The reigning champions must prove their dominance as the hunted. With a nearly identical roster, Seattle faces a vengeful New England squad eager to spoil the celebration.
Winning a Super Bowl changes the standard.
And the Seattle Seahawks are about to find out how much.
Seattle opens the 2026 season Wednesday night against the New England Patriots, the same franchise it beat 29-13 in Super Bowl LX seven months ago. Only this time, there won't be a Lombardi Trophy waiting at the end of the night.
There will be something else Seattle didn't carry into that February meeting: the expectations that come with being the reigning champion.
The Seahawks enter 2026 with a completely different level of expectation attached to them. They went 14-3 last season, finished with the NFL's top scoring defense and beat San Francisco, Los Angeles and New England during their postseason run to the second championship in franchise history.
They also brought most of that championship group back.
Only five Seahawks departed in free agency during the offseason — Kenneth Walker III, Coby Bryant, Riq Woolen, Boye Mafe and Dareke Young — and only Walker and Bryant started in Super Bowl LX.
That continuity gives Seattle plenty of reason to believe another championship run is possible.
It also makes the expectations difficult to avoid.
Former Patriots safety Devin McCourty believes those expectations have shifted the pressure toward Seattle entering Wednesday's rematch.
"I think for them there was no pressure," McCourty said of New England's Super Bowl appearance. "You went out there, went to San Fran, got your butt whooped. Now you get to go back and play this team who only lost five guys."
McCourty pointed toward the attention surrounding the Los Angeles Rams after an aggressive offseason as another reason Seattle could enter Week 1 with something to prove. The Rams added Myles Garrett and brought Aaron Donald out of retirement after losing to Seattle in last season's NFC Championship Game.
For New England, McCourty sees a much different opportunity.
"You get to go just play free, see how your season is going to go, go play that opener, go have fun," he said.
It's an interesting way to frame a matchup Seattle controlled so thoroughly the last time around.
The Seahawks sacked Drake Maye six times and intercepted him twice in Super Bowl LX. New England didn't score until the fourth quarter, and Seattle walked away with the second championship in franchise history.
Mike Macdonald, however, has spent months trying to prevent that result from defining what comes next.
"We're a new team, and we have to rebecome the team that we're destined to be," Macdonald said at the NFL Annual Meeting in March.
He went even further when asked about entering 2026 as the defending champion.
"That's not a thing. We're not defending anything."
That mentality is about to receive its first real test.
New England has the revenge narrative. Seattle has the championship banner, the home crowd and much of the roster that overwhelmed the Patriots in February.
The Seahawks also have an entire season ahead of them in which every opponent knows exactly what they're capable of.
Perhaps McCourty is right that the pressure falls more heavily on Seattle on Wednesday night.
Macdonald has spent the offseason making sure his players don't see it that way.
