If you were lucky enough to have at least one player from the Pittsburgh Steelers-New England Patriots game on your fantasy roster, well congratulations. That likely means, much like the Patriots, you started out the season extremely well.
A total of 49 first downs and 825 yards were had in the Patriots' 28-21 season-opening victory over Pittsburgh. Here's how it played out from a fantasy perspective:
Tom Brady, Quarterback, New England Patriots
Brady's performance will likely go down as the best for a quarterback from a fantasy perspective this week. What he did in front a national audience in the season opener was nothing short of amazing. Adding fuel for the skeptics who concluded he shouldn't have been allowed to play, Brady made the biggest difference in this one.
Touchdown passes to Rob Gronkowski of one, six and 16 yards led to a complete overall performance that saw Brady throw four touchdowns. He also added one-yard strike to Scott Chandler to cap off the night. Overall, Brady completed 25-of-32 passes for 288 yards and four scores, tallying a total of 27.62 fantasy points.
Rob Gronkowski, Tight End, New England Patriots
The Gronk is now on pace for 48 touchdowns after a trio of scores in the season opener against Pittsburgh. It was a dominating performance from a tight end that should have dominated a bad Pittsburgh Steelers pass defense. The interesting thing here is that Gronkowski caught just five passes on eight targets to accumulate the three touchdowns. His 27.40 fantasy points should be first among tight ends at the conclusion of Week 1.
Antonio Brown, Wide Receiver, Pittsburgh Steelers
In a sign of what will be things to come, Brown was targeted 11 times throughout the game, coming down with nine receptions for 133 yards and a garbage-time touchdown. With Martavis Bryant suspended for the first four games, we can see equal (or larger) target numbers moving forward.
Ben Roethlisberger, Quarterback, Pittsburgh Steelers
Midway through the third quarter, Pittsburgh had already tallied more than 300 yards with just one field goal to show for it. That was one of the biggest issues for Big Ben last season. Despite leading the league with 4,952 passing yards, he ranked fifth in fantasy points. Outside of a garbage time touchdown to Brown, Roethlisberger was kept out of the end zone on Thursday night. That's pretty amazing considering his splits — 26-of-38 passing and 351 yards — were elite. This will likely push Big Ben down to bottom end QB1 or top end QB2 numbers when all is said and done this week. An interception in the fourth quarter obviously didn't help matters.
DeAngelo Williams, Running Back, Pittsburgh Steelers
Filling in for the suspended Le'Veon Bell, Williams looked darn good in his Steelers debut. He went for 127 yards on 21 attempts for an average of six yards an attempt. And while Williams didn't find the end zone, he proved to be a solid handcuff option with Bell sidelined.