The Patriots and Colts played to a 13-13 tie in the preseason opener, which means nothing on the scoreboard and, if you actually watched it, quite a bit for the back of New England's roster. With Drake Maye and most of the starters parked on the sideline, ESPN flagged five depth guys who flashed enough to move up the depth chart, and the name fantasy players actually care about is Kyle Williams.
Williams caught a contested 12-yard touchdown, complete with what beat writers called a 'killer crossover' move to shake his defender, and followed it with a crisp 25-yard comeback route that showed off the exact route-running juice New England drafted him for. He also logged reps as a gunner on special teams, which is the kind of unglamorous detail that tells you the coaching staff still trusts him to be useful even when the ball isn't coming his way.
Context matters here. Williams was the Patriots' third-round pick, No. 69 overall, out of Washington State in 2025, where he finished his final college season with 70 catches for 1,198 yards and 14 touchdowns. The translation to the NFL was rocky. He finished his rookie year with somewhere around 12 catches on 27 targets for 223 yards and three touchdowns, playing roughly 30% of New England's offensive snaps as a clear WR4, and he went catch-less in over half his games.
That's the backdrop that made this preseason snap count and this preseason touchdown worth a headline. New England didn't sit still at receiver this offseason, adding real firepower to the room, which pushes Williams further down the pecking order on paper even as his flashes keep suggesting he's better than a depth piece. It's the classic buried-talent problem: the traits are legit, the target competition is brutal.
For fantasy purposes, treat this as a stash, not a start. Dynasty rankings currently have Williams sitting in the WR75-to-WR80 range, which is deep-bench territory in anything shallower than a 2-QB or best-ball format. But those rankings were set before he went and won an offensive pass interference lecture from Mike Vrabel and a touchdown in the same series. If the Patriots trim the receiver room during roster cuts and Williams' route-running keeps translating in padded practices, that ADP is going to look cheap by September. Speculative add in dynasty leagues, priority stash in devy and best-ball once he's droppable off waivers.
The bigger fantasy story attached to this Patriots offense is still Maye, who isn't walking into 2026 as an afterthought. He's coming off a season that saw him throw for roughly 4,394 yards with 31 touchdowns against just eight interceptions, add 450 rushing yards and four more scores on the ground, and finish as runner-up for NFL MVP. Sportsbooks have him around +850-to-+1000 for MVP this season, and that offensive supporting cast getting deeper and more competitive, even at the WR4 spot, is a good problem for a quarterback that good to have.
None of the other four names ESPN flagged, K.J. Britt, Jam Miller, Behren Morton and Bradyn Swinson, move fantasy needles the way Williams does. Miller's 14-carry, 55-yard outing as a seventh-round back is worth a bookmark in deep dynasty leagues in case an injury opens a lane, but he's buying lottery tickets behind the actual backfield plan. Williams is the one name here with real touch equity already established from a rookie season, in an offense that's proven it can support elite fantasy production.
Watch the next two preseason games closely. If Williams keeps stacking targets and Vrabel keeps trusting him on special teams, that's a signal the coaching staff sees a real role, not just camp hype. If he disappears back into a rotation, this was one shiny preseason snapshot in a crowded room. Either way, he's cheap enough right now that finding out costs almost nothing.