Fantasy Football Player Notes

It is hard to come up with a rational argument against making Saquon Barkley the overall RB1 this week in all formats. Barkley enters Week 14 with 271.1 total fantasy points in Half-PPR scoring this season. Derrick Henry and Ja'Marr Chase are the only other non-quarterbacks with more than 206 fantasy points. Barkley has finished as a top-three weekly fantasy back in half of his 12 games this year. And this week, he gets arguably his best matchup of the season. The Eagles will host the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon. Carolina ranks 31st in the NFL in DVOA and EPA versus the run and has allowed the most fantasy points to the position. This is an absolute smash spot for Barkley, who has his eyes set on the NFL's single-season rushing record.

A.J. Brown continues to be phenomenal in terms of production on a per-target basis. The problem is that the targets have not always come in bunches. That is primarily because the Eagles have dialed back the passing game with Saquon Barkley running wild and Jalen Hurts rushing for double-digit touchdowns already this year. In eight games since Brown has returned to the lineup, Hurts has averaged just 21.5 pass attempts per game. Brown has earned a 30.2 percent target share on those looks, but he has not surpassed six receptions in any game this year. Brown should continue to be an effective and efficient WR1, even if the volume is not what we would all like it to be.

Smith will be back this week. He has practiced in full all week and doesn't carry an injury designation this week. Smith has fallen to WR32 in fantasy points per game as Philly has moved toward a lower-volume passing offense. With the decreased passing volume, Smith has been incredibly volatile for fantasy football. Across his last five games played, Smith has finished as a top 24 wide receiver in weekly scoring twice (WR7, WR13), but he has also finished outside the top 50 fantasy wideouts three times (WR102, WR71, WR54). Since Week 7, Smith has had a 21.1% target share (4.6 targets per game), 1.70 YPRR (42.6 receiving yards per game), and a 30.4% first-read share. During that span, he has only two red zone targets. Since Week 8, Carolina has allowed the 13th-most receiving yards per game to perimeter wide receivers while also holding them to the fifth-fewest PPR points per target. Smith could return decent numbers this week, but the range of outcomes for his Week 14 performance is wide.

With Dallas Goedert back on the shelf, Calcaterra reenters the streaming tight-end conversation for Week 14. During his four-game run earlier this season as the team's starter, he had one TE1 weekly finish and one red zone target. During that span, he had an 82.5% route share, a 15.5% target share, 1.88 yards per route run, and a 12.7% first-read share. Calcaterra couldn't ask for a better matchup this week. Carolina has allowed the eighth-most receiving yards and the most fantasy points per game to tight ends.