There is a singular message relayed this time every season by the Madman: Do not panic.

Week 1 of the NFL season always produces some surprising results, some of which become trends, then norms, and others that serve as weird outliers that rarely or never are to be repeated.

And the same holds true this season. Only … well, there’s a backfield or two that is causing us to, we’re not saying “panic,” but we’re waving our arms and screaming like banshees while sweating profusely. So call it what you will.

Rams: We knew there was a risk of Cam Akers splitting the workload with teammate Darrell Henderson Jr. What we didn’t expect was for Henderson to dominate the volume — with 13 carries to Akers’ three.

When Akers did get an opportunity, he did zero with it. Literally. His three carries totaled zero yards. Henderson had an unimpressive 47 rushing, but even that was 3.6 per carry more than Akers.

So fantasy managers need two things to happen: Akers has to start performing better. And he has to start getting a decent amount of work. Until clues of those events appear, keep Akers on your bench.

Texans: Any time you have an RB on a bad offense, there is a degree of distrust every week. So a rushing day in which Dameon Pierce went for just 33 yards on 11 carries (one catch for 6 yards) isn’t a huge surprise, nor does it warrant any new concerns.

What does cause alarm is how those stats came to be. It was the perfect gamescript for Houston — up big early and nursing a lead. And in this primo setting, Pierce was out-touched and outperformed by Rex Burkhead. That shakes any confidence we have in Pierce until we see a shift in usage.

Jaguars: We were worried about Travis Etienne’s prospects in the wake of James Robinson’s fast track back, and apparently for good reason. Robinson had nearly three times the carries, neither was a big factor in the passing game, and Robinson scored the only two touchdowns between them.

This looks like Etienne is going to be essentially a passing-down/No. 2 back.

Jets: We warned of this before the season, and what do you know? Michael Carter got more work than Breece Hall, and Carter was more productive (outscoring Hall 17.0-10.1 in PPR formats).

Expect the split to continue at least the first several weeks, making both risky plays on any given week.

Bears: David Montgomery got nearly twice as many carries as Khalil Herbert, but Herbert still outgained him, and Herbert managed to score. Over the course of the season, expect Herbert’s role to grow incrementally.

Patriots: An almost perfect split between Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson undermines usefulness of both.

Eagles: Together, productive. Individually, just stay away.

Falcons: Apparently Cordarrelle Patterson is still a thing.

Saints: Apparently Taysom Hill is still a thing. Alvin Kamara got just 12 touches. The Saints should have lost based on solely this monumental mistake.