The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Eagles skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 12 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Jalen Hurts, QB
It’s hard to contextualize this run of production. Jalen Hurts now has at least 11 rushing touchdowns in three straight seasons. Some players without three such seasons on their NFL résumés include Christian McCaffrey, Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber, and Arian Foster.
I don’t love the fact that Hurts has only four games this season with multiple touchdown passes, but given how stable his rushing production is, it really doesn’t matter. How do you slow down a unique athlete like this? In theory, you keep him in the pocket, but Hurts has honed that aspect of his game.
In-pocket production, 2024:
- 75.2% completion percentage
- 40.5% first-down rate
- 9.2 yards per attempt
Hurts is the best goal-line player in the game while producing in a similar fashion from the pocket as Joe Burrow. Only time will tell if the Eagles can have success in the postseason, but in terms of our game, there hasn’t been a more reliable option for going on three seasons.
Saquon Barkley, RB
Saquon Barkley is the fifth player since the 1970 merger with at least 1,300 scrimmage yards and 10 scores in his first 10 games with a franchise, joining Ezekiel Elliott (2016), Adrian Peterson (2007), Eric Dickerson (1983), and Billy Sims (1980).
The production relative to expectation (+29.5%) is easily a career best (his first season with a positive return since 2019), and it’s coming exactly how we thought it would — a 167.3% spike in yards per carry before contact.
Is it irritating that the man has been tackled inside the 3-yard line 11 times this season and has just one touchdown to show for those possessions? Of course, it is. But when modern-day Barry Sanders is handling 22 touches per game for a team operating with a positive game script on a regular basis, you thank your lucky stars for the privilege of starting Barkley every week.
A Pittsburgh matchup in Week 15 looms, but around that are games against the Panthers, Commanders, and Cowboys. Barkley has been among the most valuable high-end assets in fantasy this season, and there’s no reason to think that momentum slows as the weather cools.
A.J. Brown, WR
A.J. Brown hasn’t been quite the star you were hoping for when you drafted him this summer, that’s just a fact. He doesn’t have more than six catches in a game this season and has failed to score in four straight in addition to missing time early in the season.
Take a deep breath and understand that the advanced metrics are working in your favor as we come down the stretch.
Brown’s on-field target share is spot on with expectations (26.1% this season; career rate: 25.9%), and his efficiency is on a career pace in every measure (fantasy points per target, yards per route, and EPA per opportunity).
The overall pass volume in Philadelphia has been the problem, and that may not correct itself; if it does, Brown has the potential to be the top-scoring player at the position the rest of the way.
The Eagles face four viable quarterbacks over the next five weeks (Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, and Jayden Daniels — this time not on a goofy short week), and that could result in this team getting pushed at a level we haven’t seen lately.
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but Saquon Barkley is being used as a bellcow and has played in the postseason one time in his career. Could the Eagles opt to manage his reps down the stretch of the regular season, thus opening up more opportunities for Brown and this passing game?
Even if I’m wrong in my effort to play 3D chess, Brown is a locked-in WR1. If I’m right, you’re winning your league because you have this monster in your lineup every week.
DeVonta Smith, WR
It’s OK to be frustrated with DeVonta Smith, but it’s not OK to be surprised by him. He fell flat on his birthday against the Commanders last week, but this is who he is as a fantasy asset.
- In 2022, Smith cleared 1,000 yards and scored seven times — he failed to clear 50 yards seven times
- In 2023, Smith cleared 1,000 yards and scored seven times — he failed to clear 50 yards seven times
His fantasy points per target have increased each season of his career while his current aDOT and target share are right in line with where his career marks are. Was the Week 11 disappointment projectable?
Washington entered the game trending up in pressure rate, and Smith’s target share is 9.4 percentage points lower when Jalen Hurts is sped up than when he’s not since 2023. We should be on the plus side of that trend this week against a Rams defense that ranks below league average in both pressure and blitz rate, making Smith a plenty viable option to click into your lineup, even after consecutive air balls.
Dallas Goedert, TE
Dallas Goedert’s skill set might not be flashy, but he’s reached double figures in PPR points in each of his past four healthy games and is averaging north of 2.0 fantasy points per target for the third time in four seasons.
The volume is never going to overwhelm given the level of talent playing alongside him, but his 20.6% on-field target share is pacing for the best mark of his career. With an aDOT that is up 30.9% from last year, there’s more upside in this profile than you may assume.
Talent-wise, Goedert may not be much different than anyone in this third tier of tight end, but in an offense that I trust to put him in a position to get valuable looks consistently, he’s a weekly starter for me; that’s true this week against a bottom-10 defense when defending tight ends in terms of touchdown rate, completion percentage, and yards per reception.