Which Seahawks and Patriots belong in your £140m FanTeam squad: the prices, the season projections, the value per £1m and the traps, plus what to expect from them in gameweek 1.
Why the opener matters for a season game
FanTeam's Regular Game is not a one-night contest. You buy nine players for £140m, they score every week for 18 weeks, and you get two free transfers a gameweek to fix mistakes. So the question for the Seahawks and Patriots is not who scores most on Wednesday night but who is worth owning at their price for the season, and the opener happens to be the deadline: gameweek 1 locks at kick-off, 01:20 BST on Thursday, and there is no late registration.
Two rules shape everything here. The £140m cap binds hard, because the nine most expensive players on the list would cost £192.5m. And you can own at most three players from any one club, defence included. The optimiser's best legal squad projects about 2,500 points for the full £140m, which works out at roughly 18 projected points per £1m spent. That is the bar: a player above it is value, a player well below it is paying for a name.
Prices are frozen until gameweek 3, so anyone you buy now is bought at the cheapest they will be if they start well. The scoring is full PPR with four-point passing touchdowns, identical to the Statz PPR projection, which is what every number below is.
The value: Jadarian Price and the Seattle defence
Jadarian Price is the best-value player on the entire FanTeam list from this game and one of the best on the whole list. He costs £8.5m, a rookie running back price, and the Statz season projection has him at 191.6 points, which is 22.5 points per £1m and a top-three number among all backs. The reason is the depth chart: Zach Charbonnet is on the PUP list and cannot return before week five at the earliest, so Price is Seattle's lead back from the first snap, and the model gives him 7.8 carries and 2.5 catches on Wednesday night with the goal-line work to come. He belongs in every squad, and at £8.5m he pays for the expensive receiver you want elsewhere.
The Seattle defence is the model's number one D/ST for the season at 139.4 projected points, which is 13.9 per £1m at £10.0m. Defences are cheap on this list and the gap between the best and the tenth-best is a couple of points a week, so this is the slot where you pay the extra pound. New England's unit ranks eighth at £9.0m and is a fine alternative if the club limit bites.
Between them, Price and the Seattle defence use two of your three Seahawks slots. The third is the decision the rest of this piece is about.
- Jadarian Price — RB, SEA · £8.5m · 191.6 projected season points — at £8.5m — Seattle's lead back with Charbonnet on the PUP list. The best value in the game and a top-three back on the whole list by points per pound.
- Seattle Seahawks D/ST — DST, SEA · £10.0m · 139.4 projected — at £10.0m — The model's number one defence: 2.7 sacks and 0.9 interceptions a game, 20.1 points allowed. Worth the extra pound.
The quarterbacks
Drake Maye at £21.0m is the priciest player from either side and the projection justifies it: 302 season points, 17.8 a game, 14.4 points per £1m, with the rushing yards that make a quarterback's floor in PPR. He is a legitimate first-choice quarterback for a £140m squad. Sam Darnold at £17.5m projects 243, 14.3 a game and 13.9 per £1m, which is nearly the same value at a lower price; the difference is four points a week of ceiling. If you are spending big at receiver, Darnold is how you afford it. If the quarterback is your anchor, it is Maye.
For gameweek 1 specifically the model has Maye at 216 passing yards, 1.6 touchdowns and 31 on the ground, around 17 points, against a Seattle pass defence that ranked only 12th last season. Darnold projects about 13.
- Drake Maye — QB, NE · £21.0m · 302.1 projected — at £21.0m — The anchor quarterback. The rushing yards are the difference between him and the field.
- Sam Darnold — QB, SEA · £17.5m · 243.4 projected — at £17.5m — The budget version, £3.5m cheaper for four points a week. Uses a Seahawks slot.
The receivers: Brown over Smith-Njigba, and the Horton question
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the joint most expensive player on the FanTeam list at £22.0m. He is also, on the projection, the higher scorer of the two lead receivers in this game: 229.7 season points, 13.5 a game. But at that price he returns 10.4 points per £1m, and A.J. Brown at £17.5m returns 12.6 on 220.2 projected. Nine points of season projection for £4.5m is the trade, and £4.5m is the gap between a £9m tight end and a £13.5m one. Brown is the buy. Smith-Njigba is the luxury, and if you own him he should be your one Seahawks receiver, because Price and the defence take the other two slots.
