Once the preseason comes to a close and the calendar flips to September, Drew Lock knows all too well the reality of being an NFL backup quarterback. After months of receiving ample snaps rotating behind Sam Darnold, with the start of regular season games, those opportunities dry up to next to nothing with the starter getting the lion’s share of snaps for the Seattle Seahawks.

Relegated to scout team duty or watching from the sideline, staying prepared for the possibility of having to actually play on game day can be incredibly tricky. There’s no such thing as being able to replace or replicate live reps on the field, but yet, that’s exactly what backups such as Lock have to try to accomplish with limited practice time being fully dedicated to the starters. There’s no proven, scientific formula to do so, with each backup having his own routine during a game week to remain ready if his number is called.

But now in his eighth season, after leading the Seahawks to a thrilling 13-10 comeback win over the Patriots replacing an injured Darnold in the first quarter on Wednesday night, Lock seems to have found the right recipe in Seattle. His secret? Well, it starts and ends in the bedroom - with a dry erase marker and a whiteboard - for the player defensive tackle Jarran Reed calls “Mr. Clutch.”

“I've got one next to my bed. I'll do it at night and I'll do it in the morning,” Lock explained to reporters after the game. “That's just been my thing, being able to visualize it so when I read it out it's just there in my head. Because of the lack of reps you don't get to physically do it. I got to be able to draw it from somewhere, no pun intended, and drawing it helps me draw it from somewhere.”

SEATTLE, Wash. - Overcoming an early injury that knocked Sam Darnold out of action, the Seattle Seahawks roared back from a 10-point second half deficit to open the 2026 season with a 13-10 win over the New England Patriots.

Filling in admirably for Darnold, Drew Lock outplayed Drake Maye, completing 16 out of 22 passes for 187 yards and a 45-yard touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who finished with 122 receiving yards to kick off the new year. The trio of Julian Love, Nehemiah Pritchett, and Josh Jobe recorded fourth quarter interceptions, with the latter picking off Maye in the end zone to ice the game inside 30 seconds to play.

Diving into a wild, adversity-filled opener, here are five takeaways from a big-time win in a Super Bowl LX rematch at Lumen Field:

1. Despite Darnold scare and a slow start for the backup, Lock comes up clutch again in relief.

On the path to a Lombardi Trophy a year ago, Seattle had relatively positive fortunes on the injury front. But only a few minutes into Wednesday’s opener, that luck got twisted upside down in a heartbeat, sending a frenzied crowd into a silenced panic. Sacked by Dre’Mont Jones on third down to end the opening series, Darnold gingerly jogged off, trying to shake off the discomfort as he headed to the sideline. Only a few minutes later, he spent a brief spell in the blue injury tent before hobbling to the locker room, sending Lock in for sub duty.

Bringing a worst case scenario to life for the Seattle Seahawks as they begin their Super Bowl title defense, Sam Darnold exited the field after just one series in Wednesday’s season opener against the New England Patriots with a hip injury.

Replacing Darnold just one drive into the opener, Drew Lock took over at the 7:29 mark after the Seahawks’ defense forced a punt on their opening series.

After his first pass went for 13 yards to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Darnold uncorked an ugly incompletion and then found himself under duress on the ensuing third down. He managed to escape the initial blitzer with his eyes still scanning downfield, but as he tried to move to his left, he was dragged down by veteran defensive end Dre’Mont Jones for a drive-ending sack.

Finally beginning their march to “run it forward” after winning Super Bowl LX in February, the Seattle Seahawks will open their title defense against the same New England Patriots that they defeated in Santa Clara in a statement Week 1 Wednesday night battle at Lumen Field.

While both teams return many of the same players who played in that matchup seven months ago, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald understands that his team can’t put too much stock into what worked that night in an always unpredictable opener, especially with the changes that the Patriots have made to improve their roster over the course of the offseason.

“First game of the year is a little tricky,” Macdonald said on Saturday. “You don’t want to fall in the trap of applying last year’s things you see too much to what’s going to happen this year. Teams grow and evolve and change and there’s different personnel on both sides. Our focus is trying to do the things that we do that our guys can go play the best they can and also try to apply as much pressure as you can as well but understanding how the game goes, there’s going to be some things that we’re going to be required to make adjustments in game.”

With the Seahawks looking to start off with a win and the Patriots seeking redemption in prime time, which matchups will dictate which reigning conference champion grabs a marquee season opening victory?

The Seahawks and Patriots are set for the Super Bowl LX rematch in Seattle on Wednesday night. The Super Bowl championship banner will be raised at Lumen Field and then the two defending conference champions will do battle to kick off the 2026 regular season. The Seahawks punished the Patriots to the tune of a 29-13 victory that certainly could’ve been more lopsided.

A lot can change in an NFL offseason. The draft, free agency, and trades always create roster turnover for all 32 teams year after year. Even though these two squads were the last ones standing last season and now are kicking off the new year, much has changed. Let’s start with what is the same.

What is the Same?

The two teams return both their head coach and starting quarterback from Super Bowl LX. Drake Maye finished as the NFL MVP runner-up last year. Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is still calling plays with running backs Rhamondre Stevenson and TreVeyon Henderson. A large chunk the offensive line returns, with a few notable additions.

