2025 NFL schedule release: Predicting who the Seahawks will play in Week 1 to open the season

Normally yes, doubtful this year: Chiefs

If Patrick Mahomes didn’t tear his ACL, the Chiefs might be the favorite to be Seattle’s Week 1 opponent. Even if there was a guarantee that Mahomes would play in Week 1, his comeback game would be great theater. But there’s too much risk in scheduling the Chiefs and having one of the NFL’s premier games of the season suddenly featuring Justin Fields as the Chiefs’ starting quarterback.

Not enough juice: Chargers, Giants

The Giants are a pretty interesting team for this season, with some young talent and John Harbaugh coming aboard as coach, and the NFL loves putting its NFC East teams in prime time. But it still seems unlikely that a Giants team that was 4-13 last season would be trusted with this marquee time slot. It would also be a surprise if the Seahawks draw the Chargers, a good team that has no real rivalry with Seattle. Chargers-Seahawks might be a good game, but it would be a tougher sell.

OK, getting warmer: Patriots

Maybe the way the Super Bowl unfolded, with a fairly uncompetitive Patriots loss that provided an unmemorable game, will dissuade the NFL from booking a rematch to open this season. The NFL has had a Super Bowl rematch for the kickoff game, when the Panthers and Broncos met to begin the 2016 season. Patriots-Seahawks would be a perfectly reasonable opening game matchup, though this seems like a Week 9 or 10 Sunday night game waiting to happen.

You know why: Cowboys

The Cowboys were part of the opening game last season so you’d think the NFL would like to avoid them being on it again. But when has the NFL ever avoided putting the Cowboys in prime time? The Cowboys are an interesting team coming into the season so it wouldn’t be a bad matchup, but the mainstream appeal of Dallas would be the main reason for the NFL to pick them.

Seems like the sweet spot: Bears

This would be a fun one. The Bears won the NFC North last season and have an exciting offense led by coach Ben Johnson and quarterback Caleb Williams. They’re also a huge market, and while the NFL could save other matchups like the Rams and Patriots for a prime time game later in the season, there’s not much reason to save this for later. This would be a great way for the NFL to feature one of its foundational franchises which is in the middle of a rebirth, while also being a really intriguing football matchup between Johnson’s offense and Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald’s defense. This seems like the matchup that checks the most boxes, though the NFL has plenty of good options to choose from.