Who Will New England Patriots Play to Open 2017 NFL Season?
The New England Patriots will be playing in the 2017 NFL Kickoff Game as Super Bowl champs, but who will they face to start next season?
Through roughly 35 minutes of Super Bowl 51, it looked like New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady would fall short of ring No. 5. The Atlanta Falcons were ahead 28-3 and seemed destined for a huge upset victory with emphasis. However, Brady and the Pats stormed back for a monstrous comeback to force the first-ever overtime in Super Bowl history. From there, it was all New England.
Many NFL fans will groan, but the New England Patriots are Super Bowl Champions once again. Though it’s not the case, that feels like it’s been the answer after every season for near two decades now. Brady and Bill Belichick are the heart of a dynasty out of Foxboro. Perhaps the scariest part of all, though, is that the dynasty isn’t stopping anytime soon.
Brady plans to return next year and, as he’s said before, play until he’s well in his 40s. At 39 years old, that means several more years of wreaking havoc on the rest of the league. For now, though, he’s likely to return for the 2017 NFL season and likely to continue dominating. As the defending champs, though, he and the Patriots will open the season with the 2017 NFL Kickoff Game.
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That’s the annual tradition in the league, but now the question is who the Patriots will play in that game. They know who they will play at home and who they will play on the road next season, but full schedules have not yet been released. However, we can certainly speculate as to the answer.
For starters, it’s almost surely going to be a game at home in Gillette Stadium. Subsequently, that leaves the Patriots games against the Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins, New York Jets, Kansas City Chiefs, Los Angeles Chargers, Carolina Panthers, Houston Texans, and then the Falcons as possibilities.
Though the Chiefs would be a great matchup and while the Texans or Panthers could be as well, it feels inevitable that it will be the Falcons. A rematch of one of the best Super Bowls of all-time in the season opener for 2017 seems too juicy for ratings for the NFL to pass up.
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We’ll find out with certainty if this is the case. However, the expectation should definitely be to expect to see Atlanta Falcons vs. New England Patriots: Round 2 in the 2017 NFL Kickoff Game in September.