Drake Maye struggles, Jaxon Smith-Njigba eats despite Sam Darnold injury and more fantasy football takeaways from Patriots-Seahawks opener

The 2026 NFL season kicked off on Wednesday night with the defending champion Seattle Seahawks narrowly defeating the New England Patriots 13-10. There wasn’t much offense or big fantasy football performances to note, but plenty to go over that was meaningful. Yahoo analyst Matt Harmon takes you through his key takeaways from the game.

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The Patriots offense didn’t get any better

Let’s get two obvious caveats out of the way: New England was going against the best defense in football in this game and lost A.J. Brown with just under 14 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Patriots also got an inexcusably poor game from Drake Maye, littered with misfires that lacked zip downfield and a few overly aggressive deep shots. That said, I was beyond underwhelmed with their offensive plan against a defense that just obliterated them in the most recent game we watched. All throughout the postseason last year, even if you look past the play of the quarterback and the personnel around him, the design and structure of the Patriots offense had to leave you wanting. It felt all too familiar in Week 1.

The Seahawks are going to test your mettle. Mike Macdonald throws heat all game with disguises on the back end and blitzes from the front. New England’s offensive line has new players but the protection plan didn’t keep things blocked up well enough to allow the passing game to work down the field. 

Credit to Maye for finding checkdowns and getting loose on some productive scrambles. That’s a way to survive against a great team, not how you get past an elite opponent at home.

Even before Brown left the game with a high ankle sprain, my radar was up regarding his usage. Last season, the Patriots used a static X-receiver at an abnormally high rate relative to the last 12 years of wide receiver charting I’ve done for Reception Perception. Whether it was Kayshon Boutte or Kyle Williams, they just stuck in one spot and ran vertical routes. 

I was concerned heading into the season, based on camp reports, that Brown would just slide in as the X-receiver for this team and not fill a dynamic pre-snap role. Brown ran 94% of his routes outside last night. Per Sumer Sports, he ran all of his 12 routes outside from 11 personnel. Contrast that to the deployment the other No. 1 receiver in this game received and you can feel just how difficult it is for a static player to be consistently accessed in a difficult matchup. It seemed very clear to me last night that the Patriots' plan in the passing game was to essentially run everything back from a concept and design standpoint that we saw last year but just expect that they were going to be better with a talent advantage at X-receiver now in Brown. In my view, they were going to be threading a tight needle doing that, even with Brown in the lineup. Now, without him for a few weeks as he deals with a high-ankle sprain and likely diminished when he returns, I’m leaving Week 1 with big questions and serious concerns about this offense.

“The schedule” turned into a joke and ultimately, a damning punchline for the 2025 New England Patriots. Yet, the more I study the Josh McDaniels offense relative to what other top-level play-callers are doing in the modern NFL, the more I wonder if it is just something akin to a bad-team-beater that doesn’t put good defenses in nearly enough conflict. 

Jaxon Smith-Njigba loses nothing without Sam Darnold

As of right now, we don’t know how much time Sam Darnold, who left the game after just five snaps. However, he did at least avoid a hip fracture, according to Mike Macdonald. His season might not be over but I’d be shocked if he doesn’t miss some time after getting the trifecta of an X-ray, CT scan and MRI on the hip.

For at least one game, Jaxon Smith-Njigba didn’t miss a beat. The Seahawks receiver caught eight passes for 122 yards and scored a touchdown on a long catch-and-run play on 4th and 1.  

Smith-Njigba ran 14 routes from 11 personnel last night. He was in the slot for 43%, out wide for 43% and in the backfield for 14%. Moving the WR1 around and getting him favorable matchups was a key component of what Klint Kubiak brought to the table last season and that continued in Brian Fleury’s debut—particularly when it came to getting him away from Christian Gonzalez in coverage. I felt as the game went on Fleury settled in and threw several good pitches. That was a critical variable.

