NFL Week 1 Opens With Seahawks Comeback and Early Warning Signs

The 2026 NFL season began with a result that looked simple on the scoreboard and much messier underneath it. The Seattle Seahawks rallied past the New England Patriots 13-10 in Wednesday night’s opener, overcoming the early loss of starting quarterback Sam Darnold and leaning on three fourth-quarter interceptions from a defense that again decided the game.

For New England, the loss immediately shifted attention toward Drake Maye’s decision-making after the third-year quarterback turned a 10-3 lead into a one-score defeat. For Seattle, the larger concern is Darnold’s hip injury, which forced Drew Lock into the game after only five offensive plays. Away from the opener, Pittsburgh also entered Week 1 with a contract story of its own after veteran defensive tackle Cam Heyward publicly criticized the franchise tag while the Steelers continued talks with cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

Opening night at a glance

Detail	What happened
Final score	Seahawks 13, Patriots 10
Seattle quarterback change	Sam Darnold left with a hip injury; Drew Lock finished the game
Drake Maye	23-of-33, 178 yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs
Drew Lock	16-of-22, 187 yards, 1 TD, 0 turnovers
Jaxon Smith-Njigba	8 catches, 122 yards, including a 45-yard fourth-quarter touchdown

Seattle won because its defense took over late

The defending Super Bowl champions did not get a smooth start to their title defense. Darnold was injured on Seattle’s first possession after being sacked by former Seahawks defensive lineman Dre’Mont Jones. NFL.com reported that Darnold was ruled out with a hip injury before halftime, leaving Lock to handle nearly the entire game.

Lock did enough to keep Seattle within reach, but the defense created the decisive swing. New England led 10-3 entering the fourth quarter before Maye threw interceptions on three late possessions. Nehemiah Pritchett picked off a deep ball, Julian Love jumped another route, and Josh Jobe ended New England’s final chance with an acrobatic interception in the end zone. The Associated Press game report confirmed the 13-10 final and Seattle’s three-interception fourth quarter.

Seattle’s offense still needed one explosive answer. Jaxon Smith-Njigba supplied it with a 45-yard catch-and-run touchdown that tied the game, finishing with eight catches for 122 yards. Jason Myers later kicked the go-ahead field goal after Love’s interception.

Drake Maye’s collapse is the first major Patriots question

Maye’s final stat line was not disastrous until the turnovers are isolated: 23 completions on 33 attempts, 178 yards and one touchdown. The timing of the mistakes is what made the night damaging. All three interceptions came in the fourth quarter, and each one gave Seattle a path back into a game New England had controlled for long stretches.

The final interception was the clearest example. With New England already close enough to think about a tying field goal, Maye extended a play to his right and tried to force a pass into the end zone instead of protecting the possession. Jobe stayed in bounds for the pick and ended the game. OutKick’s game report detailed all three fourth-quarter interceptions and Lock’s relief performance.

One bad quarter does not prove Maye has regressed. It does, however, make decision-making under pressure the first real issue for New England to solve after a 2025 season in which he emerged as an MVP-level quarterback and led the Patriots to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks showed in February that they could disrupt him with pressure and disguised coverage. On opening night, the method was different, but the outcome was familiar: Seattle forced him into mistakes when the game tightened.

Darnold’s hip injury may matter more than the score

For Seattle, the most important development may be the one that happened before the scoring began. Darnold completed one of two passes for 13 yards before leaving. The Seahawks’ own in-game injury update first listed him as questionable to return, and the team later ruled him out.

Lock’s 16-of-22 night for 187 yards and a touchdown showed that Seattle can survive a short-term emergency at quarterback. It does not answer how the offense would function over several weeks without Darnold. The Seahawks entered the season expecting continuity at the most important position, and any extended absence would change the way defenses approach a unit built around Smith-Njigba, the run game and a championship-caliber defense.

Pittsburgh enters Week 1 with a different kind of pressure

While Seattle and New England were settling the first game on the field, the Steelers were dealing with a player-control issue before their opener against Atlanta. Heyward, a longtime Pittsburgh defensive leader and a member of the NFL Players Association executive committee, called the franchise tag “stupid” while discussing the possibility that the Steelers could use it on Porter if the sides do not reach a long-term agreement.

The Associated Press report carried by FOX Sports quoted Heyward saying the tag “hampers players” and questioning why a team should be able to control a player for another year after the contract ends. The 2026 franchise-tag figure for cornerbacks is just over $21 million, according to the same AP report.

The immediate issue is Porter, who is entering the final year of his rookie deal. Pittsburgh traditionally stops negotiating once the regular season begins, which gives both sides a narrow window to finish an extension. Heyward’s comments turn a local contract negotiation into a broader labor question that will remain relevant well beyond Week 1.

What the opener actually tells us about Week 1

The temptation after the first game of a season is to treat every result as a trend. The better reading is narrower. Seattle’s defense still has the ability to decide close games. Lock proved he can stabilize the offense in an emergency. Maye showed that the Patriots still have work to do when defenses force him off his preferred reads. None of those conclusions requires pretending one night has settled the season.

Week 1 is also unusually spread out in 2026. The NFL’s official schedule opened with the rare Wednesday Seahawks-Patriots game and continues across Thursday, Sunday and Monday. That makes the Seattle result the first data point, not the final verdict, on a weekend that will introduce new coaches, new lineups and new pressure points across the league.

Conclusion

Seattle is 1-0 because its defense rescued a night that could easily have turned into an upset loss. New England is 0-1 because three late decisions by Maye outweighed three quarters of mostly controlled football. The next update that matters most is Darnold’s health, while the next off-field deadline worth watching is Pittsburgh’s effort to resolve Porter’s contract before its season begins. Week 1 has barely started, but the first game already produced the two things the NFL rarely lacks: immediate consequences and new questions.