The NFL is back, baby.

After a long offseason, we finally got our first real taste of NFL action on Wednesday night when the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots opened the season in a Super Bowl rematch. I won’t lie, it was a bit of a snoozefest in the first half, but as Seattle scratched and clawed their way back into it, it got much more entertaining.

Every media outlet has been giving you their takeaways from this game over the past 12 hours, but I’m here to change it up a bit and talk out fantasy football. Even though it was only one game, there was a lot to take away from this game in terms of fantasy.

A.J. Brown and Sam Darnold Fallout

There were two major injuries on Wednesday night. Sam Darnold exited the game after the opening drive with a hip injury and is expected to miss at least one week, if not more. It doesn’t seem severe, but it’s definitely something that could keep him out close to a month.

Not much later in the game, A.J. Brown, who the Patriots traded a 2028 first-round pick and a 2027 fifth-round pick for this offseason, suffered a high ankle sprain and is also expected to miss time. Luckily, X-rays didn’t show any fractures or breaks, but a high ankle sprain is still nasty business.

Unless you’re playing in a 2QB or Superflex league, not many people had Sam Darnold as their starting quarterback, but his injury still has a ripple effect. With Drew Lock starting, I would expect Seattle to lean into their run game (22 passes to 20 rushes when Lock was in last night). I would imagine that means Jadarian Price’s fantasy stock will shoot up until Darnold is back.

But just because Seattle is going to run the ball more doesn’t mean Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s stock is going to fall, as he proved last night. Of Lock’s 22 targets, 10 of them went to JSN, who caught eight passes for 122 yards and a score. Is JSN’s ceiling as high as when Darnold is in? No, but he’s going to get a high volume of targets with Lock. Backups tend to throw to their best receiver even more than starters do.

As for A.J. Brown’s injury, it also affects more than just himself. Drake Maye didn’t necessarily look great when Brown was on the field, but he looked even worse once Brown left the game. His security blanket was gone, and he went on to throw three picks late in the game.

You’d think with Brown’s injury that Romeo Doubs’ stock would skyrocket, but he was horrible in this game, and it appears that Mack Hollins might be the New England receiver you want to roster. He led the team with four catches for 51 yards, and even though Pittsburgh, Jacksonville, and Buffalo all have good defenses, they’re not as stingy as Seattle’s, so there will be opportunities for Hollins to show out in the coming weeks.

Sam Darnold and A.J. Brown’s injuries are going to have a ripple effect on fantasy football over the coming weeks.

Jadarian Price is the Real Deal, but…

One of the most impressive players in this game was Jadarian Price. At Notre Dame, Price didn’t play much because he was sitting behind a generational talent in Jeremiyah Love, but his talent was obvious. I mean, there’s a reason he was a first-round pick despite never touching 750 yards in college.

With Zach Charbonnet still recovering from a late-season knee injury, many expected Price to be Seattle’s RB1 to start the season, and he looked the part on Wednesday. He was far more explosive than his teammate, George Holani, averaging 5.2 yards per carry to Holani’s 3.6. But….

Seattle is going to Seattle. They absolutely love splitting their backfield. They did it with Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet, and now they’re doing it with Price and Holani. Despite Price looking like he was playing a completely different sport than Holani, Price received 10 touches to Holani’s eight.

I’m sure as the season progresses and Price gets more NFL reps under his belt, that disparity will grow, but it is clear right off the rip that Price is the better RB, but it will probably take a few more weeks before he’s out-carrying Holani 15 to 5 or something along those lines.

Don’t Worry About Rhamondre Stevenson

With TreVeyon Henderson out, a lot of people threw Rhamondre Stevenson into their lineup knowing he’d be New England’s RB1, but he didn’t look great, averaging 2.8 yards on 18 carries. He looked sluggish and didn’t have any pop, but I’m not too worried about him from a fantasy perspective.

Despite his struggles in the run game, Stevenson still scored 13.03 points, largely due to his receiving workload, where he hauled in five passes for 44 yards. Even with just 51 rushing yards, he was able to score 13+ points and will probably finish as a top-12 running back in fantasy this week.

I know some of those touches will disappear when Henderson is back on the field, but he’s also going to be a lot more efficient against future opponents. Seattle has one of, if not the best run defense in the NFL, so if you’re worried about how Stevenson looked this week, I’d hold off on hitting the panic button.