Philly Fantasy Life: Inaugural Edition

And with that, the NFL is back! Week 1 is in the books, the Birds are undefeated (knocks on proverbial wood), and my free coffee is hitting like a Lane Johnson pancake block. Life is good.

Welcome to the first installment of Philly Fantasy Life. We’re going provide Eagles fans with the latest to give your fantasy teams the edge. Now, we all know that reality comes first — if you don’t bench Julio Jones next week against Jim Schwartz’ secondary, you either have no faith in Rasul Douglas or hate your fantasy team. For anyone outside of those possibilities, imagine the intersection of Eagles games and fantasy news: that beautiful convergence where Ertz’ single-season receptions by a tight end record not only lands the birds on the front page of ESPN, but also snags you the extra points in your 12-man PPR to win it all. That’s where I come in. I’m here to tell you how the Eagles can help your fantasy team win your league title so you don’t have to choose between bleeding green and crushing your college friends’ egos. 

Each week will look like this: a little anecdotal at first, then positional reflections from the last game, along with some contextual analysis of the season thus far and what the next matchup has in store. My main league is a standard-scoring 8-man, but I will be writing on each position in such a way as to make myself as universally useful as possible. Oh, and if you’re in my league, you can go ahead and Bills-Mafia dive-tackle your laptop in half and never open this blog again so help me god. Crairs, I’m looking at you, you son of a bitch. 

To all of Eagles Nation, thank you for taking the time to read, I hope you have as much fun reading this as I have writing it. 

Week 1 Reflections:

QB: Wentz looked fantastic this week, completing 28 of 39 passes for 313 yards and 3 TDs (should’ve been 4, that lateral is bull shit). Shoutout to my friend Jack who’s a big Rams fan: Goff can suck it. Shoutout to all my Cowboys friends whose names I totally know but just can’t remember right now: PAY DAK. Wentz looked like his old self, which is exactly what we had all hoped for, but in this league seeing is believing. He didn’t do much with his legs, which isn’t the most exciting news for fantasy owners, but bodes well for the sustainability of this showing. The less that man gets hit, the more consistently he will be putting up these numbers. The biggest takeaway in this position is the addition of DeSean Jackson. The return of number 10 stretched the field the way Mike Wallace was supposed to and unlocking the full potential of this potent offense. Where the backs’ and receivers’ fantasy value may take a hit with so many talented guys up and down the roster, Wentz will only continue to shine. He should be started in every league as a clear tier-1 and possible Fantasy and NFL MVP level quarterback. 

Can’t say the same about Goff.

WR: 

Jackson: DJax is back. Consider that somersault celebration the official middle finger to Chip Kelly. DeSean’s two touchdowns have been the talk of Philadelphia since the game ended, taking even more attention than Mike Scott’s pajama pants scuffle or the fans who literally brought their dead grandfather to his final tailgate in a casket. But what stood out to me was the reception total. Burner guys like John Brown and John Ross usually hit home runs like that and are otherwise quiet, but DJax went off the entire game, catching eight balls on ten targets, good for a team best. Wentz’ accuracy with the deep ball paired with the fastest receiver in the NFL that doesn’t threaten his girlfriend and his kids, put up numbers even better than we had hoped. 

Jeffery: Alshon’s touchdown was similarly impressive, with Wentz throwing a virtually impossible ball perfectly into Jeffery’s arms. While Alshon, like Ertz & Co., will see a dip in production with more players for Wentz to hit, I see him as the least affected option in that sense. 

Agholor: Agholor was quiet in this game, putting up a measly 11 yards on two catches, tying Dallas Goedert and Jordan Howard for fifth in receptions. We’ve seen Wentz and Agholor have a strong connection before, but the busy receiving corps on this roster will hurt his fantasy value drastically. It’s worth noting that on the second Jackson touchdown, Agholor and Jackson split the safety coverage, forcing him to commit to one or the other. Jackson ended up the free man, but that could have just as likely been Agholor. If defenses start honing in on DJax on those deep routes, Agholor could see some success breaking free. Keep an eye on his production as teams adjust. 

