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Seattle Seahawks

Could Seahawks be playing internationally next season? What we know

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald celebrates with fans during a Super Bowl LX victory celebration and parade at Lumen Field on Feb. 11 in Seattle.  (Tribune News Service)
By Bob Condotta Seattle Times

INDIANAPOLIS — Will the Seahawks play an international game in 2026?

That has been an expectation around the team because they have been selected by the NFL to play internationally just twice and the odds point to the Seahawks doing it again soon.

The odds of every team having to play internationally have increased this year with the NFL set to play nine games on foreign soil. The league’s goal is to play 16 international games each year, assuring every team plays internationally once each season.

News that broke Tuesday, as the NFL scouting combine kicked off, eliminated another possibility for next season as the league announced that the Detroit Lions will play in Munich in 2026.

Detroit is not on the Seahawks’ list of opponents for the 2026 season, so that announcement rules out the Seahawks returning this year to Munich, where they played Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs in 2022.

The Seahawks won’t be playing in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia.

It was announced during Super Bowl week that the Rams will host the 49ers in Melbourne on the opening week of the season.

It had been thought that the Seahawks could have played the Rams in that game since it was thought the league would only ask West Coast teams to make that trip.

The Seahawks are expected to host a game on opening weekend as has become the custom for the Super Bowl champ, which would have conflicted with going to Australia, which will also be on the opening week of the season.

Also ruled out is Paris, with the league announcing the Saints will host that game, the first regular-season contest in that city. The Seahawks are not on New Orleans schedule this season.

Also ruled out is playing in the league’s first game Rio de Jainero. The NFL announced that the Cowboys will play in that game. ESPN reported that Dallas is giving up a home game to instead play in Rio. The Cowboys are on the Seahawks’ schedule for 2026 but as a road team, with Dallas slated to come to Lumen Field for the first time since 2020.

And also ruled out is one of the three games that will be played in London as the Jacksonville Jaguars will again serve as hosts for a game to be played at Wembley Stadium. The Seahawks are not on Jacksonville’s schedule in 2026.

Still, that leaves four other possibilities:

• There are two other games set to be played in London — slated for Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — that do not have any listed opponents.

• A game slated for Madrid, Spain — the NFL’s second straight year playing a game there — also does not have any listed opponents.

• And the 49ers have been named as the host for a game in Mexico City, the first NFL game in the city since 2022. The Seahawks are obviously on San Francisco’s schedule as a road team in 2026.

The Seahawks’ two games in the NFL’s International Series were a win over the Raiders at Wembley Stadium in 2018 and the aforementioned loss to Tampa Bay in Munich in 2022 (a game against the Bills in Toronto in 2012 was a Buffalo home game that the team decided to play there and not scheduled by the league).

The Seahawks have been awarded international marketing rights by the league in six countries — Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The granting of those rights helped fuel speculation about the Seahawks potentially playing in Australia or Germany this year. But with those off the table the wait continues.

As a reminder, here are the Seahawks’ home and road foes for 2026:

Home: Arizona, L.A. Rams, San Francisco, Chicago, New England, L.A. Chargers, Kansas City, Dallas, New York Giants.

Away: Arizona, L.A. Rams, San Francisco, Carolina, Las Vegas, Denver, Philadelphia, Washington.

With the Rams and 49ers headed to Australia to open the season, the possible opponents for the Seahawks’ home opener when they raise the Super Bowl banner are reduced to the other seven home foes for 2026.

While the league has been trickling out some details on some of the international games, and may reveal a few other games over the next month or two, the full schedule is expected to be released in May.