Eagles Fantasy Football Preview: Week 17
The Philadelphia Eagles‘ chance at a championship may be over, but your chance at a fantasy football championship may still be there.
The Eagles have one more game in the regular season, and if your league extends into Week 17, here are some projections of which Eagles players to use in the most important week of the fantasy season:
QB Sam Bradford
Week 16 performance: 380 passing yards, 1 TD, 1 fumble (17 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 13.9 fantasy points
The Eagles were losing for most of the game and couldn’t really get the running game going, so Bradford went to work through the air and had a pretty productive day. He still only finished with one passing touchdown, but for the second week in a row he passed for over 350 yards and earned over 15 fantasy points. He’s still only a QB2 for next week against the Giants’ poor pass defense.
RB Ryan Mathews
Week 16 performance: 5 rushing yards, TD, 13 receiving yards (7 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 5.3 fantasy points
Mathews was highly ineffective on the ground as the Eagles gave up on the run game early on against the Redskins. He did manage a touchdown to save his fantasy day, but has now turned in four straight single digit fantasy performances. Earlier in the year, he had just four fantasy points against the Giants, so he’s probably no better than a flex option.
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Week 16 performance: 9 rushing yards, 56 receiving yards (5 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 7.9 fantasy points
Sproles exclusively got his fantasy points from his receiving yards as he was also ineffective on the ground. He’s averaging less than two yards per carry over the past two games and has failed to score a touchdown. If they pass to him as much as they did against the Redskins then he might hold some flex value, but his real value is likely touchdown dependent.
Week 16 performance: 27 rushing yards, TD, 24 receiving yards (10 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 7.2 fantasy points
Murray surprisingly had the best day of all three fantasy relevant Eagles running backs. This was largely due to a short touchdown run, though, as he only had five carries. With the Eagles going with a RBBC approach, it’s hard to trust any of them, and I’d probably trust Murray the least.
Eagles
Week 16 performance: 6 catches, 104 receiving yards, TD (16 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 8.1 fantasy points
Matthews has been the king of garbage time in 2015, much like Kelvin Benjamin was in 2014. Once again, Matthews scored a TD after the Eagles were already losing by a sizable margin. It was Matthews’ fourth 100-yard game on the season and his second in a row. He had six catches for 59 yards and a fumble against the Giants earlier this season, but he could easily do better with how poor their secondary has been this year. Matthews is worth starting as a WR3.
TE Zach Ertz
Week 16 performance: 13 catches, 122 receiving yards (12 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 5.7 fantasy points
Much like last year, Ertz had his best game of the season in Week 16 against the Redskins in a losing effort. He has risen from the dead recently as the Eagles have finally figured out how to get him the ball effectively. It was his only 100-yard receiving game of the year and his second straight week of double digit fantasy points. He is definitely in the TE1 conversation for next week against the G-Men with how well he’s been playing.
Week 16 performance: 1/1 FG, 3/3 XP (5 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 8 fantasy points
Any kicker with a sub-par offense is going to have a kicker that produces sub-par fantasy stats unless the kicker is phenomenal. Sturgis is not one of those phenomenal kickers. While he’s had an okay season, he hasn’t done much to warrant signing him as your top guy. He’s been held to under seven points in six of the last seven weeks. Don’t bother signing him.
Eagles D/ST
Week 16 performance: 38 points allowed, 2 sacks (-4 fantasy points)
ESPN Week 17 projection: 7.4 fantasy points
About halfway through the season, the Eagles defense was a top five fantasy option, but it has totally collapsed since the game against the Buccaneers. In the last six weeks, the Eagles D/ST has combined for just six fantasy points, including four weeks in the negatives. That is absolutely pathetic. They cannot be trusted against the Giants next week despite shutting them down earlier in the year.
Next: Eagles Should Not Use Another Draft Pick on WR in 2016