In the weeks leading up to the release of the 2026 NFL schedule, debate raged about who the Seattle Seahawks would kick off the season against in Week 1.
The NFL traditionally assigns the reigning Super Bowl champion to host the first game of the following season. With the game in Seattle, the Seahawks were going to face one of the nine opponents on their 2026 home schedule: The Rams, Cardinals, 49ers, Cowboys, Giants, Bears, Chiefs, Chargers or Patriots.
With the Rams and 49ers playing in Australia in Week 1, those two teams were out.
The NFL usually tries to start the season with a big showdown, so the Bears and Patriots were trendy projections for the opener. The NFL considered three teams, and New England and Chicago both made the cut, but there was also a surprise third candidate the league considered for the opener before settling on the Patriots.
When you look at Seattle’s schedule, the Cowboys might have made sense (because they’re a national brand) or even the Chargers (because they were coming off a playoff appearance), but L.A and Dallas were not the surprise third team.
The mystery third team under consideration for the opener was the New York Giants.
Mike North, the NFL’s vice president of broadcast planning, revealed that information this week during an interview on “The Schrager Hour.” Apparently, the NFL liked the idea of sending John Harbaugh to Seattle for his first game as the Giants’ coach.
“We absolutely looked at the Giants,” North reported.
The matchup would have pitted Harbaugh against Seattle’s Mike Macdonald, who coached under Harbaugh for nine seasons in Baltimore, including two as his defensive coordinator (2022-23).
“We talked about Giants-Seahawks for a minute,” North reported. “Once they signed [Harbaugh], never more interesting than Week 1. I’m sure the Giants wouldn’t have minded getting that long trip out of the way. Plus, remember [the game] moves to Wednesday now, so you get 11 days on the back end.”
The Giants are coming off a 4-13 season, but host Peter Schrager and North both mentioned that the team has a track record of success in Seattle with two wins at Lumen Field since 2020.
One team that was never really in consideration for the opener was Kansas City. At the NFL’s annual league meeting in March, Chiefs owner Clark Hunt reported his team wouldn’t play the Seahawks in the opener. With Patrick Mahomes coming off an ACL injury, it didn’t make sense to put the game in Week 1, a sentiment North echoed this week.
“For like half a heartbeat, we thought about Kansas City, but not sure that was the right use and didn’t really know enough about [Mahomes] rehab at the time,” North reported.
The NFL put the Chiefs-Seahawks game on Sunday night in Week 7. As for the Giants, they didn’t get the Wednesday night opener in Week 1, but they did land a home opener against the Cowboys on the first Sunday night of the season.
“It kind of came down to Chicago and New England,” North reported. “Honestly, I know there’s a lot of stories and a lot of talk about New England, but that’s not why we did it, but that’s also why we didn’t run away from it. This was about the play on the field. These are two teams that went to the Super Bowl. They’ve earned this spotlight. I know New England wants another shot at them. I know they feel like they can play better than they did in February.”
Instead of playing the Seahawks in Week 1, the Bears travel to Seattle in Week 8. Putting the Seahawks-Patriots game that late on the schedule wouldn’t have made much sense, which is one reason why it landed in Week 1, according to North.
“If it’s Patriots-Seahawks in Week 8, then it’s no longer a Super Bowl rematch,” North reported. “Now, it’s ‘here’s what their seasons are this year.'”
In 2024, the NFL scheduled a Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl rematch for Week 7, but the 49ers were 3-3 at that point, which took some of the luster out of the matchup.
North also revealed why the NFL decided not to play a Black Friday doubleheader this year. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell mentioned that a second Black Friday game might happen, but the league decided to hold either a Thanksgiving Eve game or a second Black Friday game, not both.
