The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Los Angeles Rams in Week 12. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Eagles and Rams skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 12 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Philadelphia Eagles Start-Sit Advice
Jalen Hurts, QB
It’s hard to contextualize this run of production. Jalen Hurts now has at least 11 rushing touchdowns in three straight seasons. Some players without three such seasons on their NFL résumés include Christian McCaffrey, Jerome Bettis, Tiki Barber, and Arian Foster.
I don’t love the fact that Hurts has only four games this season with multiple touchdown passes, but given how stable his rushing production is, it really doesn’t matter. How do you slow down a unique athlete like this? In theory, you keep him in the pocket, but Hurts has honed that aspect of his game.
In-pocket production, 2024:
- 75.2% completion percentage
- 40.5% first-down rate
- 9.2 yards per attempt
Hurts is the best goal-line player in the game while producing in a similar fashion from the pocket as Joe Burrow. Only time will tell if the Eagles can have success in the postseason, but in terms of our game, there hasn’t been a more reliable option for going on three seasons.
Saquon Barkley, RB
Saquon Barkley is the fifth player since the 1970 merger with at least 1,300 scrimmage yards and 10 scores in his first 10 games with a franchise, joining Ezekiel Elliott (2016), Adrian Peterson (2007), Eric Dickerson (1983), and Billy Sims (1980).
The production relative to expectation (+29.5%) is easily a career best (his first season with a positive return since 2019), and it’s coming exactly how we thought it would — a 167.3% spike in yards per carry before contact.
Is it irritating that the man has been tackled inside the 3-yard line 11 times this season and has just one touchdown to show for those possessions? Of course, it is. But when modern-day Barry Sanders is handling 22 touches per game for a team operating with a positive game script on a regular basis, you thank your lucky stars for the privilege of starting Barkley every week.
A Pittsburgh matchup in Week 15 looms, but around that are games against the Panthers, Commanders, and Cowboys. Barkley has been among the most valuable high-end assets in fantasy this season, and there’s no reason to think that momentum slows as the weather cools.
A.J. Brown, WR
A.J. Brown hasn’t been quite the star you were hoping for when you drafted him this summer, that’s just a fact. He doesn’t have more than six catches in a game this season and has failed to score in four straight in addition to missing time early in the season.
Take a deep breath and understand that the advanced metrics are working in your favor as we come down the stretch.
Brown’s on-field target share is spot on with expectations (26.1% this season; career rate: 25.9%), and his efficiency is on a career pace in every measure (fantasy points per target, yards per route, and EPA per opportunity).
The overall pass volume in Philadelphia has been the problem, and that may not correct itself; if it does, Brown has the potential to be the top-scoring player at the position the rest of the way.
The Eagles face four viable quarterbacks over the next five weeks (Matthew Stafford, Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, and Jayden Daniels — this time not on a goofy short week), and that could result in this team getting pushed at a level we haven’t seen lately.
Maybe I’m overthinking this, but Saquon Barkley is being used as a bellcow and has played in the postseason one time in his career. Could the Eagles opt to manage his reps down the stretch of the regular season, thus opening up more opportunities for Brown and this passing game?
Even if I’m wrong in my effort to play 3D chess, Brown is a locked-in WR1. If I’m right, you’re winning your league because you have this monster in your lineup every week.
Dallas Goedert, TE
Dallas Goedert’s skill set might not be flashy, but he’s reached double figures in PPR points in each of his past four healthy games and is averaging north of 2.0 fantasy points per target for the third time in four seasons.
The volume is never going to overwhelm given the level of talent playing alongside him, but his 20.6% on-field target share is pacing for the best mark of his career. With an aDOT that is up 30.9% from last year, there’s more upside in this profile than you may assume.
Talent-wise, Goedert may not be much different than anyone in this third tier of tight end, but in an offense that I trust to put him in a position to get valuable looks consistently, he’s a weekly starter for me; that’s true this week against a bottom-10 defense when defending tight ends in terms of touchdown rate, completion percentage, and yards per reception.
