There was briefly a worrying scene during the fourth quarter of the San Francisco 49ers' convincing Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets as All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, under a week on from ending his contract holdout, headed for the locker room.
After a long wait to receive a reworked deal from the 49ers, losing Williams in the season opener would have marked a nightmare scenario for San Francisco.
But fans had no reason to worry, as it was later revealed that Williams left the field to go and get an IV, the 11-time Pro Bowler clearly feeling the impact of a busy night's work in a game in which the 49ers held the ball for just under 39 minutes.
Having had only a week to properly prepare to face the Jets after missing all of training camp, it's little surprise Williams was running out of gas toward the end, and he accepted afterward that this Week 1 felt markedly different to previous season openers.
"It was uncharted waters for me, you know I've never been in a situation where I didn't have the luxury of being able to knock the rust off in camp," Williams said.
"I've never came off a six-month lay-off, seventh-month lay-off, right into game week. That was new for me, I really didn't know what to expect.
"Obviously, I've played a lot of football, so I knew it would come back to me, I just didn't know how long it would take. There's rust involved, got to get in football shape, I hadn't played football, you can't really replicate the exhaustion that you kind of put yourself through during a football game, especially O-Linemen, it's like pushing a truck every play.
"Honestly I didn't know what to expect tonight, I have a lot of confidence in myself to go and play at a high level, but like I said it's uncharted waters so I didn't know how much that would affect me."
The numbers suggest it didn't affect him at all. Per NextGen Stats, Williams did not give up a single pressure against the Jets on 33 pass blocks. By NextGen Stats tracking, that was his first game without giving up a pressure since Week 3 of the 2022 season.
San Francisco's superiority running the ball had a role to play in Williams' clean sheet, the 49ers logging 37 rushing attempts, but 33 plays is still a big sample size of dropbacks on which the three-time first-team All-Pro posted the equivalent of a no-hitter.
Williams' display encapsulated why he is heading the Hall of Fame and why the 49ers were eventually happy to back him to continue to play at an All-Pro level for years to come with his restructured deal.
The 36-year-old, who has been open about wanting to play into his 40s, now has to deal with a short week as the 49ers prepare to face the Vikings in Week 2. His flawless season opener after his unconventional offseason suggests the quick turnaround will be little problem.
Related: 49ers' Brandon Aiyuk has little to say on Week 1 play that prompted huge criticism from Peyton Manning
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