Seattle Hosts New England in a Super Bowl LX Rematch With a New Play-Caller

The 2026 NFL season kicks off Wednesday, September 9 in Seattle, where the defending champion Seahawks host the New England Patriots in a rematch of Super Bowl LX. Seattle won that game 29-13. Both teams look meaningfully different than they did in February, and the fantasy and betting implications of the opener start with a coaching change in Seattle and a trade in New England.

The game is the NFL's traditional Thursday-style kickoff moved to a Wednesday night, and it is the first of a Week 1 slate that has been unusually tightly priced across the board.

Seattle has a new voice calling plays

Klint Kubiak called the Seahawks offense during the championship season and left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Mike Macdonald replaced him with Brian Fleury after interviewing several internal candidates, and Macdonald also brought in a group of assistants with Baltimore ties, including inside linebackers coach Zachary Orr and a senior offensive assistant working with the running backs.

This is the most important unresolved variable for anyone drafting Seattle skill players. Kubiak's offense finished near the top of the league in run rate, which was a schematic choice as much as a game-script consequence. Whether Fleury keeps that identity or opens the offense up determines whether Jaxon Smith-Njigba repeats as a top-tier fantasy receiver or takes a step back on volume.

Smith-Njigba is coming off a season in which he set franchise records for receiving yards, with 1,793, and receptions, with 119, and was named AP Offensive Player of the Year. That is not a production level anyone should project to repeat exactly. But the target share underneath it was extraordinary, and a receiver who commands that kind of usage rarely falls off a cliff even when the offense changes hands.

Sam Darnold returns as the quarterback. His championship season answered the question about whether he could operate a functioning offense. It did not answer whether he can carry one without an elite defense and a top-tier run game behind him, and the coordinator change makes that a live question in Week 1.

New England has A.J. Brown now

The Patriots acquired A.J. Brown in a June trade, which gave Drake Maye the kind of alpha receiver he had never had. That is a meaningful upgrade for a young quarterback who has already shown he can play, and it is the reason New England is a more interesting Week 1 side than a team that lost the Super Bowl by 16 points would normally be.

The concern for New England is on the other side of the ball, where Seattle's defense ranks near the top of most preseason projections. Macdonald's unit is the reason the Seahawks are the consensus top fantasy defense in most rankings, and opening at home against a quarterback in his third season is exactly the environment where that unit tends to generate turnovers.

Fantasy fallout

Smith-Njigba should be treated as a WR1 with more volatility than his 2025 finish suggests. The coordinator change is a genuine risk, not a talking point. If Fleury installs a more balanced offense, JSN's target share compresses. If Fleury keeps the run-heavy identity, the target share holds but the total number of pass attempts stays modest. Either path produces a very good season. Neither obviously produces another 119-catch year.

A.J. Brown is the cleaner Week 1 start. He is the unquestioned top target on his team, he is facing a defense that will force New England into obvious passing situations, and the game script points toward volume. Brown's downside is that Seattle's secondary is genuinely good and his ceiling in this specific matchup is capped.

The Seahawks defense is the top streaming and season-long option in most formats, and Week 1 at home against a young quarterback is the best possible opening spot. Roster it if you can.

The Verdexed model take

Our model makes Seattle a moderate home favorite, slightly stronger than the market number, and projects a total in the low-to-mid 40s. The edge we see is on the under rather than the side. Two defenses this good, on a Wednesday night in a stadium with the home-crowd effect Seattle generates, in the first game of the season when offenses are traditionally behind defenses, is a combination that has historically produced fewer points than the market prices.

On the side, we lean Seattle but do not see enough separation from the market number to call it a play. The Seahawks are better than New England, and everyone knows it. Our defensive rankings put Seattle first and give the Patriots the harder path to sustaining drives.

For DFS players on a one-game slate, the model's preferred build is Smith-Njigba plus the Seattle defense, with A.J. Brown as the primary bring-back. That correlation captures both the likely game flow and the one path to a shootout.

What's next

Rosters must be down to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 30, with waiver claims settling Monday, August 31. Both of these teams will make moves that matter to fantasy, particularly at running back and in the secondary. The first official injury report of the season lands the following week and will be the first hard information anyone has had about either roster since the preseason ended.

Draft Seattle's skill players with the coordinator caveat attached, start A.J. Brown, and if you are betting the opener, the total is the market with the actual edge in it.