2026 Philadelphia Eagles Fantasy Preview: Can Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley bounce back?
· Yahoo Sports
An 11-win campaign and a division title would normally be a statement season for a team, but that’s table stakes for the Eagles. Instead, it was readily apparent in the middle of the 2025 season that Philly’s sluggish offense would not cut it in the postseason. They went on to put up 19 points in their Wild Card Round loss to San Francisco. Now the team is looking at a minor reset in what should be a win-now window.
2025 Philadelphia Eagles Stats (Rank)
- Points per game: 22.3 (19th)
- Total yards per game: 311.2 (24th)
- Plays per game: 59.4 (24th)
- Dropbacks per game: 36.1 (28th)
- Dropback EPA per play: 0.09 (15th)
- Designed rush attempts per game: 26.3 (13th)
- Rush EPA per play: -0.05 (13th)
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Eagles moving to their fifth OC in five years
Philly’s run-run-pass philosophy hasn’t changed regardless of the play-caller. That they are one of the league’s most run-heavy teams every year is likely a Jalen Hurts stat. The OC’s job is to maximize the value of the passes, not the number of attempts. Kellen Moore executed that style to perfection in 2024 and was made the head coach of the Saints for his efforts. The team stayed in-house to replace him and promoted Kevin Patullo to offensive coordinator. Patullo could not get the same performance out of Hurts. His YPA fell from 8.0 to a career-low 7.1. He also averaged .123 EPA per play compared to .161 in 2024. Even worse than the counting stats were the attitudes.
A.J. Brown was miserable and let everyone know it, but he wasn’t the only one. Things got so bad that the team installed a “Positivity Rabbit” in the locker room. The Positivity Rabbit era of Eagles football feels like a fever dream. It is, in fact, real.
BREAKING:
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) December 10, 2025
The “Positivity Rabbit” is no longer in the #Eagles locker room, per a team source. https://t.co/qG6Mp1Hygo
He lasted one game—a loss to the Chargers—before being sent to a farm upstate. This is what the end of an empire looks like. Philly brought in Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion after firing Patullo in the offseason. If this move doesn’t pay dividends, Nick Sirianni will quickly find himself on the hot seat.
Passing Game
QB: Jalen Hurts, Tanner McKee
WR: DeVonta Smith, Hollywood Brown
WR: Makai Lemon, Johnny Wilson
WR: Dontayvion Wicks, Darius Cooper
TE: Dallas Goedert, Eli Stowers
Mannion was brought in to push the boundaries of what this passing attack can do. Hurts and the offense fully stagnated last year, in part because they refused to incorporate any creative wrinkles into their offense. Philly had the lowest rate of throws over the middle of the field last year (20.6 percent) and went under center at the fourth-lowest rate (9.3 percent). For a team built around the run, a play-action rate of 24.7 percent—slightly below the league-wide average—was also underwhelming. Mannion didn’t call the plays in Green Bay, but it’s safe to assume he will bring some of the team’s offensive tendencies with him. Last year, the Packers were 12th in both under-center and play-action usage. They ranked 25th in middle-of-the-field usage. These weren’t foundational concepts for the Packers, just advantages that they leaned on far more than Philly. Even in a down 2025 season, Hurts YPA improved by anywhere from one to two yards on play-action, under center, and middle-of-the-field throws.
It’s not a guarantee that Hurts can increase the rate at which he uses these types of plays while maintaining the efficiency gains. Play-action would no longer be effective if teams simply used it on 100 percent of their throws. Hurts is almost certainly less adept at throwing over the middle of the field than quarterbacks who do so at a higher rate. On the other hand, the Eagles can’t afford to remove so many advantageous plays from the playbook. They need to push the boundaries more than they did in 2025, and a change at OC suggests that’s the plan for this year. At a minimum, these stylistic changes should increase the fantasy ceiling for Hurts, while the Tush Push and its 8-12 free touchdowns keep the floor well within the QB1 ranks.
DeVonta Smith has been the poster boy for the “He would be a No. 1 on 20 other teams” archetype for years. The A.J. Brown trade has finally given him the opportunity to shed that mantle. Smith has appeared in three games without A.J. Brown over the past two seasons. He earned target shares of 34, 29, and 50 percent in those games. His lowest air yards share was a monstrous 56 percent. He won’t sustain those types of numbers over an entire season, but it’s still a promising sign that he has dominated targets in short bursts. Smith’s efficiency numbers were also entirely unchanged last year, despite the team’s struggles on offense. He averaged 1.9 yards per route run, tying his marks from 2024 and 2022. The only cold water to be thrown on Smith’s outlook is his price. Early Best Ball drafters are already viewing him as a WR1, drafting him 12th among all wideouts.
