What We Saw: Week 1

Series Navigation

Las Vegas Raiders @ New England Patriots

Final Score: Raiders 20, Patriots 13

Writer: Griffey Geiss (@ggeiss_mlb and @ggeiss_PL on Twitter)

Some bad team Week 1 football, plain and simple. Each team allowed four sacks, nine QB hits, and at least six tackles for loss. Both QBs threw a pick, and each kicker missed a field-goal attempt (although the two misses were very different). On the Raiders’ side, QB Geno Smith looked exceptional. He’s in line to finish Week 1 with the most passing yards in the NFL. Supporting cast members Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers each had a fantastic day, too. It was a lot of poor decision-making and undisciplined football on the Patriots’ side, notably in the second half. Punting down 10 points with 4:50 left in the game? Then you get the ball back but settle for a field goal on the 26-yard line with 1:30 left? Be aggressive!

Three Up

Geno Smith — A+ day for the veteran QB. He burst onto the scene with 350+ passing yards, something he only managed to do twice all of last year, cutting up what people thought would be a new and improved Patriots defense (albeit Christian Gonzalez did not play).
Jakobi Meyers — Went from demanding a trade to leading the game in targets and receptions (third in yards). He looked like a legit fantasy WR2 option today.
Kayshon Boutte — By far and away the biggest bright spot for this Patriots team. His development and connection with Drake Maye continue to progress positively.

Three Down

Rhamondre Stevenson — Extremely inefficient day, and (I’d like to think) it was no surprise that rookie TreVeyon Henderson simply looked better.
Ashton Jeanty — Jeanty’s usage was fine; it was the efficiency that downgraded his day.
Kyle Williams — Only one target and catch on the day for the rookie. Additional pass catchers stood out more.

Las Vegas Raiders

Quarterback

Geno Smith: 24/34, 362 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT | 2 carries, 10 yards

Simply put, Smith dazzled. There’s not much else I can say that the box score doesn’t already cover. The Pats’ secondary had no answers for him, cutting up the defense left and right in various formations, looks, and on every route known to man. He was automatic, especially when targeting Meyers and Bowers.

Running Back

Ashton Jeanty: 19 carries, 38 yards, 1 TD | 2 targets, 2 receptions, 2 yards

Jeanty touched the ball a decent amount, but he didn’t really need to when Smith was casually throwing for 362 yards. The Pats’ D-line was all over the run game as well.

Ashton Jeanty's first career touchdown pic.twitter.com/hZokRv3Iu7

— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) September 7, 2025

Zamir White: 3 carries, 8 yards

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Brock Bowers: 8 targets, 5 receptions, 103 yards

What an absolute stud. Bowers led his team in receiving yards, averaging 20.6 yards per reception. There was a minor concern as he left the game with a knee injury, but all indications are that the stud second-year TE will be ready for Week 2.

This is so damn impressive from a tight end. Brock Bowers is incredible pic.twitter.com/4WPq68bV4u

— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) September 7, 2025

Jakobi Meyers: 10 targets, 8 receptions, 97 yards

A lot of people (including myself) drafted Meyers as a fringe WR3-Flex option. In fact, I sat him this week in a 10-team league. Meyers proceeded to go out and produce strong numbers in Week 1 mere days after requesting a trade. His connection with Smith looked pure. Plenty of small- and medium-yard targets for easy gains.

Tre Tucker: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 54 yards, 1 TD

He caught a massive 26-yard dot from Smith for the first touchdown of the game. He flat-out beat Jaylinn Hawkins (who unironically looked great after this play) on 3rd-and-11.

Tre Tucker breaks open for a 26 yard touchdown reception pic.twitter.com/7JVWIHq7qg

— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) September 7, 2025

Dont’e Thornton Jr.: 4 targets, 2 receptions, 45 yards

Thornton looked good with limited targets. The Raiders have high expectations for this youngster… he’s an intriguing add for any deep fantasy leagues.

