2026 Team Previews: Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles 2026 Preview
All ADP data is courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
** = target in drafts at this ADP
Drafted Everywhere
**Saquon Barkley, RB (ADP: 15, RB9): Barkley was among the elites of elites at the RB position entering 2025, coming off a sensational first year in Philadelphia in which he rushed for more than 2,000 yards and totaled over 2,200 total yards of offense with 15 touchdowns. Last season was a far cry from that, leaving managers disappointed, but Barkley was still a highly productive player. He finished last season with 1,140 rushing yards, 1,1413 total yards and nine touchdowns. That’s a damn good season, and it marked the third time in four seasons Barkley played in 16 games. Clearly, based on this ADP, fantasy managers aren’t overreacting to the letdown of last season. Barkley’s being rated a bit lower than he was a year ago at this time, but he did see a drop-off in production, he is nearing the age-30 cliff, and he has seen crazy volume the last four seasons. I do have Barkley a bit ahead of this ADP, especially with the changes to Philadelphia’s offense potentially bringing back the explosiveness they’ve lacked of late, so I see value here. If I had a late first round pick, it’d be hard to let Saquon pass me by given his talent and the real lack of threats to his status as the backfield’s alpha.
DeVonta Smith, WR (ADP: 34, WR13): Smith has been a confounding player for most of his Eagles career, because he’s been a WR1 forced to play second fiddle to A.J. Brown. The Eagles made changes this offseason, and a major one was jettisoning Brown to New England and handing Smith the keys to the WR room. I’ve long been a believer in Smith’s talent, and I am incredibly excited to see what he can do with increased targets and the largest piece of the Eagles’ pass game pie.
Smith has zero weaknesses in his game, aside from occasionally his size impacting him. Even with his small stature, however, Smith has always been effective at all levels of the field and above-average in contested catch scenarios. Playing second banana in a low-volume pass offense makes it hard to produce WR1 numbers, but Smith has surpassed 1,000 yards in three of the last four seasons, with 2024 being the lone miss and he only played in 13 games that year. Last season was the first time he’d ever caught fewer than five touchdowns, and that’s due to change with Brown out of the picture. If talent is all you focus on, there aren’t any red flags on this receiver. But here’s the fly in the ointment that we’ll all be waiting to see with Brown gone; does having the No. 1 spot in the passing game eliminate his consistency issues?
Looking at Smith’s year-end numbers usually tells you what you already know…he’s great. The problem is when you roster him and rely on him, Smith has always had a tendency to deliver some insane duds. Last year was brutal at times, as Philly’s offense cratered. Smith had eight games with fewer than 50 receiving yards and 10 games with four or fewer receptions. Those games don’t necessarily mean his play was up and down, it’s just that the ball didn’t find its way to him. He had five games with nine or more targets, and he produced 80+ yards in four of them, while scoring a touchdown in the lone game he didn’t. Smith can be efficient, but if Philly targets him like a WR1, it’s a strong bet he’ll deliver like one. I think this ADP is perfect, and if it rose a little bit, I wouldn’t be afraid of it.
Jalen Hurts, QB (ADP: 71, QB6): Hurts is one of the biggest wildcard players in all of fantasy. We know what he brings to the table as a rusher, which, at the QB position, is a fantasy cheat code. In 2023 and 2024 Hurts surpassed 600 rushing yards in consecutive seasons and scored 29 rushing touchdowns. Prior to 2025, Hurts had scored on the ground 10 or more times in four straight seasons. The Eagles “tush push” remains a massive weapon, even if it’s not quite as automatic as it was with Jason Kelce as the tip of the spear. The key for Hurts is his passing numbers. He’ll always be a QB1 as long as he can be a major red zone weapon, but when the passing numbers come along with it, he’s a league winner. In 2022 and 2023 Hurts threw for 3,701 and 3,858 yards with 22 and 23 touchdowns, respectively. When you are pairing that with big rushing yardage and double digit rushing touchdowns that’s No. 1 overall player in fantasy stuff.
Last season, we saw Hurts only get to 3,224 yards through the air, and in 2024 he couldn’t even crack 3,000 yards (15 games played). In 2024 he still survived based on the rushing, but last season we saw a bit of a dip in his bread and butter. Hurts remained a high-level rushing QB, but at 421 yards and eight touchdowns the passing deficiency starts to become noticeable. Hurts put forth six games with fewer than 18 points last year and four with 12 or fewer. Bad games happen, but they’re catastrophic when they’re coming from a player like Hurts whom you had to sink a Top 40 pick into. The common denominator in those games was total rushing yardage under 30, and a rushing score in just one of them. The Eagles have to hope that new blood in the coaching room can spark this passing game as well, because the predictability of the aerial attack neutered two of the best WRs in football. Hurts managed to surpass 300 yards just once all season, and was under 200 passing yards a whopping nine times. Hurts has to score so many rushing touchdowns to mitigate passing yardage that low, and it’s asking a lot when a stud RB like Barkley can easily have a TD spike type of season. Given the rushing upside Hurts possesses, I think this ADP could return big value, but the passing baseline needs to be lowered for him, so I actually think this is an appropriate ADP and a decent gamble in drafts.
