For the first time since the season opener of the 2016 season, the NFL's opening game will be a Super Bowl rematch between the Patriots and Seahawks in Seattle on Wednesday night.

While the Seahawks will hold a pre-game ceremony to hang their championship banner at Lumen Field, changes on the coaching staff and roster turnover are inevitable in the NFL. The main characters are the same as in Super Bowl LX last February, like the head coaches (Mike Vrabel vs. Mike Macdonald) and starting quarterbacks (Drake Maye vs. Sam Darnold). However, a lot has changed in the seven months between games, especially on Seattle's side.

As Patriots fans grew familiar with during the dynasty years, the rest of the league poached from the Seahawks coaching staff and roster this offseason. Seattle lost its offensive coordinator, Klint Kubiak, who was replaced by first-time coordinator Brian Fleury after leaving to become the Raiders head coach. The Seahawks also had to make tough decisions about who to keep from their Super Bowl-winning roster. Although they extended the contracts of stars Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon, and Leonard Williams, Seattle had to let some talent walk.

Mainly, Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker was Kansas City's prize free-agent signing. Walker has been replaced by first-round RB Jadarian Price. Seattle also lost starting CB Riq Woolen, starting safety Coby Bryant, and rotational edge rusher Boye Mafe in free agency. The Seahawks feel they have an in-house replacement in CB Josh Jobe for Woolen and have an embarrassment of riches at edge rusher but this is what happens when you're the reigning champs – the other 31 teams chip away at your depth.

As for the Patriots, Vrabel's coaching staff remains intact from last year's run to the Super Bowl, with coordinators Josh McDaniels (offense) and Zak Kuhr (defense) returning. However, New England took a big swing by swapping top receivers Stefon Diggs and Kayshon Boutte for star WR A.J. Brown and free-agent addition Romeo Doubs, hoping the Brown-Doubs duo will elevate the offense's level of play against elite competition. The Pats also made tweaks to the offensive line and signed veteran S Kevin Byard III, who led the NFL in interceptions in 2025.

Ultimately, the Seahawks will celebrate the Super Bowl LX championship one last time in Seattle and winning the season-opener doesn't mean the Lombardi Trophy changes hands on Wednesday night. Still, the Patriots, who played arguably their worst game of the season on the biggest stage and have been hearing that they were schedule merchants in 2025, would certainly make a statement by ruining banner night in a Week 1 trip to Seattle – revenge would be a sweet way for New England to start its 2026 season.

Let's preview the chess match in a Super Bowl LX rematch between the Patriots and Seahawks at Lumen Field at 8:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday night in Seattle.

Offense Key: Have Better Answers to Seattle's Blitzes and Capitalize on Opportunities

As we all remember too well, the Seahawks defense decisively controlled the game the last time the Patriots played Seattle in Super Bowl LX back in February.

Along with forcing three second-half turnovers to put the game away, Seattle's defense held Patriots QB Drake Maye to a season-low -0.44 expected points added per drop-back with six sacks (season high) and a season-worst 52.8% pressure rate. For the MVP runner-up and the league leader in pass EPA during the regular season, the Super Bowl was an unfortunate time for New England to have its worst performance.

After rewatching the Super Bowl film, the silver lining was that the Patriots offense had several missed opportunities. Yes, it's easy to sit on my couch and say, "he's open, he's open, and he's open" when you're not standing in the pocket facing a live pass rush. But the point of the cutup above, which has over a minute of missed opportunities the Patriots can capitalize on with better execution, is that the Seahawks defense is beatable. If it were me, I'd remind Maye of these throws that he hit all year being open on tape.

That said, we can't discuss any fancy schemes that the Patriots offense can run vs. the Seahawks defense before talking about handling pressure. The bottom line for the Pats offense is that they must protect Maye better and have more answers to beat Seattle's exotic pressure schemes, or the rest becomes a moot point.

The Patriots took the loss in the Super Bowl, and frankly the entire playoffs, as a signal that their offensive line was still a work in progress. New England signed free-agent G Alijah Vera-Tucker to play left guard between LT Will Campbell and C Jared Wilson, with the 2025 third-rounder moving to his natural position. The analysis coming out of the Super Bowl centered on Macdonald's creative blitzing but five of Seattle's six sacks came from standard four-man rushes, while the Seahawks posted a 43.5% pressure rate with a four-man rush. If the Patriots don't block Seattle's pass rush better, it's hard to envision a different result.