Others: Hollins and Arcega-Whiteside were non-factors in this one. At best, JJ was involved in the run game when his holding penalty brought back Sanders’ 19-yard rushing TD. If you’re relying on either of these guys in fantasy, Arcega-Whiteside has both the red zone threat and dynasty league upside that he’s worth a glance, but the rest of us in sub-60 person leagues are gonna go ahead and stick with legitimate fantasy threats. 

RB: 

Sanders: The stat line wasn’t great, but hopefully you knew better than to start a rookie in a committee backfield in Week 1. On the bright side, Pederson should walk away from this game with a similar mindset as his former coworker, Matt Nagy. Both have rookies who need to get the ball more, and certainly will. The touchdown that got called back hurts what could’ve been a great fantasy debut, but Sanders’ tape shows his elusiveness is undeniable. Keep him rostered but don’t start him — better days will come. 

Howard: Pederson was out here pulling some Belichik shit, trading for a guy then giving him the fewest touches of the three backs who actually played. Shoutout to my guys on the Bleeding Green podcast suggesting Howard could still be tradeable — that kind of usage for a guy they went and got is atypical to say the least. I really like Howard and his running style, and hope he stays with the team, and the trade talk is really just a small hypothesis. Still, he put up the best YPC on the team en route a great rushing day for the team, but 6 carries and 2 catches is little to work with for fantasy. If you’re in a deep league, he’s stashable in case something changes, but otherwise he’s worth passing on.

Sproles: You gotta love this guy. In what is likely to be his swan song, Sproles is still making guys miss like it’s nothing. Leading touches with Sanders wasn’t expected at all, but it’s definitely intriguing considering his play-making ability. If he can keep up the usage, he’s definitely worth a look in the flex for anyone particularly weak at running back, but I thoroughly expect Sanders to lean into his carries as the season goes on. 

Clement: Clement’s basically fantasy-irrelevant at this rate. If the birds go ahead and trade Howard at some point (which is seriously just conjecture at this point), he could creep into relevancy in super deep leagues, but there’s really no point in evening rostering him now. 

TE:

Ertz: Ertz was bound to regress after a record-setting season, but yesterday’s showing may have owners in a panic as to the value of a guy you probably spent a third (ish) round pick. Wentz is going to have a TON of mouths to feed all season, and if DeSean’s return is going to eat up a 25% target share on a weekly basis, Ertz may even lose his top-three positional ranking. The pair of 50+ yard TDs make this game a bit of a scoring outlier, as Ertz will have plenty more opportunities to make an impact after teams adjust and drives take more plays, but his categorization as an elite option may be limited to real life. He’s obviously a must-start if you have him, but he’s solid trade bait if you can find a serviceable guy on waivers.

Goedert: As for Goedert, Eagles fans have so much to be excited about with him, but only in the deepest leagues should he be rostered, and even then only as a desperation guy for his red zone value. 

K: Elliott was perfect, albeit not for many points. The combination of third down efficiency, red zone efficiency, and Pederson’s tendency to go for it in fourth down situations doesn’t bode well for a ton of field goal opportunities relative to other guys in more conservative coaching schemes, but he’s perfect within 30 in his career and is on a high enough scoring offense that he should improve moving forward. For what it’s worth, three of the Eagles’ five road games are indoors this year, and one of them is in Miami. If you’re in a 10+ man league, Elliott is certainly a bonafide starter. 

D/ST: On the defensive side of the ball, there is more to worry about. The slow start for the birds came on both sides of the ball, but deep burns, blown coverage’s, and bad tackling in the secondary made the defensive particularly vulnerable in the first half. Schwartz’ defensive scheme of putting pressure on quarterbacks to alleviate the secondary’s job wasn’t helped by a single-sack day, though the front four were able to come out in the second half and pressure Keenum much more. I wholly expect the D-Line to have a stronger showing as far as getting to the quarterback is concerned next week, especially with the Falcons’ right guard set to miss time, but allowing a guy like Keenum to finish with more fantasy points than Wentz cannot happen. Their play was particularly frustrating, given such a successful day stopping the run, but more success in the trenches moving forward will certainly translate into a better D/ST turnout. Still, I would steer clear with the Eagles traveling to Atlanta in favor of a waiver pick up facing a bad offense.