We also didn’t see any change in Smith-Njigba’s clear role as the target hog; not that anyone expected something different. 

While it was worth asking whether ancillary guys like Rashid Shaheed or some tight ends would see their roles expand to eat into that target share, the Week 1 data seemed to offer a resounding answer. They are all merely supporting actors in orbit around JSN.

Even if Smith-Njigba had been tackled early on his 45-yard touchdown, he would have ended up with a solid floor performance for fantasy with a backup quarterback. He turned that into a massive day because that’s what great players do. Even if we’re shaving off some of the absolute ceiling if Darnold misses time, I’m still betting on this great player in a well-designed offense that gets him plenty of layups. 

Jadarian Price is just a new Kenneth Walker III for fantasy

The rookie running back emphatically passed the eye test in his first game with the Seahawks. He looked explosive, got to the second level and got more than what was blocked for him. Price was an instant hit as a high-level outside zone runner. However, all 12 of Price’s touches came on first or second down on Wednesday night. He handled 59% of the running back carries and ran a route on 39% of the dropbacks on early downs, both team-highs. Price didn’t play a single snap on third and fourth down. George Holani was on the field for 75% of those plays and Emanuel Wilson for 17%. In the red zone, Price saw two snaps to four for Holani, who actually ran the ball twice. Frankly, the split between these two guys looked an awful lot like how Seattle treated the Kenneth Walker III and Zach Chabonnet backfield in 2025.

Last season, Walker was the RB29 in points per game with that usage, falling just behind his teammate in Charbonnet. That wouldn’t be the worst outcome for Price, who went off the board around RB25 in Yahoo APD. If you want to see the rookie beat that number, you’ll need the Seahawks’ rushing ecosystem be better than it was last season, which is possible, or just run away with the job over his teammates, which I’m skeptical of. If things remain as they were in Week 1, Price is more of a boom-or-bust flex play than an RB2. 

Seattle has the best run defense in the NFL again

Last season, the Seahawks gave up just 3.7 yards per carry on running back runs, the lowest rate in the NFL. They were the only team to stay under 4.0 with seven or fewer defenders in the box, allowed the second-fewest yards before contact per carry and the fewest yards after contact.

In the 2026 kickoff game, Seattle once again dominated the line of scrimmage. New England managed just 37 running back rush yards on 18 carries with seven or fewer defenders in the box. The Patriots averaged -0.06 yards before contact per rush on those plays.

I’m positive fantasy managers and analysts on social media took plenty of potshots at Rhamondre Stevenson last night. However, what do you want that guy to do in this situation? Everything we saw from Stevenson, usage-wise, points to him keeping this job when TreVeyon Henderson returns from injury.

As for the Seahawks, this well-designed defense and incredibly stout front looks like it will be a wrecking ball all season, once again. Rushing attacks will have to pack a lunch against this unit every week. 

Romeo Doubs is droppable in fantasy

It was a Patriots debut to forget for Romeo Doubs, who dropped what would have been one of the few explosive plays New England accessed through the air in Week 1. Maye threw an interception right after that, which proved to be a moment where the game turned.

Even before that, Doubs’ role was troubling. He was essentially a rotational player alongside Mack Hollins in the first half before Brown left in the third quarter. DeMario Douglas was the slot. Not only was this not a good sign for Doubs’ usage, but it’s a massive run/pass play tell whenever Doubs or Hollins is on the field in 11 personnel, specifically. 

All of that is just another variable in my case to worry about New England from a design standpoint on offense. My eyebrows are very raised at all of this.

As for Doubs in fantasy, he’s not a “must-drop” considering he’s likely to see a playing time bump with Brown set to miss time. Yet, his role doesn’t make much sense for his skill set as a movement Z-receiver—he played well as an outside, on-ball receiver for Green Bay last year—and as a rotation option who leaves the field too often, that’s tough to trust. My general overreaction is that fantasy value seems tough to come by from this Patriots offense, Doubs included.