Report: Seahawks to open season on Wednesday, September 9
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - JANUARY 25: A general view during the NFC Championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams at Lumen Field on January 25, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
The Seattle Seahawks will open the 2026 NFL season at home on a Wednesday, September 9, according to a report from Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal.
While Thursday has traditionally been the opening night for the NFL season, a game in Melbourne, Australia between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams will be played on Thursday night instead. Seattle will continue the tradition of Super Bowl winners opening the following regular season, though it will come on a non-traditional night.
The schedule has not been released by the NFL, and the opponent for the Seahawks in the opener remains uncertain. With the 49ers-Rams game set for the following night, they're obviously ruled out. Possible opponents are the Arizona Cardinals, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, and New England Patriots.
A Super Bowl rematch with the Patriots would be a leading contender, as would Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs – assuming Mahomes has recovered from his torn ACL.
In order for the Seahawks to host their opener that night, there will need to be some changes to schedules for other Seattle teams.
The Mariners are scheduled to host the Texas Rangers at 6:40 p.m. that night, and the Sounders are set to host Sporting Kansas City at 7:30 p.m. The Seahawks and Sounders can't both use Lumen Field at the same time, so the Sounders' match would need to move venues or dates.
And the Mariners need to move their game up to either 12:40 p.m. or 1:10 p.m. to avoid conflicts with the Seahawks opener. Though the Mariners have scheduling priority, the Seahawks were willing to move a start time for their game with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last October if it had conflicted with a Mariners' playoff game against the Detroit Tigers. It would seem unlikely that the Mariners wouldn't accommodate their neighbor in such a situation.
The NFL can't play on Friday this year due to the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which banned televising games on Friday night or Saturday from the second weekend in September through the second weekend in December to give space to high school and college football.
The full NFL schedule release is generally announced in mid-May. It would be Seattle's first game played on a Wednesday night in franchise history. While Thursday-Monday games are all common, games on Tuesday or Wednesday are far rarer.
The Seahawks played on a Tuesday in 2021 due to numerous positive COVID tests on the Rams.
The Source: Information in this story came from the Wall Street Journal and FOX 13 Seattle reporting.
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