Fantasy owners looking to add an Eagle
to their roster might want to focus on the tight end position.
QB Sam
Bradford (2015 QB Rank - No.22, 19.0 Fpts/G)
For what seems like the one hundredth time in his career, Sam Bradford
is faced with the prospect of learning a new offense during the
off-season. Brought over in a trade by Chip Kelly, Bradford didn’t
really thrive despite Kelly’s quarterback friendly system,
but will now work under head coach Doug Pederson and offensive coordinator
Frank Reich in a system that should fit his skill set better. Pederson
is expected to mirror the offensive system employed by his mentor
Andy Reid, which is a variation of a West Coast offense built on
the short passing game. Bradford is a fairly accurate quarterback
and has impressed the staff during OTAs and the preseason according
to published camp reports. He will of course need to hold off rookie
Carson Wentz, who the team drafted No. 2 overall, but according
to all reports out of Eagles headquarters the team would like Wentz
to have a redshirt season in 2016. Of course if Bradford struggles,
which isn’t all that hard to imagine based on a career of
underachieving, or if the Eagles fall hopelessly out of the playoff
picture, it is likely Wentz would see the field. Bradford finished
last season with 3,725 passing yards and 19 touchdowns with 14 interceptions
in 14 starts. While there is a chance that those numbers will improve
in 2016, Bradford’s upside isn’t exciting enough to
even warrant drafting him as a backup, especially if you would need
to scour the waiver wire at some point if he were to be benched.
RB Ryan
Mathews (2015 RB Rank - No.33, 8.5 Fpts/G)
Ryan Mathews was signed early in free agency by the Eagles last
off-season and was presumed to be the team’s starting running back,
until DeMarco Murray surprisingly signed with the team for big money
a few days later. Mathews often looked like the better back on the
team last season, but salary considerations and Kelly’s pride saw
to it that Murray would be getting the bigger workload when healthy.
Mathews has always been a solid producer, but has all too often
found himself sidelined by injuries. He’s expected to be the lead
back in a RBBC and his skill set is a good fit for the offensive
system, but the team has raved about Darren Sproles while Mathews
was sidelined with an ankle sprain and Sproles has long been one
of the league’s better receivers out of the backfield. Still it
wouldn’t be hard to predict a season like Mathews had in San Diego
in 2011 when he ran for 1,091 yards and 6 touchdowns while also
catching 50 balls for 455 yards. The downside comes in the fact
that he has missed 23 games during his six seasons in the league.
When Darren Sproles was released by the New Orleans Saints in 2013
it was hard to imagine he could maintain his value outside of the
Saints offensive system, especially at 31 years od. However he’s
caught 95 balls for 755 yards and has scored 10 total touchdowns
with the Eagles in two seasons and even at age 33, some beat writers
have called him the “best running back on the team”.
Sproles may never see the 70-plus receptions that were commonplace
during his three years with the Saints, but 60 receptions wouldn’t
be surprising during his 2016 season. While Ryan Mathews is healthy,
Sproles will likely be used in a backup role, seeing a handful of
carries per game, but will retain value as a third-down back in
PPR leagues. This is a system that allowed Jamaal Charles to be
amongst the leading receivers at the RB position each year.
The Eagles drafted Wendell Smallwood out of West Virginia in the
5th round, and he has drawn praise for his ability working out of
the backfield as a pass catcher. At 5’10 and 208 pounds he’d
likely be able to hold up even in an expanded role and his physical
stature is very similar to Jamaal Charles who has starred in Pederson’s
offensive system. Smallwood of course isn’t the talent that
Charles is, and lacks his elite speed, but it’s very possible
with Mathew’s injury history and Sproles’ age that he
could be thrust into a big role in a running back friendly system.
He’s worth a late round flier in all but shallow leagues.
Jordan Matthews was impressive as a rookie, but struggled as a sophomore
when thrust into a larger role in the offense. Matthews’ struggles
were mostly mental as he suffered from too many drops, but so far
the reports indicate that he has been catching everything thrown
his way in OTAs and training camp. Despite his struggles, Matthews
still managed 85 receptions for 997 yards and 8 touchdowns last
season and heads into this season as the most talented wide receiver
in an uninspiring crew. The problem is the coaching staff doesn’t
like him as an outside wide receiver and thinks he struggles when
moved from the slot and unlike last season, the team’s base
offense shouldn’t feature three wide receiver sets. If Mathews
doesn’t find an outside game, he could see far less snaps
this season. At 6’3” and 212 pounds he should have more
than adequate size to play outside, so hopefully he can find away
to change the coaching staff’s perception of him. It’s
hard to imagine that the coaches wouldn’t want their best
player on the field, but the Chiefs were content to line up subpar
wide receivers for a few years before acquiring Jeremy Maclin last
off-season.
Nelson Agholor struggled as a rookie out of USC finishing the season
with only 23 catches for 283 yards, but he’s expected to be in the
Week 1 starting lineup for Philadelphia. He had an off-season issue
that turned out to be nothing more than an embarrassment for him
and there’s been very little buzz about his play but by default
and due to his first round draft pedigree, he’ll get a shot to open
this season across from Jordan Matthews. Agholor is only 6’0” and
198 pounds and possess only average speed but he is a fluid and
disciplined route runner. With only Rueben
Randle, Chris
Givens and Josh
Huff as legitimate threats to his playing time, Agholor should
see a high volume of snaps and could breakout if he develops some
rapport with Sam Bradford. However this isn’t expected to be a high
volume passing attack so there is considerable downside to rostering
the second year pro. He’s likely to be no better than third in targets
behind Matthews and tight end Zach Ertz and could potentially fall
behind the running backs as well.
The good news for Zach Ertz is that the Philadelphia Inquirer's
Zach Berman reported the Eagles plan for the tight ends to play
"a major role in the offense." That seems logical based
on the Chiefs passing attack that featured Travis Kelce, who saw
nearly a quarter of all the team’s targets last season. Ertz
is not as athletic as Kelce, but the 6’5” 250-pound
target is athletic enough to be a difficult cover for linebackers
and is expected to be heavily used in the red zone. Ertz only has
9 touchdowns in his three seasons so he must show better ability
around the goal line before we can expect an uptick in TD production.
The tight end position is one of the more difficult transitions
from college to professional ranks, so you can’t just look
at the production from his first three years in the league and write
the book on Ertz. If Bradford takes command of the offense, and
uses the tight end position like the coaching staff wants, a breakout
season for Ertz could be in the cards. He has as much upside as
anyone after Gronk and Jordan Reed at the tight end position. In
his last four games of 2015 he put up a 35-450-1 line, and while
those reception and yardage totals are not sustainable over the
course of a season he could easily better his 2015 season stat line
of 75-853-2 in 2016.
