Eagles Fantasy Impact: Initial Impressions

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The Eagles have a slew of fantasy producers thanks to a high-speed, versatile attack, and a defense focused on what matters most in the majority of fantasy leagues—pass rush and picks. Here's a look at how the Eagles fared in the fantasy world, which in most cases was not entirely unlike how they did in reality.

Michael Vick: While it wasn't quite as productive as he often was in 2010, Vick put up very good fantasy numbers in scoring a pair of touchdowns and racking up 98 yards on the ground. Hopefully Vick owners didn't lose by four points or less, since Vick had 100 yards on the ground (good for a bonus in most leagues) before kneeling it out to end the game. Vick was pick-free in his 2011 debut, but also stayed under 200 yards passing and lost a fumble. In my league, Vick was tied for 8th in QB points with Joe Flacco and just two points separated him from the 15th most productive QB in the most pass-happy weekend of all time (13 QBs topped 300 yards). After the Rams offense sputtered out, Vick didn't find himself in a shootout as so many of his compatriots around the league did. Still, it's unlikely you're blaming Vick if you lost in Week 1. Former Eagle and current Vick text buddy Kevin Kolb had a better day throwing the ball (300+, 2 TD, 0 picks), but roughly equivalent fantasy production in his debut for the Cardinals (thanks to Vick's rushing yards). Hard not to be happy for the guy.

LeSean McCoy: Shady was among the top producers at the RB position this week, along with Ray Rice. Despite seeing only 17 touches (15 rushing, 2 receiving), McCoy showed that he doesn't need to be a high-volume guy to give you big production, scoring in both facets of the game, including a 49-yard TD run in a huge fourth quarter. Shady comfortably topped 100 yards rushing to nab the bonus, though his receiving was relatively pedestrian aside from the whole scoring-a-TD thing. I was somewhat surprised we didn't see more of Ronnie Brown late in the game, but for fantasy purposes, I'm not sure I want to be even discussing an Eagles backup RB. According to Sheil Kapadia's numbers in the great Man Up feature of his Moving the Chains blog, Dion Lewis had just one fewer snap played (4) than Brown, although fewer carries as well. According to FantasyGuru.com's weekly Targets column (subscription required), Brown did have two red zone carries though, one more than McCoy. That's a pretty small sample size to make any assessment on, so we won't.

DeSean Jackson: DJacc wasn't a target of mine in this year's draft because, especially in a Philly league, I assumed he'd be going a bit early for a guy who can be rather boom-or-bust in weekly head-to-head leagues. Good news for those who did take him as early as the late second round: He went fairly 'boom' in Week 1 despite not totally going off. Jackson hauled in six passes for 102 yards, including a beautiful touchdown. Jackson was targeted 12 times though, and had one huge drop, so the potential was there for an even bigger day. Only the week's four two-TD performers (Smith CAR, Welker, Britt, Megatron) had considerably better numbers than the next tier of WRs, which included Jackson and a handful of others.

Jeremy Maclin: While he may have some solid value this season, Maclin shouldn't have been in Week 1 lineups, and probably wasn't in many standard leagues. He had just one catch for 20 yards, despite getting a lot of playing time. The passing attack was somewhat quiet overall after the Eagles grabbed a big lead; Maclin's production should be higher in the weeks to come.

Steve Smith, Jason Avant, Riley Cooper: None of these guys are up for consideration in standard leagues at this time, though their combined presence on the field at various times should help Jackson and Maclin get loose more often, as well as open up some space for McCoy and Vick to takeoff. Of the three, Avant was the most productive, with three catches for 40 yards. He'll pull in some random TDs, but he's not an option I'd want to rely on in a fantasy season with so many home run threats. Smith was just getting his feet wet, and it's hard to tell at this point whether he'll have much value once up to speed barring injuries to either of the top guys. It's a longshot to think he'll emerge as a Vick favorite any time soon, and his previous production came as a high-volume guy for Eli Manning. Worth a stash if you have WR depth to burn and he didn't get drafted in your league though.

Brent Celek: One catch on three targets for 13 yards, helping a newly formed O-line protect Vick against Steve Spagnuolo's blitzing. In a league with ample startable tight ends even in 12-teamers, Celek is not currently one of them, as was the case last year. Kapadia had some great reviews of his blocking on some key plays, so this is no slight to #87, who has two jobs to do, and one of them doesn't help his own fantasy numbers as much as it does the guys listed above. I do think Brent will reward his diehards with some nice weeks and still could re-emerge as a goal line option as we saw once in the preseason. He's athletic enough to be a producer, but his role on the team isn't as fantasy friendly as many of the guys around the league right now. Perhaps that will change as we get further away from the offensive line's first week together.

Alex Henery: The rookie PK hit the only field goal he lined up for and was the kicker on a team that scored four touchdowns. I'd start him with confidence every week if I owned him, but he went in the second to last round of my league, which is a round earlier than I went K hunting. Your top fantasy producer of the week at this position? Mr. David Akers, who cranked four field goals and hit three PATs. Good on ya, Davey.

Eagles D/ST: Acquiring a pair of top corners may not actually add as much to the Eagles' pick totals as you might think, since no one will want to test the shutdown Nnamdi Asomugha or the ballhawk Asante Samuel too often, but their patrolling of the backfield should give the pass rush an extra second to get to the QB, which Jason Babin and company did on Sunday. The Eagles totaled five sacks, recovered a fumble, and took it to the house (there should be fantasy points for stiff-arming your own man, btw). Asante nearly had at least one pick, and was close on another. Next week poses a big test for this unit, but as we saw in Week 1, they may be in store for some Falcons turnovers too.

Waiver Watch: There aren't any Eagles I'd be targeting that can be found on most leagues' waivers after Week 1, especially in Philly, where we tend to overdraft our own. The team was a rather known fantasy quantity coming into, and despite the abundance of words, there are no surprises above. If you're interested in nicking some value off the wire, I'd recommend Razzball's column on this week's options.

We probably won't be doing this every week, more likely posting updates as trends emerge that are outside of what's expected. In Week 1, the Eagles went chalk in fantasy expectations.

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