First, congratulations to Tony Silveria for getting closest to the final score, picking Philly to win 27-20. Now on to the fantasy portion of this column . . .
First, Saquon Barkley clearly is playing on another level -- a level we haven't seen since his 2018 rookie campaign. This is the guy who so many scouts believed was a generational talent coming out of college. This is also the guy who's been plagued by injuries, missing 24 contests in his previous five seasons. In terms of advanced metrics like yards-after-first-contact and broke-tackle rate, he's not materially better than in other campaigns.
So how is he averaging 5.8 yards per carry? For starters, entering last night he was averaging 3.8 yards before first contact, second only to Jahmyr Gibbs' 4.0 YBC. Who's #3? Derrick Henry with "only" 3.3 YBC. That's a steep drop-off, relatively speaking.
Also for context, last season the Eagles' D'Andre Swift averaged 2.8 YBC -- the league's fourth-highest mark. Running behind the Bears' o-line this year, he's averaging a more pedestrian 2.1. In 2022, Philly's Miles Sanders averaged 3.2 YBC -- also the league's fourth-highest mark. In the two years since, he's averaged 1.6 and 2.1.
Some managers questioned the strength of Philadelphia's offensive line this summer, though many prognosticators believed the loss of Jason Kelce wouldn't be as horrendous as some envisioned. Barkley deserves a ton of credit for what he's done. But it's fair to say that he's running behind the best o-line of his career, not unlike Swift before him, and not unlike Sanders before Swift.
Elsewhere, Jalen Hurts had fewer than two TDs for the first time since September 22nd. That's a long time. Despite the "poor" performance, he was still quite startable. The same goes for Dallas Goedert (who's scored only once), and the same almost goes for A.J. Brown (who hasn't scored these past four games). As always, it's a bit tricky betting Eagle receivers. While Hurts is enjoying a career-high 8.4 yards per pass attempt, he's not throwing enough to consistently feed more than one guy.
For Washington, Brian Robinson did much better than expected, though Austin Ekeler topped him with a vintage 8-89 receiving line. The latter's outburst kind of came out of nowhere; he hadn't collected more than four catches in any contest this year. It came partially at the expense of Terry McLaurin and the recently productive Noah Brown. The only receiver who did much was Zach Ertz, who's on pace to earn his most receptions and most receiving yards since 2019.
Finally, is Jayden Daniels hitting a rookie wall? He's struggled in his last two outings. Most managers are now accustomed to rolling him out there. Do we need to take a step back? Well, he's got Dallas next week, and the Cowboys are yielding the fourth-most QB fantasy points per game and the fifth-most RB fantasy points, along with the most QB rushing scores. Could/should be a get-right game, especially with the Dak-Prescott-less Cowboys struggling to sustain drives.
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