Fantasy Football Player Notes

A.J. Brown was everything the Eagles could have hoped for after making the trade in the offseason. Brown finished as the WR8 in fantasy with career highs across the board. The concerns about Jalen Hurts supporting an elite wide receiver in fantasy quickly dissipated. He was eighth in raw target volume (146), seventh in deep targets, and 12th in red zone looks. Brown is entering his prime (age 26 season) with an ascending elite quarterback in one of the best offenses in football. Brown is a locked-in WR1 in 2023.

The Eagles utilized DeVonta Smith in a different role in 2022 than during his rookie season, and the results were beautiful. In 2021 Smith was ninth in deep targets and sixth in aDOT among wide receivers as Philly rolled him out a field stretcher. While Smith was solid in this role, his upside as a zone-destroying intermediate-level threat was seized in 2022. Smith still finished 19th in deep targets among wideouts, but his aDOT dropped to 9.9 (65th) as he began to gobble up targets. Smith was 13th in targets (136), 14th in target share (27.0%), and 19th in target per route run rate (26.2%). He finished with 95 receptions (ninth-best), 1,196 receiving yards (eighth), and seven total touchdowns (14th) as the WR14 in fantasy. Smith was 18th in PFF receiving grade and yards per route run (minimum 50 targets, per PFF). With a consolidated target tree and an ascending quarterback talent in Philly, Smith is poised to be a solid WR2 again in 2023.