As for the Seahawks base coverage schemes, Seattle majored in cover-three (10 drop-backs) and cover six (eight drop-backs) before spamming cover six in the fourth quarter (22 drop-backs). The Seahawks played soft quarter-quarter-half zones (cover six) with the lead in the fourth quarter, which inflated the coverage rate last February but the real game-changing downs came from their well-timed blitzes. Although they only blitzed on 13.2% of Maye's drop-backs, the Seahawks were highly effective when blitzing. Seattle's blitzes hit at an insane 85.7% pressure rate while Seattle's game-icing pick-six in the fourth quarter came on their overload nickel pressure that they ran several times. To me, beating the Seahawks pressures is more mental than physical: it was less on the blocking execution and more on not having a sound pressure plan.

For example, the Seahawks ended a promising opening drive for the Patriots by bringing their "glitch" blitz on a 3rd-and-9. At the snap, the Seahawks blitzed both S Nick Emmanwori and NCB Devon Witherspoon off the edges, successfully overloading the Pats protection (seven rushers vs. six blockers). The Seahawks seemed to know the Pats would dual-read their backs in pass protection, meaning RB Rhamondre Stevenson was reading both Emmanwori and Witherspoon to block whoever blitzes. By blitzing both DBs, the Seahawks put Stevenson in a bind (2-on-1), meaning Maye is "hot" here against a free runner.

However, TE Hunter Henry and slot WR DeMario Douglas both run vertical stems into the pressure and Witherspoon gets to Maye quickly. The offense has several ways to solve this problem but the two most straightforward are to run a better "hot" route or bring in a seventh blocker. Douglas could've sat down in front of the safety behind the blitz as a quick outlet or Maye could've changed the protection to have Henry block Witherspoon rather than releasing into his route. If they go the protection route, Maye has Douglas 1-on-1 on a safety on a deep post.

Another pressure Seattle ran successfully put the back in a bind again by overloading the B-Gap. This time, the Seahawks bring the nickel (Witherspoon) and LB Ernest Jones on a B-Gap pressure. With the Pats protection in a four-man slide to Maye's left, Stevenson is once again in a 2-on-1 situation. He can block either Jones or Witherspoon, but he can't block both, meaning Maye is "hot" if they both come. Again, the two easiest solutions: reset the protection by calling off the four-man slide to have RG Mike Onwenu block Jones (Stevenson blocks Witherspoon) or throw quickly into the void in Seattle's fire zone backside.

The themes of the Super Bowl LX rematch will be the Patriots offensive line holding up better against Seattle's front and Maye/McDaniels having better blitz beaters. From a big-picture standpoint, staying attached on the scoreboard and better early-down execution would also help mitigate Seattle's pressure. New England lost -0.26 EPA per play on first and second down in the Super Bowl (8th percentile), while its average distance to the sticks on third down was 6.5 yards, forcing them to throw on 14-of-15 third downs.

Statistically, Seattle had a great run defense last season. But the Seahawks ran the highest percentage of defensive plays in a two-high safety structure (78.4%) and averaged 6.2 defenders in the box per play in 2025 (second-fewest in the NFL). They get away with playing out of lighter initial boxes by run blitzing, penetrating gaps with stunts or slants, and rotating an extra hat into the box at the snap. Still, the Seahawks are structurally vulnerable to the run.

One of the Patriots sneaky big offseason acquisitions was signing FB Reggie Gilliam in free agency. To stay ahead of the chains, New England could put heavy personnel on the field on first and second down, using Gilliam as a lead blocker on two-back runs into Seattle's lighter boxes. Seattle had the fifth-best run defense against two-back runs (30.8% success rate), but opposing offenses had a 50 percent success rate running play-action from two-back formations in 2025 (14th in the NFL). Using their new fullback to script two-back run-actions is as good a strategy as any for the Patriots offense in this matchup.

If they want to compete with Seattle this time around, the Patriots need to play better early-down offense and handle pressure more smoothly on Wednesday night.

Defense Key: Turn Sam Darnold into a Drop-Back Passer (Eliminate Run+Boot Game)

Moving over to the other side of the ball, we already addressed the major changes to Seattle's offense, which will have a new play-caller and lead running back this season.

The Seahawks replaced Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, a finalist for Assistant Coach of the Year in 2025 (an award that went to Josh McDaniels), by hiring 49ers assistant Brian Fleury as their offensive coordinator. Fleury has been up for other coordinator vacancies as a Shanahan disciple with 14 years of NFL coaching experience, most recently serving as the tight ends/run-game coordinator in San Francisco.