Los Angeles Rams Start-Sit Advice
Matthew Stafford, QB
Matthew Stafford’s accuracy was on full display in New England on Sunday, and that is what it takes for a QB like this to return value. His 69-yard touchdown strike to Cooper Kupp was placed perfectly to beat the Cover 0 defense, and he dropped a 19-yard dime into the bucket for a Colby Parkinson score.
He’s been strong in the four weeks since getting his two receivers back (go figure!), posting a 6.6% pass touchdown rate, up from 1.5% through Week 7. That all sounds great, but guess what? He’s only the 10th-best per-game QB over that stretch, one that resembles much more of a ceiling than a realistic expectation.
We know the Eagles have the ability to sustain long drives, something that limits the possession count, and they are the fifth-best red-zone defense in the league. I’m not confident in projecting top-15 numbers for a pocket passer like Stafford in this matchup — I’d rather take my chances on Anthony Richardson (vs. DET) this week.
Kyren Williams, RB
Kyren Williams is an auto-start due to his role and the upside of this offense, but there is no denying that there is more risk in this profile today than there was a month ago.
That’s now three straight games finishing outside of the top 20 for Williams, a run that has, not surprisingly, coincided with his touchdown “drought.” The scoring opportunities will sort themselves out with time, though this isn’t the week to bank on that with the Eagles giving rushing scores to opposing running backs at the third-lowest rate through 11 weeks.
What has me more worried was the zero-target showing from last week, his second such game of the season. If that sustains, there is a week-ruining floor to at least consider moving forward.
You’re not making any actionable changes, though I would lower expectations a touch from where they stood not long ago.
Cooper Kupp, WR
Cooper Kupp has scored or caught 7+ passes in all four games since his return from injury, highlighted by a two-score game last week in New England. That performance was buoyed by a 69-yard strike that came as the result of the Patriots bringing an all-out blitz. It’s a play that counts but not one that I expect too many teams to tempt fate with against this offense at full strength.
There’s one minor concern to consider in this specific matchup, but we are splitting hairs.
Weeks 1-9:
- Puka Nacua: 11.3 aDOT
- Cooper Kupp: 6.0 aDOT
Weeks 10-11:
- Nacua: 11.0 aDOT
- Kupp: 10.5 aDOT
It’s a small sample and, in general, Kupp’s lengthening of his target is a net positive, but the Eagles allow the fewest 15+ yard WR receptions per game (2.5), and with Nacua being the more efficient downfield threat (7.6% more yards per route run), that brings in a bit more risk than you might assume in this spot.
I prefer Nacua to Kupp this week, but both are top-15 plays that you’re locking in without a second thought.
Demarcus Robinson, WR
The Rams are back to functioning at a high level (26+ points scored in three of their past four games), and we all know what that means — an ultra-condensed distribution of touches.
In last week’s win over the Patriots, Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp saw 70.4% of Matthew Stafford’s targets. Add in the elite scoring ways of Kyren Williams when Los Angeles reaches the red zone, and the path for Demarcus Robinson to fall into fantasy value is close to nonexistent.
Robinson bridged October and November with a pair of multi-score games, and that resulted in him being rostered with confidence. With his teammates back at full strength, Robinson is on the chopping block if you need to create roster space.
Puka Nacua, WR
If you extend Puka Nacua’s past five regular-season games in which he has been on the field for at least half the offensive snaps, his 17-game pace is 126 catches for 2,071 yards and seven scores.
Yes, he’s that good. We saw it on the 38-yard catch-and-run on Los Angeles’ first drive last week, we saw it again on his sprawling 12-yard touchdown (somehow his first score of the season), and we see it seemingly every week from this second-year star.
PUKA. NACUA.
📺: @NFLonFOX | #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/YqWw9l9ikK
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) November 17, 2024
We’ve seen four WR1s victimize the Eagles for 20+ PPR points (Jayden Reed, Chris Olave, Mike Evans, and Ja’Marr Chase). While Cooper Kupp is great, Nacua, who has seen his yards per route, target share, and red-zone target rate all improve from his historic rookie campaign, profiles as the top dog in this passing game.