The new NFL season lies just around the corner, meaning the fantasy football news cycle cranks up and hype trains begin to leave the station.
Everyone knows just how great the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense was last season en route to winning Super Bowl LIX — producing so many points, in fact, that offensive coordinator Kellen Moore was poached for the New Orleans Saints’ head coaching job. With Kevin Patullo taking over as OC for the reigning champs, we’re taking a look at how the new coach will impact the Philly offense and fantasy football stars like Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and A.J. Brown.
Will the Eagles keep pouring on the points this season? Can Barkley follow up his incredible RB2 overall campaign with another top-tier finish? Find all the answers below!
How will a new offensive coordinator impact the Eagles?
First off, let’s quell any major concerns Eagles fans and fantasy football managers may have following Kellen Moore’s departure — this team should still score plenty of points. Philadelphia returns every key piece at the skill positions and every starting offensive lineman besides Mekhi Becton, who departed in free agency. With a nearly-identical starting 11, there are essentially zero personnel questions to answer thanks to the much-valued continuity.
That continuity remains key in what the Eagles plan to do this season. Yes, Moore’s departure does mean Philadelphia loses a bright young mind at offensive coordinator who orchestrated some of the NFL’s best attacks in recent years. However, the crux of this offense shouldn’t change all that much this season due to the hiring of Kevin Patullo, a coach the franchise remains very familiar with.
Patullo enters his fifth year with the Eagles after serving as passing game coordinator from 2021-2024 and associate head coach over the last two seasons, meaning he’s well-acquainted with the team’s weapons and likely deserves some credit for turning Jalen Hurts into one of the NFL’s better quarterbacks. Philly saw multiple Super Bowl appearances over that span, including the Super Bowl LIX win, and the offense ranked seventh or better in scoring during each of the last three seasons.
While the team’s raw passing yardage typically fell in the bottom half of the NFL over that span, those marks are due to a run-heavy game plan — Philly never ranked higher than 21st in pass attempts over those four seasons. On the passes thrown though, the Eagles had a couple of very efficient seasons at seventh in Y/A last season and second in 2022, coming in at 14th or better during the other two years of this sample.
The Eagles’ offensive philosophy clearly works since they’re a perennial playoff team and just climbed the sport’s mountaintop. Considering the success, Patullo likely won’t change much as he steps into the offensive coordinator role. Philadelphia should continue running the ball at one of the league’s highest rates and punishing opponents who stack the box through the passing game. The one downside to the coaching change is Moore was known for some very creative play calls that Patullo may not be able to scheme up. There’s still plenty of talent to work with though.
Fantasy star fallout
Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley stole the show in fantasy football last season by averaging 22.2 FPPG in PPR (24.3 DKFP in DraftKings formats) en route to finishing as the overall RB2 behind only Jahmyr Gibbs. He ended the campaign roughly seven points behind Gibbs for the RB1 crown, so it was a very close call that went down to the final weeks. As the eighth-highest scoring player in all of fantasy, Barkley delivered game-breaking upside with one of the steadiest high-end floors in the league.
If the Eagles keep running the ball at a high rate as in recent years (spoiler: they almost certainly will), Barkley should put up another stellar year for fantasy managers. He’s coming off a season in which he ran the ball 345 times for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns with a very efficient 5.8 YPC. While not a focus in the passing game, Barkley also put up 33 catches for 278 yards and two scores on 43 targets. Make no mistake — the offense runs through the superstar. The only worry for Barkley is whether his body holds up with another massive workload after handling so many touches last season, but another top-12 finish is in the cards with health permitting.
Jalen Hurts
The passing game is where things get a tad more interesting. Again, expecting major changes to the way Philadelphia attacks the field doesn’t seem like a good bet as Patullo has served as the passing game coordinator for essentially Jalen Hurts’ whole career. However, projecting a slight bump to the pass catchers does make some sense if Barkley’s workload or the overall run game attempts decrease a little bit just to keep the star halfback healthy.
Hurts appeared in 15 games last season and finished with 21.0 FPPG across most formats (21.9 DKFP) as the overall QB8. He contributed his typical share of touches on the ground with 150 attempts for 630 yards and 14 touchdowns, a mark he can hit again since the patented tush push survived offseason votes to ban the play. Hurts’ passing numbers were down significantly on a per-game basis at just 193.5 YPG compared to his 226.9 in the season prior, but the Eagles didn’t really need to throw the ball all that much since they led so often on the backs of the run game.
While he finished with just 18 passing touchdowns, he probably would have matched his usual touchdown tally of 22-23 scores had he not missed a couple of games. Perhaps the best indicator for future success is Hurts’ career-high completion percentage of 68.7% as well as 8.0 Y/A which ties for another career-high. If he can keep those numbers up, Hurts can continue to produce great fantasy lines despite operating in one of the NFL’s lowest-volume passing offenses.
A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith
There’s some context to consider in that wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith played just 13 games apiece last season. With those guys sidelined, the team leaned a little more heavily on the run than usual which may have inflated some of the run game stats listed above. Still, Brown averaged 16.7 FPPG (17.8 DKFP) and finished WR12 in PPG and WR20 overall. Smith came in at 15.3 PPG (15.8 DKFP) with a WR17 PPG and WR27 overall campaign. Neither one saw 100 targets, a mark Brown saw in each of his first two seasons as an Eagle though he did play a full 17 games in both of those campaigns. Both players were a bit dependent on touchdowns and they actually accounted for 15 of Philadelphia’s 24 regular-season passing scores, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to replicate that production over a healthier 16 or 17-game campaign.
The passing volume does cause a hint of trepidation, but Brown should continue with fringe WR1 production as the team’s primary target through the air while Smith eats up a plenty of looks as the second-leading target earner. It’s worth noting that Smith posted a career-low 833 yards on 68 catches last season with an average reception of 12.2 yards, another career low. Still, those don’t feel like significant causes for concern since he could’ve experienced lingering effects of a concussion and hamstring injury — he’s probably due for a better campaign just due to sheer talent alone. Smith is still a player you can count on as a pretty steady WR2 or a high-end WR3.
Other names to watch
Tight end Dallas Goedert is a player who has put up some usable seasons in fantasy football, but he’s usually not an option to get too excited about. His 10.4 PPR FPPG (10.7 DKFP) were enough to finish as the TE10 on a per-game basis but he ended the year at TE28 overall after playing just 10 games. Expecting him to take a leap doesn’t feel realistic given the low passing volume limiting how many pass catchers the offense can support.
Really though, it’s probably best to count on Brown and Smith both getting their fair share of looks as usual but fading the rest of the receiving threats, including Goedert. A better year from Smith could eat into his target share and unless the Eagles throw the ball significantly more, this offense is capped out as far as pass-catching upside goes. Goedert should be serviceable enough at a thin position, but it’s safe to ignore the WR3 slot.
As for the RB2, Will Shipley looks like the leader for the job ahead of AJ Dillon, a former Green Bay Packer who missed all of last season with a neck injury before signing with the Eagles this offseason. Shipley is familiar with his team’s system and brings a little bit of upside as a receiving threat out of the backfield, but since Barkley rarely comes off the field, neither of the backup halfbacks can be counted on as a contributor in fantasy football. They’re handcuffs at best.