Still, it's Fleury's first time as the primary play-caller and he has big shoes to fill. Kubiak had a great season calling the Seahawks offense, which finished third in points scored (28.4), 10th in DVOA, and 14th in EPA per play in 2025. As always with a new coordinator, Fleury will likely put his own twist on things and could have some growing pains as a first-timer. But the expectation is that Seattle's scheme won't change much from Kubiak and Kevin O'Connell's West Coast offense that has sparked QB Sam Darnold's career turnaround.

Although we've come a long way from "seeing ghosts" Darnold, the Patriots defense successfully shut down Seattle's drop-back passing game in the Super Bowl. Darnold only completed 46.9% of his passes (15-of-32) while losing -0.24 EPA per drop-back on traditional drop-backs. However, Darnold was much more effective in the play-action boot game, adding 0.15 EPA per play and throwing Seattle's only offensive TD.

Along with Darnold's success off play-action, former Seahawks RB Kenneth Walker won Super Bowl MVP by having a monster performance on the ground. Walker had 135 rushing yards on 27 attempts with five explosives inside Seattle's zone schemes. Walker's huge day on the ground fed into the Seahawks' play-action success, which is how Seattle landed its punches on offense. Walker is now a Chief but first-round RB Jadarian Price also has a big-play gear for Seattle to script a similar run plan.

Personnel matching was a huge part of the chess match. Seattle played 33 snaps with multiple tight ends, which the Patriots matched with 26 snaps of base defense rather than their standard three-corner nickel. On 26 snaps in base defense, the Patriots allowed +0.01 EPA per play with a 42.3% success rate. New England still allowed 4.8 yards per rush and Barner's 16-yard touchdown in the third quarter came off of play-action vs. base defense. When the Patriots were in three-corner nickel (five DBs), Seattle produced just -0.11 EPA per play with a 30.3% success rate. Simply put, the Patriots defense was winning in nickel but couldn't match the Seahawks heavy personnel in their base defense.

The run scheme that gave the Patriots defense fits was outside zone, particularly outside zone runs that either hit on the weak side or Walker bounced outside. Walker averaged 5.4 yards per rush with four runs of 10-plus yards on runs outside the tackles. Then, Seattle timed up a play-action pass off the same pre-snap motion they were using to change the strength of the formation and Barner snuck behind LB Jack Gibbens.

New England needs to find an answer to the personnel-matching problems it had in the Super Bowl, whether that's finding a more reliable base defense or perhaps a three-safety nickel package. Plus, after emphasizing it in their offseason moves (signing Dre'Mont Jones, drafting Gabe Jacas), the Patriots need to set the edge more consistently in the Super Bowl rematch.

Key Matchups

LT Will Campbell vs. Seahawks EDGEs Uchenna Nwosu & Derick Hall

The power-rushing duo combined for a sack and seven total pressures against Campbell in the Super Bowl, who was at less than 100 percent with a knee injury. The second-year left tackle is coming off a great camp where he was fully healthy and flashed a stouter anchor than what we saw last February. Given how it looked in Super Bowl LX, we'll get an immediate litmus test to see whether Campbell's physical development and technique improvements are legit. Here's an extra nugget from NextGen Stats on Campbell's splits before and after his knee injury in Week 12:

Before knee injury (Weeks 1-12): 11.1% pressure rate allowed, 3.1% quick pressure rate, 2.0% sack rate

After knee injury (Week 18-Super Bowl): 17.9% pressure rate, 6.1% quick pressure rate, 2.8% sack rate

CB Christian Gonzalez vs. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Gonzalez was arguably the best player on the field for the Patriots in the Super Bowl loss. The Pats cornerback covered JSN on 14 routes and allowed just one catch for 16 yards on three targets with a touchdown-saving PBU. Gonzalez also had an incredible leaping pass breakup covering a deep post intended for WR Rasheed Shaheed, but it was his work vs. Smith-Njigba, who led the league in receiving yards in 2025 (1,793), that really stood out. The two will square off in a marquee matchup once again.

WR DeMario Douglas vs. Seahawks SAFs Julian Love & Ty Okada

Although all eyes will be on A.J. Brown's first game as a Patriot, the matchup New England wasn't able to exploit due to protection issues was Seattle's safeties covering Douglas in the slot. Douglas was open downfield several times in Super Bowl LX, getting matched up against former Seahawks S Coby Bryant behind Seattle's blitzes. If the Pats can block it up better this time, Douglas, who had a great camp this summer, will be running free on multiple occasions.

DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer