Football is back, with a thriller to open the season, including a replay reversal on what might have been the winning touchdown. Lots of good and bad to unpack here, but here were my major takeaways, broken down by position group.
QUARTERBACKS:
Not hard to see why these guys have combined to win four of the past six MVPs. With Patrick Mahomes, there were a couple of plays not a lot of quarterbacks can make. Obviously those who had him would have liked more than 1 touchdown pass, but he could very easily have had 3 -- goal-line drop by JuJu Smith-Schuster and another near the end zone by Isiah Pacheco. Bad interception over the middle, but in general Mahomes looked poised for a big year. Should be a lot more big plays this season than a year ago.
Lamar Jackson was a fantasy star, though it was an up-and-down night as a quarterback, with a lost fumble, a couple of wild throws, and then an absolutely brutal end-zone miss late. But he also threw what might have been the winning touchdown in the back of the end zone, but for a replay reversal after his receiver's cleat was a couple of inches too long. Biggest takeaway, well there are two. One, the offensive line suffered some offseason losses and it looked it in this game -- he was under heavy pressure all night. And two, from a fantasy perspective, it was great to get all that rushing production (16 for 122, I don't need to look it up to see that was much, much more than in recent years, but I did -- most in four seasons) but also nerve-racking. If he runs that much, no way he's making it through the season intact.
RUNNING BACKS
As everyone knows, we're Isiah Pacheco fans. Not a great outing, but he hogged the snaps and scored a goal-line touchdown which I guess some were thinking might go to Carson Steele? No. Pacheco couldn't corral a swing pass that would have probably been a touchdown. Since it went through both hands I guess it should be ruled a drop, but if you tell me that Samaje Perine (or many other running backs) would definitely have caught it, I will disagree. Pass was a little hot. Chris Collinsworth thought so! Anyhoo, the TD and overall usage in the passing game was nice, but Perine might get more of those chances going forward, we'll see. Still learning the offense.
Derrick Henry with the early touchdown, which was nice, but the blocking up front was poor and a concern that Henry played fewer snaps than Justice Hill. I understand Hill is preferred in the passing game but Henry's not a zero and he's a much, much better running back. (The game was never out of reach, so Henry getting just 7 carries after the first quarter is not a good look.) Hill needs to be rostered in PPR leagues but I think that was his busiest game of the season.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Rashee Rice and Zay Flowers were Index favorites and too early to get too excited (especially since Flowers wrecked a very nice four-leg parlay of mine), but the involvement was outstanding. Rice had a big game. Flowers saw 10 targets and ran it twice and if Lamar hadn't somehow missed him wide open in the back of the end zone on the next to last play he'd have had a 19-point day. Thumbs up on both.
Xavier Worthy turned 3 touches into 56 total yards and 2 touchdowns. That speed is clearly going to be an issue, the rushing touchdown is a play that I'd be calling pretty much every week. Played two-thirds of the snaps. Rashod Bateman turned No. 2 wideout into about the 5th target in the passing game, but props to him for a huge, leaping catch on the final drive to give Baltimore a chance.
TIGHT ENDS
Taylor Swift sure looked good, amiright? She had only 3 fewer catches than a future Hall of Fame tight end without even leaving the skybox. In general, I think Travis Kelce will be fine. Played almost every snap, was just presumably seeing a lot of defenders. There will be big games.
With Baltimore, well, I have Isaiah Likely in a couple of leagues. He was by far the biggest story in this game. I did not start him, and I don't think anyone can feel bad about not starting Baltimore's No. 2 tight end in Week 1. Or is it 1A? You may be surprised to learn that Likely actually played 6 fewer snaps than Mark Andrews last night. Because Likely had a monster night, catching 9 balls for 111 yards and a touchdown, a shoe tip away from 10 for 121 and 2 TDs. Andrews, who missed a lot of August after a car accident, had 2 passes thrown his way all night. There had been talk about an expanded role for Likely given his talent and the team's deficiency at wide receiver. But few anticipated him so severely out-targeting Andrews. Just one game, and perhaps they'll make it up to Andrews next week. But Likely isn't going away, and I believe I'll be starting the guy going forward.
MISCELLANEOUS
Justin Tucker missed a long field goal. It was 53 yards, but it's continues a trend for him of not making those longer kicks. ... Some clock mismanagement by the Ravens, particularly before the half. They got the ball at midfield with 1:50 left and all three timeouts. Not wanting to leave Kansas City time, they instead deprived themselves of a touchdown opportunity by letting the clock run down to 30 seconds before using any timeouts, and having to ultimately kick a field goal on third down. ... Both defenses looked pretty tough; some opportunism, lots of pressure. Not great fantasy numbers, but those aren't your ordinary quarterbacks. ... Ravens have a get-right game against the Raiders next week, while Kansas City hosts the Bengals. Both offenses should be good.
