
A year ago, this locker room was a punchline: 4-13, a coaching search that ended in Mike Vrabel, and no reasonable person projecting a turnaround. Instead, New England produced the largest year-over-year swing in league history, going 14-3 behind a Drake Maye breakout that had him in real MVP conversations by December.
Then February happened. Seattle had New England at 60 total yards through three quarters of Super Bowl LX, forced three turnovers, including a pick-six, and closed it out 29-13.
Here’s the uncomfortable footnote: Denver had to compete in the AFC title game without franchise quarterback Bo Nix, which means New England’s signature road win, slaying a top-five defense to reach the Super Bowl, came against a team playing without its best player. Was the run real, or did it peak against a compromised opponent right before the toughest team on the schedule showed up?
The front office bet real capital on the former, trading for A.J. Brown and adding Romeo Doubs and Alijah Vera-Tucker. Now a $60 million receiver has to build chemistry with a 24-year-old quarterback who watched his own Super Bowl unravel in front of the world, and do it fast, because Week 1 puts him right back across from that “Dark Side” defense that already solved him once.
Cincinnati Bengals
For three straight years, Joe Burrow, one of the five best quarterbacks alive, has watched a defense that couldn’t tackle in space drag his production into irrelevance. Cincinnati allowed more rushing yards than any team in football in 2025, Burrow missed Weeks 3 through 12, and the Bengals finished 6-11, their third straight playoff miss under Zac Taylor, who The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. has flatly called out as having no fall guy left if this season goes sideways.
So, the front office sent the tenth overall pick, real cornerstone capital, to the Giants for Dexter Lawrence, a 27-year-old coming off a down year against the run, and layered on Jonathan Allen and Boye Mafe. Is that the fix, or desperation dressed up as aggression? Burrow’s been telling people the roster finally has everything it needs. Bengals fans have three years of scar tissue telling them to wait and see.
Kansas City Chiefs
Nine straight division titles, each of them yielding a trip to the AFC Championship Game at the very least. Five Super Bowl appearances, three of them wins, and then the floor gave out. An 0-2 start, a 6-11 finish, missing the playoffs for the first time under Andy Reid, and then the actual nightmare, Week 15, Patrick Mahomes tearing his ACL and LCL in a home loss to the Chargers that ended the season on the spot.
Steve Spagnuolo is rebuilding a defense from scratch again, echoing 2022, except this time, there’s no guarantee Mahomes comes back exactly as he left. Denver and the Chargers don’t flinch anymore, either. Is there a version of 2026 where Mahomes plays all seventeen games, and Kansas City still misses the playoffs, and what would that actually say about the dynasty? Or will it be business as usual as soon as Arrowhead opens its doors to the Broncos in Week 1?
FAQs For Teams Head into the 2026 NFL
Why are the Seahawks and Patriots opening the 2026 season against each other?
The NFL wanted to capitalize on the rematch buzz seen with last year’s Eagles-Chiefs Week 2 game, so it moved this year’s Super Bowl rematch straight into the opener.
Why are the Rams the Super Bowl favorite entering 2026?
Their existing core of Stafford, Nacua, and Adams was already elite, and adding Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie via trade pushed their odds below +1000.
What’s the biggest injury storyline heading into the season?
Patrick Mahomes tearing his ACL and LCL in Week 15 of 2025, and how that recovery affects the Chiefs’ 2026 outlook, is the headline health question in the league.
Conclusion
The 2026 season opens with a rare storyline: the two most recent Super Bowl participants meeting again in Week 1, with New England looking for answers after its title-game collapse. The Rams have positioned themselves as the clear favorite through aggressive offseason moves, but plenty of contenders, from Cincinnati’s defensive overhaul to Kansas City’s post-injury uncertainty, enter the year with real doubts attached. How those questions resolve will shape the race long before the playoffs arrive.
