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The defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are entering the 2026 season with an entirely different kind of pressure.

Winning the Super Bowl is difficult. Repeating is even harder.

Seattle stunned the NFL last season by capturing the championship, and now the rest of the league has had an entire offseason to study the Seahawks. Opponents will enter games with a greater understanding of what Seattle does well and will be motivated to knock off the defending champions.

One of the biggest questions entering the season is how Seattle’s running game will look after the offseason changes to its backfield.

The Seahawks will also have to deal with the usual challenges facing defending champions: injuries, increased expectations and the difficulty of maintaining the same level of focus after reaching the top.

Their season begins against the New England Patriots on September 9, giving Seattle an immediate opportunity to show whether last year’s championship was the beginning of a new era—or simply a remarkable one-year run.