The Seahawks will kick off the 2026 season against the New England Patriots seven months after those two teams faced off in Super Bowl LX. Both teams have undergone some changes since Seattle's 29-13 win in Santa Clara to capture the Lombardi Trophy, but even if the Seahawks have moved on, looking ahead to this season, there will still be plenty of reminders of that Super Bowl win, most notably a championship banner unveiling prior to kickoff.

Once the pregame pageantry is over, however, both teams will be focused on starting a new season on the right foot, and there will be plenty of interesting matchups and players to keep an eye on in this opener. With that in mind, here are five things to watch when the Seahawks host the Patriots at Lumen Field on Wednesday night.

1. What does each team do differently from the previous matchup, and which team makes better adjustments?

The Seahawks and Patriots were each other's most recent opponent when it comes to games that count, having faced off in Super Bowl LX, but that doesn't mean the two teams will base their gameplan on what transpired in Santa Clara seven months ago. Both teams have new players on both sides of the ball, and in the case of the Seahawks, there is also a new offensive coordinator in Brian Fleury. Teams will have an educated guess what their opponent will do based off of past tape and play callers' tendencies, but in Week 1, a big part of having success will be the ability to adjust to what a team is doing that wasn't necessarily expected.

"First game of the year is a little tricky," Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said. "You don't want to fall in the trap of applying last year's things you see too much to what's going to happen this year. Teams grow and evolve and change, and there's different personnel on both sides. Our focus is trying to do the things that we do that our guys can go play the best they can and also try to apply as much pressure as you can as well but understanding how the game goes, there's going to be some things that we're going to be required to make adjustments in game. Inevitably there's going to be things that happen that you haven't prepared for.

"You're going to watch (the Super Bowl) and try to understand how they attack you in different ways and things that you did. You can't be all in on certain things at this point."

2. How does Jadarian Price look in his NFL debut?

Rookie running back Jadarian Price, the team's first-round pick in this year's draft, has looked every bit the part of explosive playmaker in training camp, but in part due to a minor leg injury he was working through early in camp, and in part due to the team's overall depth concerns at running back due to other injuries, he did not play in any of Seattle's preseason games.

That means Price, who is expected to help fill the void left by the free-agency departure of Kenneth Walker III, will be seeing his first game action since last season at Notre Dame when Wednesday's game kicks off.

"I'm super excited, and it's been a dream come true, and it's finally here, and it's the moment, and I've prepared my whole life for it," Price said.

Macdonald said, "Excited for JD to play. It's a big week for him; his first game and his first NFL carry at some point. That's why we practice the way we do, that's why we train the way we do, it's why we think the way we do. Take a deep breath, go stack a great play and go do it again. We're excited for it."

The Seahawks finished last season running the ball well, but it was something that took them a while to get going last season. The hope this year is that Price and others will have more success on the ground early this season running behind an offensive line that returns all five starters. With George Holani, Emanuel Wilson and other backs ready to go, Price won't be asked to carry the load on his own, but it will still be an exciting element of Wednesday's game to see how the first-round pick does in his debut.

"I'm just excited," offensive coordinator Brian Fleury said when asked if he was curious about how Price would perform in his debut. "I wouldn't say curious; I'm just excited to watch him play. I'm excited to see him get his first touch. I'm excited to see him be able to play in this atmosphere, and I think it's going to the beginning of a really good career."

3. Are there any noticeable difference in Brian Fleury's offense?

Brian Fleury, who most recently was the tight ends coach and run game coordinator for the 49ers, was hired by Mike Macdonald this offseason to take over as offensive coordinator after Klint Kubiak left for the Raiders' head coaching job. Fleury, like Kubiak, came up working under Kyle Shanahan and has deep roots in the West Coast scheme Shanahan and so many others around the league are running, so there is expected to be a lot of continuity in Seattle's offense even with a new play-caller on the sideline. That's even more true because of the continuity Seattle has, personnel-wise, on offense and with the rest of the coaching staff. But all of that being said, Fleury is still bringing his own ideas to the job, so this year's offense will not simply be a carbon copy of the one Seattle ran a year ago under Kubiak.

