Bears Remain on Whittled-Down List of Teams That Could Play Seahawks on Opening Night

We've known for almost two weeks that the Chicago Bears might play on opening night for the 2026 NFL season.

That's because the Bears are one of the Seattle Seahawks' road opponents for this coming campaign and the defending Super Bowl champs have already been confirmed to be playing on Wednesday, Sept. 9, which is opening night.

Other teams the Seahawks will host this season are the Arizona Cardinals, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots.

However, not all of those teams are in the running for the first game of Week 1, as ESPN's Mike Reiss points out.

Bears on whittled-down list of possibilities

Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson speaks at the NFL Scouting Combine at the Indiana Convention Center. — Chicago Bears coach Ben Johnson. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Reiss says the Chiefs won't be in the mix because of the injury to Patrick Mahomes, and the NFL is unlikely to put the lowly Cardinals, who are rebuilding, in that prime-time spot.

Two other opponents, the 49ers and Rams, will be in Australia in Week 1.

That leaves the Bears among five possibilities, including the Pats, Giants, Cowboys and Chargers, so the list has been whittled down.

"Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said at the NFL's annual meeting that his team won't be in that mix because of uncertainty whether quarterback Patrick Mahomes will be back from a torn ACL at that point," Reiss said. "And with the Rams and 49ers locked into a Week 1 game in Melbourne, Australia, that leaves only the Patriots, Cardinals, Cowboys, Giants, Chargers and Bears."

"Hard to imagine the league would put the rebuilding Cardinals in that spot, which further narrows the field," Reiss added.

While the favorite might be a Super Bowl rematch between the Seahawks and Patriots, Reiss wonders if the league would want that game "for another prime-time spot a bit later in the season."

We could see any of those five teams getting the nod for the first game, as all of them have plenty of appeal, but the Chargers don't have the following of the other four squads, so they might be at a disadvantage in the running.

The Bears, Patriots and Chargers each have exciting head coach-quarterback pairings, the Giants would be seeing the debut of new head coach John Harbaugh and have an exciting young signal-caller in Jaxson Dart, and the Cowboys are just a national juggernaut that will always draw ratings.

The Bears and Seahawks last squared off in 2024, when the two teams struggled their way to a 6-3 finish in a punt fest that saw Seattle come out on top.

Safe to say, a lot has changed since then and a matchup between the two teams in 2026 will be much more interesting than the previous installment.