Tory Horton at £10.5m is the cheap Seahawks receiver the model likes: 136.9 projected, 13.0 per £1m, third on Seattle's target tree with a real ceiling. He is listed questionable with a hamstring for Wednesday, and this is where FanTeam's safety net earns its keep: if he does not play, the game swaps him for the next Seattle receiver at his price or lower and you lose the transfer you would otherwise have burned. Buy him if the price works and let the net handle the tag. Romeo Doubs at £15.5m (148.6, 9.6 per £1m), Cooper Kupp at £14.0m (131.6, 9.4) and Rashid Shaheed at £15.0m are the receivers to leave alone: third options priced like second ones.
- A.J. Brown — WR, NE · £17.5m · 220.2 projected — at £17.5m — The Patriots' lead target on 8.4 projected looks a week. Nine season points behind Smith-Njigba for £4.5m less.
- Tory Horton — WR, SEA · £10.5m · 136.9 projected · questionable — at £10.5m — The cheap Seahawks receiver with a ceiling. The safety net covers the hamstring tag in week 1.
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba — WR, SEA · £22.0m · 229.7 projected — at £22.0m — The top scorer at the top price. Fine as your one Seahawks receiver if the rest of the squad is cheap.
Tight ends, the backs to avoid, and the trap
Hunter Henry at £15.0m projects 131.6, 8.8 per £1m, and AJ Barner at £13.5m projects 106.6, 7.9 per £1m. Neither is value against the list, where the good tight ends clear 12 per £1m, but Henry is the better of the two and the model gives him five targets a game in an offence that throws. If your squad needs a tight end from this game it is Henry; if it does not, look elsewhere.
The backs to avoid are the Patriots'. Rhamondre Stevenson costs £16.5m, nearly double Price, and projects 166.8 season points at 10.1 per £1m in a committee where the model gives him under seven carries a game. TreVeyon Henderson at £16.0m is questionable with an ankle and projected as the second back. Both are priced for the roles they had, not the roles the projection gives them.
The trap is Zach Charbonnet at £10.0m. He was Seattle's starter, the price reflects it, and he is on reserve/PUP, which means no football until week five at the earliest. FanTeam's safety net only replaces a player who plays and scores nothing; a player who is not on the active roster is simply a zero in your nine every week until you transfer him out. Do not buy him because the price looks kind.
- Hunter Henry — TE, NE · £15.0m · 131.6 projected — at £15.0m — The better tight end in the game, and a third Patriots slot if you own Maye and Brown. Not value against the list.
- Avoid: Rhamondre Stevenson — RB, NE · £16.5m · 166.8 projected — at £16.5m — Nearly twice the price of Price for 25 fewer points. A committee back at a workhorse price.
- Trap: Zach Charbonnet — RB, SEA · £10.0m · reserve/PUP, knee — at £10.0m — No games before week five. A zero in your nine, not a safety-net swap.
The verdict: how many from this game
Price and the Seattle defence, then Maye or Brown, then stop. That is three from Seattle if you add Horton or Smith-Njigba, and up to three from New England if you take Maye, Brown and Henry, but the club limit is a ceiling, not a target, and this game supplies two obvious buys and two good ones. The rest of the £140m goes where the value is across the other 30 clubs, and the FanTeam optimiser will show you the squad that scores most once you lock the players you have decided on.
For Wednesday night itself: Maye and the two lead receivers are the points, Price is the value, and the safety net makes Horton a free look at a cheap ceiling. Enter the squad before 01:20 BST, and remember your transfers bank if you do not use them.
Put it to work
- FanTeam Optimiser Every FanTeam price against the season projection. Lock Price and the Seahawks defence and it builds the other seven.
- How to play FanTeam The rules, the scoring, transfers, the wildcard and the safety net.
- Fantasy SoS Points allowed by position, gameweek by gameweek, for the transfers to come.