As was speculated upon last week, the New England Patriots will open up defense of their 2016 Super Bowl Championship by hosting the Kansas City Chiefs at Gillette Stadium in Week 1.
The game will likely be played on Thursday night, as the Super Bowl Champ has opened up on Thursday every year since 2004 (except for one Wednesday).
The Chiefs make perfect sense when you consider the NFL got grief last year from the Carolina Panthers (the SB loser) about opening up with a Super Bowl rematch with the Broncos.
The Patriots will open the regular season at home against the Chiefs, per source.
— Jeff Howe (@jeffphowe) April 20, 2017
So that’s why the league will elect not to go with the Falcons for the opener for New England. The Texans don’t make much sense because the game won’t be as competitive. The divisional opponents don’t make sense as the league doesn’t usually do that, either, and the Chargers and Panthers won’t be as intriguing as the Chiefs.
The full NFL schedule gets released tonight on ESPN.