What will those differences be? Obviously, the Seahawks didn't show a lot in the preseason, and Fleury isn't about to advertise any wrinkles he has installed prior to the game, so we really won't get a feel for any changes in the offense until he's calling real games, starting with Wednesday's.

"I'm looking forward to it," Fleury said of calling his first regular-season game. "I've had more fun out here at practice these last two days than any of the last seven years, so I'm excited to continue this journey and get out there for the first time on Wednesday."

"It's such a great group of guys, and they have so much experience together, they all have great ownership of the offense. Being able to talk about things and how I see it and how they see it and make sure that it's all synchronized together, it's been fun."

4. What does Seattle's secondary look like?

The Seahawks head into the 2026 season feeling really good about the talent they have in their secondary, led by starting cornerbacks Devon Witherspoon, a second-team All-Pro last season and a three-time Pro Bowler, and Josh Jobe, safeties Julian Love, a one-time Pro-Bowler, and Ty Okada, and versatile safety/nickel Nick Emmanwori, a standout as a rookie whose size and athleticism gave the Seahawks flexibility to do a lot of different things on defense.

There are also some questions in the secondary, however, particularly this week due to some injuries. Okada did not practice Sunday or Monday, while Emmanwori is coming back from ankle surgery that he had before the start of camp and has been limited in practice, making his Week 1 status unclear as of Monday. They also, of course, lost second-round pick Bud Clark to a season-ending ankle injury in the preseason. The Seahawks like the depth they have at safety on their practice squad, but very well might not be at full strength at that spot.

At cornerback, meanwhile, there is still some uncertainty surrounding the No. 3 cornerback spot. Nehemiah Pritchett would appear to be the front-runner there, having stuck on the roster over Noah Igbinoghene, who ended up signing with the Browns. But there is also veteran Trevon Diggs, a former All-Pro who signed with Seattle late in camp. Diggs is on the practice squad as of now, but when he is fully up to speed, be it this week or somewhere down the road, he too will factor into that competition.

And Macdonald's willingness to use different personnel groupings to maximize the talent on the field means it's not as simple as saying the No. 3 cornerback will play a certain number of snaps. Last year, Emmanwori was the primary nickel defensive back, meaning Seattle's usual nickel look featured three safeties and two cornerbacks, while the Seahawks also used a lot of three-cornerback looks playing a lot of dime defense (six defensive backs). That only adds to the mystery around Wednesday's game. If Emmanwori doesn't play, do the Seahawks play a lot of traditional nickel with a third corner, or does a practice squad safety like D'Anthony Bell, AJ Finley or Rodney Thomas II see playing time as an extra defensive back?

And on a related note…

5. What do new receivers A.J. Brown and Romeo Doubs add to the Patriots' offense?

While the Seahawks' offseason moves were mostly focused on keeping as many players as they could from their Super Bowl-winning squad, the Patriots made a handful of big additions, including two at receiver, trading for A.J. Brown, a three-time Pro-Bowler and second-team All-Pro who has six 1,000-yard seasons in seven years with the Eagles, and signing Romeo Doubs, a three-year starter for the Packers who had a career-high 724 yards on 55 catches last season.

The Seahawks can study tape of both of those players with their previous teams to gain more understanding of what they do well, but they really won't know how the Patriots plan to utilize Brown and Doubs until the game is underway.

"That's another example of, 'Hey, there's new personnel on both sides of the ball, and you can guess all you want on how they're going to use their new players based off of what they've done in their past and how they've utilized players in their offense in years past, (but) at best that's an educated guess," Macdonald said. "We're going to have a way that we try to have an understanding of where they're going to be, and then you have to do a great job in the game of understanding how they've been utilized and how we're structuring our coverages to combat that. It's one of those examples where I don't think you have all the answers laid out in front of you going into the game."