Patriots at Seahawks Start/Sit: Lineup Calls for Tonight's NFL Kickoff

Football is back. The 2026 season kicks off tonight, Wednesday, September 9 at 8:20 p.m. ET, with a Super Bowl LX rematch: the New England Patriots visit the defending-champion Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field. If a Week 1 lineup decision is riding on this one, here are the starts, the sits, and the streamers, all built on tonight's confirmed injury report and inactives. Kickoff night is always a little chaotic, with fresh depth charts and early-season rust on both sides, so lean on confirmed roles and matchups rather than preseason hype.

Start these

A.J. Brown

A.J. Brown, WR, New England. The Patriots traded for Brown this offseason to give Drake Maye a true No. 1, and tonight is a plus spot for him. Seattle is without both starting safeties, with Ty Okada ruled out and Nick Emmanwori inactive. A depleted secondary against a motivated alpha receiver is a start-with-confidence setup.

Rhamondre Stevenson

Rhamondre Stevenson, RB, New England. The biggest Week 1 development in this game: rookie TreVeyon Henderson is out with an ankle injury. That clears the backfield for Stevenson, who steps back into the lead early-down and goal-line role with Corey Kiner and Lan Larison behind him. Start him as an RB2 or flex with a real workload bump.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR, Seattle. JSN is the unquestioned No. 1 in Seattle's passing game and he is healthy. At home, in a game the Seahawks will want to control through the air with Sam Darnold, he is a set-and-forget start.

Sit or bench

TreVeyon Henderson

TreVeyon Henderson, RB, New England. Nothing to overthink here: he is inactive tonight. If you drafted him as a rookie sleeper, you need a Week 1 replacement at running back. Hold him for later, but he cannot go in your lineup.

The Seattle backfield. This is the trap of the night. With Zach Charbonnet on PUP and Kenneth Walker gone to Kansas City, Seattle turns to rookie first-round pick Jadarian Price, who is expected to lead the committee despite not playing a single preseason snap, with George Holani handling passing downs and Emanuel Wilson for depth. A rookie lead back with no preseason reps, in a committee, on the biggest stage of the opening week is a boom-or-bust dart, not a confident start. Only fire up Price if you are desperate for a body, and treat Holani as a deep-PPR flier.

Streamers and coin-flips

• Drake Maye, QB, New England. A mobile young quarterback with a new WR1 in Brown, facing a Seattle secondary missing both starting safeties, is a genuinely appealing streamer. If you punted quarterback in your draft, he is a strong one-week play tonight.
• Sam Darnold, QB, Seattle. At home with JSN and Cooper Kupp, Darnold is a fine streamer, though New England's defense under Mike Vrabel is the question mark.
• Cooper Kupp, WR, Seattle. Kupp is healthy and in the mix, but he is the No. 2 behind JSN in a new offense, so treat him as a flex with an unproven target share rather than a lock.
• Elijah Arroyo, TE, Seattle. Only a dart in deep tight-end-premium leagues until we see the target share.

Bottom line

The night's real lineup swing is Henderson being ruled out, which turns Stevenson into a start and leaves anyone who drafted the rookie scrambling for a fill-in. Beyond that, ride your studs in Brown and Smith-Njigba, lean into the matchup where Seattle's secondary is thin, and be careful with the Seattle backfield committee. For the rest of your Week 1 calls, our Week 1 Start/Sit covers the full slate, and the backfields breakdown has the murky running back rooms. One nice thing about a Wednesday opener: the inactives are already final, so there is no game-time decision to sweat here. Lock your lineup, then check the rankings one more time before kickoff.