If Smith doesn’t return top-12 value, Makai Lemon will be the reason. Lemon played primarily out of the slot at USC and stands at 5’11/192, but he doesn’t play like a run-of-the-mill slot receiver. He ranked 15th among Power 4 receivers in targets 20+ yards downfield (27) in his final season. Lemon still finished seventh in targets closer than 10 yards from the line of scrimmage (67). He averaged more than three yards per route in 2025 and was responsible for 32 percent of his team’s receiving yards and nearly half of the Trojans’ touchdowns. With first-round capital to his name, Lemon has a truly elite fantasy profile. He won’t overtake Smith as the team’s top target in year one, but he doesn’t need to to pay off a WR35 ADP.
As new coaches tend to do, Mannion brought a familiar face with him to Philly in Dontayvion Wicks. The Eagles traded fifth and sixth-round picks for him and signed Wicks to a one-year extension. Wicks’ familiarity with Mannion’s scheme and his ability to play on the outside should earn him plenty of routes early in the year, though it’s hard to see him amassing a fantasy-relevant target share over 17 games while competing with Lemon and Smith for opportunities. At best, Wicks looks like a “better in Best Ball” pick in the last round of drafts.
Dallas Goedert’s will they/won’t they relationship with the Eagles was extended through 2026 after some offseason turmoil, and it’s easy to see why the team is ready to move on. Goedert tied his career-low in yards per route run last year at 1.3 and set a new lows in PFF receiving grade (69.1) and YAC per catch (4.2). His poor efficiency, however, was more than offset by 11 touchdowns. He tied for the second-most red zone touchdowns while ranking 22nd in red zone targets, a feat he is unlikely to accomplish two years in a row.
Beyond the impending touchdown regression, rookie tight end Eli Stowers will also be an issue for Goedert. Stowers was a de facto receiver at Vanderbilt, compiling 111 receptions for 1,407 yards and nine scores in his two seasons as their starting tight end. He ran two-thirds of his routes from the slot in 2025 and didn’t bring much value as a blocker. At 6’4/239, Stowers isn’t likely to be a plus blocker at any point during his pro career. Stowers might not carve out a role big enough for fantasy managers to care about this year, but he specializes in receiving production. Even a relatively low number of weekly snaps could take a painful chunk of Godert’s fantasy output off the table.
Running Game
RB: Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, Will Shipley
OL (L-R): Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Lane Johnson
Saquon Barkley was always going to regress from his record-setting 2024 season, but 2025 was a harsh wake-up call even for fantasy managers who had their expectations in check. Philly’s offensive line took a step back, creating fewer holes for Barkley, and he is the type of back who thrives on big openings and struggles when frequently met behind the line of scrimmage. ESPN’s player-tracking data had the Eagles with the ninth-best run-block win-rate two years ago. That fell to 16th last year. Barkley was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage at a slightly higher rate and struggled mightily when that happened. He averaged .9 YPC on these attempts, a mark that would have put him at dead last in the NFL had it not been for Kyle Monangai. Barkley logged 125 such carries and did not score a touchdown on any of them. He averaged an impressive 6.6 YPC when he made it past the line of scrimmage without being touched. All in, Barkley went from 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns to 1,140 and seven, tanking his fantasy stock given the first-round cost.
The good news is that Barkley’s workhorse role remained unchanged. His snap share and carry share increased slightly to 79 and 70 percent. Barkley’s solid but not elite target share of 12 percent in 2024 held steady into 2025. If the offense turns around, Barkley will rebound with it. He will also be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a healthier offensive line. Lane Johnson missed half the year with a Lisfranc injury and Landon Dickerson played through knee issues throughout the season. Better coaching should also help get the most out of an extremely talented unit.
There isn’t much going on behind Barkley. Tank Bigsby was acquired via trade early in the season last year. He batted cleanup for the Eagles and gashed defenses for 5.9 yards per carry, though he only saw more than nine carries twice. One of those games was Week 18, when Philly rested its starters. Bigsby’s 3.8 yards after contact per carry ranked third among all running backs with at least 50 attempts. He would inherit most of Barkley’s carries if anything happened to the superstar runner, making Bigsby an elite handcuff option, albeit with zero standalone value.
Will Shipley would likely handle some work on passing downs in that scenario, but not enough to be relevant for fantasy purposes. He is multiple injuries away from hitting fantasy lineups.
2026 Philadelphia Eagles Win Total
DraftKings Over/Under: 10.5
Pick: Under (-140)
In my heart, I want to pick the over, but -140 for the under is a better price than you can find at most books. It’s easy to see why books think the Eagles aren’t likely to hit 11 wins. They lost several starters in free agency and drafted for the future. Makai Lemon isn’t going to fully replace A.J. Brown as a rookie and none of their subsequent picks are projected to start in 2026. Howie Roseman sacrificed some short-term win probability to build a better team in the long run, and that is enough to convince me to take the value on the under.