Michael Mayer: 4 targets, 4 receptions, 38 yards

Mayer hauled in all four of his targets, with his longest coming in at 12 yards.

Jack Bech: 1 target, 1 reception, 23 yards

Bech caught one pass in the first quarter for a first down.

Alex Bachman: 1 target

Patriots

Quarterback

Drake Maye: 30/46, 287 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 fumble (recovered) | 4 carries, 11 yards

The 46 passing attempts are by far his career high. Maye was under a whole lot of pressure all game today — his INT came on a wobbly pass while getting absolutely drilled by three defenders in the ribs. You could make the case he should’ve just taken the sack. There was a weird fumble (video here) that Will Campbell recovered. Still not sure if he got hit or simply lost grip on the ball.

Missed Opportunities

Overthrew DeMario Douglas on what appeared to be a relatively easy first down, then overthrew him again late in the first on a contested attempt for a touchdown.
Douglas dropped an easy pass on a slant.
Missed some receivers in the second half as well, though he was under duress for a majority of those attempts.

Running Back

TreVeyon Henderson: 5 carries, 27 yards | 6 targets, 6 receptions, 24 yards

Henderson looked the part. He was electric in both the passing and running game. The only missed opportunity here was not giving him more touches. It’s clear he should be the RB1. He also returned two kicks for 43 yards.

Crafty play on 3rd and short leads to a nice gain for Tre'Veyon Henderson pic.twitter.com/caV979FwTS

— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) September 7, 2025

Rhamondre Stevenson: 7 carries, 15 yards | 3 targets, 2 receptions, 12 yards

Stevenson just looks … blah. Inefficient, slow, lazy. There isn’t any life whatsoever. Not to mention, he has little to no impact anywhere else. He can probably serve as a fine RB2 option, but my goodness, what happened?

Antonio Gibson: 1 carry, 3 yards | 1 target

Gibson’s production came on special teams, where he returned two kicks for 68 yards, including a monster 41-yarder.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Kayshon Boutte: 8 targets, 6 receptions, 103 yards

It was clear that even with some new additions, the Maye-Boutte connection stood strong. He was catching balls all over the place on a variety of routes. He led his team in yards, was T-1st in targets, and provides plenty of depth for fantasy owners. His first half was tremendous.

Hunter Henry: 8 targets, 4 receptions, 66 yards

Henry is one of the better high-floor pass catchers, especially at the TE position this year. His connection with Maye is elite dating back to last season. He may not be a big boom candidate where he goes off for 100 yards, but it’s almost certainly a guarantee that the Pats and Maye will find a way to get him involved.

Stefon Diggs: 7 targets, 6 receptions, 57 yards

Diggs was fine but didn’t showcase anything too special in his Patriots debut. Personally, I think that’s fine — frankly, when the Pats signed him, I didn’t even expect him to be ready for Week 1. With that being said, his production did start to tick up in the second half of the game (2 catches for 13 yards prior to halftime). I think this was a decent enough showing in his debut with a new squad to warrant some confidence from fantasy owners — more is on the way as Diggs gets healthier.

Kyle Williams: 1 target, 1 reception, 12 yards

Williams’ only catch came with less than a minute left in the contest.

DeMario Douglas: 7 targets, 2 receptions, -2 yards, 1 TD | 1 carry, 4 yards

Well, this is certainly one of the stat lines of all time. What in the world is this? Pop caught a nice pass from Maye on an out route for a tuddy, but did drop a very easy catch over the middle in the first quarter. One screen pass went for a big loss of yardage, hence his negative total receiving yards. Overall, it was a very mixed bag of results. I expected more.

#Patriots Demario Douglas with one of *the* statlines of all-time:

7 targets
2 receptions
-2 yards
TD

1 carry
4 yards

Lol. pic.twitter.com/oMdXMmthEq

— G.G. 📊 (@ggeiss_PL) September 7, 2025