Makai Lemon, WR (ADP: 89, WR38): Lemon, an exciting rookie, is right on the border of must-draft and interesting. He broke out in a big way as a junior at USC, leaping from 764 yards and three touchdowns in 2024 to 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns as a junior with two rushing touchdowns as a cherry on top. The Eagles’ commitment to Lemon signals a real shift to Smith as an outside receiver primarily, be it as the X or as the flanker, because Lemon should expect to be in the slot a ton. That’s not to say he can’t play other spots, because he can, but right now everything is about maximizing DeVonta Smith, and Lemon looks like an amazing complement.
His Reception Perception data is outstanding. He was in the 85th percentile as a man-beater (74.6% success) and he was just as good vs. zone (82.9%, 79th percentile). He comes into the NFL as polished as anyone across the whole route tree, and he ran tons of different routes for the Trojans. The only area where he was deficient was on go routes. Lemon doesn’t quite have breakneck downfield speed, but that’s okay and not a requirement for being a very productive NFL receiver. In an admittedly weird interview Lemon compared his game to Amon-Ra St. Brown’s, and the similarities are very evident. If that’s the kind of player Lemon is, then he could destroy this ADP. It did take St. Brown a few seasons to become a superstar, so I wouldn’t expect that kind of explosion in Year 1. With that said, as talented as Lemon is, if he’s not going to be crushing teams downfield he’ll need volume that I’m not positive he’ll see in this offense. Sean Mannion’s ability to coach up Hurts and install a new system will determine how great Lemon is as a rookie, but it’s nice to see that the fantasy community hasn’t run wild with expectations. This is a healthy place to be drafting Lemon, and I see plenty of upside at this point.
Interesting Players
Dallas Goedert, TE (ADP: 126, TE15): After years of buying on Goedert as a player who could make a leap into elite territory I’d finally accepted that he’s just a good TE for fantasy and won’t be a great one. Then he messed around and had a Top 5 season! I’m still not upset, because his ranking said more about the position in 2025 than me being wrong. Goedert’s fantasy finish was bolstered by 11 touchdowns, after he’d gone seven seasons without getting past five. That does tell me that Goedert’s probably been underused this whole time, but banking on that level of scoring is ridiculous, and this ADP proves that everyone understands this. You can draft Goedert as a season-long starter because he’s got an entrenched role in what I think will be a pretty good offense this year, but unless you get more TD luck I don’t think it’s a particularly high-ceiling choice. This boils down to how each individual manager likes to build teams, and where they’re comfortable taking risks. I like taking bigger swings at TE with lower floors, but to each their own.
Deep Cuts
**Tank Bigsby, RB (ADP: 167, RB54): I’ll admit it, I think Bigsby is a very good player. It’s just an eye test thing for me, because he’s never had big NFL production, but PFF agrees grading him out higher than Barkley even though he didn’t hit the snap minimum to earn a ranking. As long as Barkley is around and healthy, Bigsby’s not going to get the work needed to have a standalone role. But Barkley does have a legitimate handcuff now, and if Barkley did go down I truly believe Bigsby would become a weekly start. It’s not too often I recommend drafting handcuffs, but if I spent a big pick on Saquon, I’m definitely trying to nab Bigsby too considering how late in drafts he can be had.
Eli Stowers, TE (ADP: 191, TE29): Stowers was a pretty intriguing draft pick for Philly, as they appear to be hopping on the trend in the NFL of more multi-TE offensive alignments. Stowers was a big play guy at Vanderbilts, averaging 13 and 12.4 yards per catch in his final two college seasons and scoring nine times across those campaigns. I do believe there’s potential for Stowers to eventually become an upper crust fantasy TE, but it would surprise me if that happened in his rookie season. In dynasty leagues, sure take a flier. Anywhere else, I think there are higher percentage gambles.
Dontayvion Wicks, WR (ADP: 236, WR95): Wicks is a talented player who I thought would break out at some point in Green Bay, but he didn’t and in some ways has gone backwards. His yards per catch have dropped significantly since a promising rookie campaign, he’s never caught 40 passes, and he has battled severe drop issues with an 11.8% drop rate in 2024. Wicks is capable of lining up all over the formation, so if there are injuries to Smith or Lemon he might become a playable guy but until such an injury occurs I don’t think he’s very interesting from a fantasy standpoint.
Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, WR (ADP: 257, WR102): Brown’s been around a long time now, and since leaving Baltimore he just hasn’t been able to live up to his promise. He posted his only 1,000-yard season in 2021, his final year in Baltimore, and since then has played for the Cardinals and Chiefs to varying degrees of limited success. Injuries have dogged his entire tenure in Kansas City, and before that he battled injuries in Arizona to a lesser degree, but also dealt with poor QB play, coaching and scheme. Now he’s closing in on 30 years old with his best season having happened five years ago. A lot has to go wrong for Brown to be a factor.