The NFL couldn’t have asked for a more compelling pair of opening games before launching into its 107th season in earnest on Sunday.

Two showdowns featuring four legitimate Super Bowl contenders, each offering meaningful revelations about just how seriously to take the defending champion Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots, Super Bowl favorite Los Angeles Rams, and their bitter rival San Francisco 49ers.

Wednesday night in Seattle, despite losing Sam Darnold after the game’s fifth snap, Mike MacDonald’s defense terrorized Drake Maye and the Patriots at all three levels.

Just as he did in the Super Bowl, MacDonald deployed All-Pro cornerback Devon Witherspoon as a heat-seeking missile blitzing Maye, confounding the Patriots’ revamped receiving corps, and allowing Seattle’s front seven to unleash hell.

Seattle’s defense held the Patriots to just 4.1 yards per play, intercepted Maye three times in the final frame, including the final play from scrimmage on the worst-advised Yolo heave into the end zone you’ll see in a three-point game, while looking the part of a balanced and dominant Super Bowl favorite.

In the process, the Seahawks created a litany of questions the Patriots must account for; what does this receiving corps look like with A.J. Brown possibly sidelined for four weeks with a high ankle sprain? Did Romeo Doubs leave his dubious hands in Green Bay? Was it a mistake to cast Kayshon Boutte aside like a crate of tea in the Boston Harbor back in 1773?

Then, Thursday night (Friday morning?) in Australia, the San Francisco stared this preseason’s prohibitive favorite in the eye before winding up and tossing a haymaker of a statement victory against their bitter rivals.

What happened in the 49ers’ 27-7 win says so much more about Kyle Shanahan’s team than it does anything about what to make of the Los Angeles Rams after Sean McVay cooked up a half-cocked scheme to fly 16 hours and arrive just 28 hours before kicking off in Australia.

As the Rams looked gassed almost from jump-street, a half-step slower than the 49ers, who had spent the entire week Down Under, San Francisco unleashed an all-out assault, reminding folks that they should be taken seriously in the NFC, as well.

Linebacker Fred Warner played like a man possessed in his return, setting the tone with six total tackles, one forced fumble, and making arguably the play of the game when he crashed into the box, slamming the door on a Stafford-push from inside the one-yard line to keep the 49ers’ lead at 17-7.

Then, 99.5 yards later, Brock Purdy hit San Francisco’s prized offseason addition, Mike Evans, on a fade pattern that the crafy veteran effortlessly pulled down in the corner of the end zone despite ideal positioning from Jaylen Watson.

Evans caught six of his seven targets for 49 yards and a score, reinforcing the belief that he is the prototypical wide receiver for head coach Kyle Shanahan’s receiver-centric scheme.

Shanahan and the 49ers stuck to their tried-and-true blueprint, leaning on their stars; Evans, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel, and, of course, Christian McCaffrey, who combined for 196 yards from scrimmage, and one touchdown, while watching Brock Purdy form an instant connection with Demarcus Robinson, who torched the Rams’ exhausted and travel-weary secondary with a pair of catches for 50 yards and a touchdown.

It would be foolish to write the Rams off, given the extenuating circumstances of this game that McVay and Los Angeles exacerbated for themselves.

But, it might be just as foolhardy to overlook San Francisco in the NFC, especially after that.

Inside this mailbag, we tackle your questions on Jadarian Price’s upside off a spellbinding Seahawks debut, try to make sense of the Falcons’ quarterback calamity, the Giants’ overinflated expectations, and more!

Let’s get after it!

One clear takeaway Wednesday night in Seattle was that despite no Kenneth Walker (Kansas City Chief) or Zach Charbonnet (still working his way back from injury), these are still your older brother’s Seahawks.

Even before Sam Darnold’s hip imploded five snaps into the game, the Seahawks looked committed to running the football with Price as the focal point. That’s not going to diminish now that Drew Lock is going to be leaned upon for at least several weeks.

This is an offense that is built as a supplement to what may be the most swarming, ball-hawking and imposing defense in the NFL, with a simple formula of bludgeoning opponents with the running game to both shorten the game and create seams over the top for Jaxon Smith-Njigba to exploit in the vertical passing game.

The Seahawks checked all of those boxes against the Patriots, in the opener.

For his part, in his debut, Jadarian Price checked every box.

Price, chosen by the Seahawks with the No. 32 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft, looked explosive, elusive, and plenty capable of carrying the load for Seattle’s ground attack.

Finishing the game with 52 rushing yards, Price reaffirmed one NFL executive’s pre-draft scouting report of the former Notre Dame standout.

“I’m a big fan of Price and thought he looked good against New England,” the executive tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about another team.

Price didn’t just average a whopping 5.2 yards per carry, while rattling off a pair of explosive runs of 10 yards or more, but he moved the chains on four of his first six carries on the night against a fairly dominant Patriots defense.

“You can tell his speed is there,” the executive says. “And, he moved well. The kid just looks like he belongs. I like how they aren’t making him carry the full workload right now.

“But, I’d be really excited if I were Seattle. I loved his college tape, and he definitely lived up to it in terms of how he looked in Week 1, at least to me.”

When Charbonnet gets back on the field, Price’s role may be reduced to being an electrifying change of pace. However, his traits and what he put on film against the Patriots make it easy to envision him being extremely impactful, even as part of a backfield timeshare.

At an absolute minimum, Price seems primed to inherit Walker’s role as part of a bullying ground attack which could ensure this punishing Seahawks offense doesn’t skip a beat in its bid for a Super Bowl repeat.

People laughed, scoffed even, when I suggested a couple of weeks ago that the Falcons may have the worst quarterback situation in the NFL, maybe even worse than the catastrophe in Cleveland.

Anyone laughing now?