Eagles Fantasy Football Preview: Week 16

The Philadelphia Eagles have been a hard team to trust in any capacity in fantasy football this year, and with the championship games upon us, it might be even harder to employ their players in the starting lineup.

However, there are a couple players that I think could have some sneaky value in the most important weeks of fantasy football. Here’s my preview of the Eagles’ players fantasy value for their next game against the Redskins:

QB Sam Bradford

Week 15 performance: 361 passing yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 1 fumble (16 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 13.8 fantasy points

Bradford managed to quietly throw for a season high in passing yards on Sunday and now has thrown for multiple touchdowns in two of the past three weeks. However, he also tied a season high in turnovers, including two interceptions that were just terrible decisions. He can only be trusted in leagues where you have to start two QBs, but it’s worth noting that his best fantasy performance this year came against the Redskins when he put up 23 points in Week 4.

RB Ryan Mathews

Week 15 performance: 58 rushing yards, 3 receiving yards, 1 fumble (3 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 8.7 fantasy points

Mathews looked pretty good as a runner, but his lack of touches and the fumble were killer in terms of his fantasy performance. It looks like he’s in line to be the feature back against the Redskins, but he has limited value with an ultimately crowded backfield and no reliance in the passing game. He’s an RB3/flex option with some upside against the Redskins, a team he also fumbled against earlier in the year.

More from Inside the Iggles

RB Darren Sproles

Week 15 performance: 9 rushing yards, 16 receiving yards (1 fantasy point)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 7.9 fantasy points

Sproles couldn’t get anything going on the ground and finished with one fantasy point despite getting nine touches. I’m guessing that he’ll receive around the same amount of touches next week against the Redskins, so unless he starts to break a couple runs or makes a bigger impact as a receiver, he’s going to require a touchdown to make him a worthy start in the fantasy playoffs.

RB DeMarco Murray

Week 15 performance: 3 rushing yards (o fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 3.2 fantasy points

Murray’s value is officially gone. Drop him and sign essentially anyone else who’s guaranteed some touches in these next two weeks, there are likely plenty of guys who are better options.

WR Jordan Matthews

Week 15 performance: 8 catches, 159 receiving yards, TD (21 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 7.4 fantasy points

Matthews had his best fantasy performance of the whole season, posting his third 100-yard game of the year. The majority of his points came on a 78-yard touchdown catch where he was wide open down the middle and was over 10 yards away from any defender. Either way, he was very effective against a great defense, which should hopefully give him a little momentum going into this week. He has three touchdowns in the last four games. For reference, he had 50 receiving yards on three catches in his earlier season meet-up with Washington.

TE Zach Ertz

Week 15 performance: 8 catches, 78 receiving yards, TD (13 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 6.1 fantasy points

Finally, after a maddening fantasy season, Ertz put up double digits in the scoreboard as he also had his best fantasy performance of the season. He was efficient with the targets he was given and was able to get into the end zone. He now has back-to-back solid performances and is a low-end TE1 against the Redskins despite being held to just 11 receiving yards against them earlier in the year.

K Caleb Sturgis

Week 15 performance: 1/1 FG, 2/2 XP (5 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 8.2 fantasy points

Sturgis had a ho-hum game, producing below his projection. The Eagles will likely have more opportunities against the Redskins to actually score points, so Sturgis’ value should be a little higher in that game. Still, as I’ve been saying all year, there are probably better options out there in free agency, and every point counts in the fantasy playoffs.

Eagles D/ST

Week 15 performance: 40 points allowed, 2 sacks (-6 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 16 projection: 8.2 fantasy points

The Eagles defense may have been projected at nearly eight points for this week, but that was an incredibly bold prediction against a team that has been very dominant every week. They finished tied for their worst performance of the season and their third negative output in the last five weeks, a pitiful statistic. The Eagles D/ST have just 10 fantasy points over the last five weeks combined, and thus I wouldn’t trust them against the Redskins, especially with their offense doing well recently.

Next: Eagles should bench DeMarco Murray for the rest of the season

Home/Eagles News