Sam Darnold is still slinging it to the same bevy of weapons he had late last year, including reigning Offensive Player of the Year Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Rashid Shaheed, and AJ Barner. Most notably, Seattle returns all five of their starters along the offensive line.

Now just two days away from their season opener, while the team will not make final designations until Tuesday, the odds of Nick Emmanwori being available for the Seattle Seahawks on Wednesday night remain iffy at best.

Emmanwori, who underwent ankle surgery days before the start of training camp, has been gradually ramping up activity on the field since being activated from the PUP list in mid-August. This week, he has taken another positive step forward practicing with a helmet on and partaking in more individual drills, but that may not be enough to warrant rushing him back into the lineup for the opener.

Still, as expected given the fact the team doesn’t have to announce anything until Tuesday, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald kept the door open with a coy response on Emmanwori’s status after Monday’s practice.

“Nick had his most work over the last couple of days, looks great, and he practiced limited today,” Macdonald said with a subtle smirk on his face, providing a minimal update.

Until Emmanwori has been officially ruled out, there’s always an outside shot that the second-year safety manages to suit up for Seattle. But with him still not practicing in full after missing all of training camp and the preseason, signs continue to point to the team being cautious with a long season ahead, hoping to potentially have him return in Week 2 against the Cardinals when he has had another full week of practice under his belt.

Now in his third season as head coach for the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Macdonald still has the same butterflies going into the season opener as he did when he first received the opportunity to call plays at Michigan five years ago.

Whether it can be chalked up as nerves, anxiety, excitement, or a cocktail of all three, Macdonald sees those emotions all as a natural part of the equation being a football coach and kicking off a new season. From that standpoint, as Brian Fleury prepares to call plays in a regular season game for the first time, he expects the Seahawks new offensive coordinator to experience an array of such feelings when they take on the Patriots in a Super Bowl LX rematch on Wednesday.

Not seeing that blend of fervor and apprehension as necessarily a negative thing, leaning on his own play calling debut as guidance, Macdonald would advise Fleury to embrace those emotions as they come, be confident in the process and trust the work he has put in leading up to this point, and quickly remind himself that at the end of the day, Wednesday is just another football game.

“Like with the rest of our players, [it’s about] trusting our training, trusting the preparation,” Macdonald said about Fleury’s impending debut as coordinator prior to Saturday’s practice. “I still do that. You’re always going to feel there’s whatever; is it anxiety, is it excitement? Those things are natural, it means you care, it means it matters to you. I hope our players feel that. When you do have those feelings, understand like, ‘Hey, we’re still playing a football game that we’ve prepared for and take a deep breath and go let ‘er rip and let’s rock and roll.’”

Playing the same opponent to end one season and open another isn’t completely unprecedented in the NFL, particularly in the event that the two teams who played in the previous Super Bowl just happen to have a rare out of conference matchup slated for the following regular season.

Still, when the Seattle Seahawks kick off their Super Bowl title defense against the New England Patriots, the “same” opponent that they defeated to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in Santa Clara back in February, there’s no question there will be some oddities to the rematch seven months and a full offseason in the making. Beyond playing on a Wednesday night, which has only happened five times previously in league history, including twice on Christmas, the two squads will have some notable differences personnel-wise, particularly for the visitors flying in from Foxboro.

Settling into his first game planning week of the season, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald likes the “change of pace” away from the vanilla days of the preseason in August and has certainly gone back to watch Super Bowl LX as a means for preparation for the Patriots, but he understands the unpredictable nature that always comes with season openers regardless of familiarity with opponent. No matter what, there inevitably will be developments in the game that his staff and players haven’t prepared for and need to audible on accordingly.

“First game of the year is a little tricky,” Macdonald said prior to Saturday’s practice, which replaced the typical Wednesday practice to open a game week given the unique Week 1 schedule. “You don’t want to fall in the trap of applying last year’s things you see too much to what’s going to happen this year. Teams grow and evolve and change and there’s different personnel on both sides. Our focus is trying to do the things that we do that our guys can go play the best they can and also try to apply as much pressure as you can as well but understanding how the game goes, there’s going to be some things that we’re going to be required to make adjustments in game.”

Hours before the NFL’s roster cutdown deadline arrived, Avery Smith found himself in the same position as the vast majority of undrafted rookies around the league, restlessly sitting on pins and needles hanging onto hopes of making the Los Angeles Chargers’ 53-man roster.

But Smith’s short NFL journey took an unexpected, rare detour. Rather than being informed by the Chargers that he had made the team or been cut, the former Toledo standout learned that fate had entirely different plans, taking him to the Pacific Northwest as a member of the Seahawks, indeed making a 53-man roster but with a different team than the one he had suited up for since early May.

After scrambling to gather his belongings and embark on the trip north to the Emerald City in a matter of days, Smith’s whirlwind of a week led to him donning a No. 27 uniform in his first practice as a Seahawk on Thursday, still plenty shocked to be in his new surroundings.

“I follow football, and I haven’t really heard of an undrafted free agent getting traded before the regular season,” Smith said, expressing his excitement for joining the Seahawks amid the unexpected. “So that is what surprised me.”