The Philadelphia Eagles will face the Carolina Panthers in Week 14. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Eagles skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 14 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Jalen Hurts, QB
It’s been over a month since the last time Jalen Hurts threw for 225 yards, and it simply hasn’t mattered. With 12 rushing scores this season, the floor is nothing short of elite in this profile. I expect that to again make him a Tier 1 producer at the position in this advantageous matchup.
Hurts has dialed back his passing aggression a touch (his average depth of throw is down 7% from 2023), and it’s resulted in a significant efficiency spike.
Yards per pass:
- 2023: 7.2
- 2024: 8.2
Passing touchdown rate:
- 2023: 4.3%
- 2024: 4.6%
Interception rate:
- 2023: 2.8%
- 2024: 1.6%
You’re starting Hurts weekly and loving life as a result. The hope is that he can have his full complement of weapons come fantasy Super Bowl time (Weeks 16-17: Commanders and Cowboys), and if that proves to be the case, he could carry your team to the finish line.
Saquon Barkley, RB
With just 44 rushing yards through three quarters last week against the Ravens, Saquon Barkley was at risk of underachieving for just the third time this season.
What a crazy thought.
He ran for 63 yards over the final 15 minutes, helping the Eagles earn a massive win in the process. The Panthers allow the fifth-most yards per carry this season (third-most before contact), making them vulnerable to a highlight-reel splash play from the Offensive Player of the Year front-runner.
It’ll be interesting to see how Barkley is treated in drafts this summer — he’s the best option at the position this week and for the remainder of the 2024 fantasy season.
A.J. Brown, WR
A.J. Brown is nothing short of an elite option, and that’s true with or without DeVonta Smith on the field. The Panthers allow passing touchdowns at the third-highest rate, and with a 30-point projection for the Eagles, Brown has plenty of scoring equity added to a profile that is lethal against anyone.
The Buccaneers showed zero hesitation in loading up Mike Evans with all of the usage he could handle (21 expected points, the highest by a receiver against Carolina this season), something I expect Philadelphia to mirror on Sunday.
Over the past month, Brown has rotated 100-yard games with sub-100-yard games … the Ravens held him to 66 yards on Sunday, so we are obviously locking in a triple-digit afternoon for this monster.
DeVonta Smith, WR
DeVonta Smith missed last week with a hamstring injury, and while there’s some hope that he is back on the field this week, the record of the Eagles affords them the ability to operate with patience for their agility-based wideout.
Smith was a target magnet early in the season, something that we know is in his profile but something that I have to see again before projecting it. The potency of this running game along with the health of Dallas Goedert makes Smith’s target projection rather unstable, and that’s assuming full strength.
In a perfect world, you have enough depth to take a wait-and-see approach here. If that’s not the case, you have a path to his upside against the second-worst EPA defense in the league, but you need to be aware of the risk involved.
Dallas Goedert, TE
Dallas Goedert has seen four end-zone targets in his four games back from injury and is essentially back to his full-time role.
That’s the good. The bad is the nature of this offense — even with a strong snap share, Goedert has failed to run 20 routes in consecutive games, something that caps his production in a significant way.
If the route/target count only has so much room to impress, efficiency is going to have to be the name of the game for Goedert to pay off being trusted by fantasy managers. For the season, his 82.6% catch rate is a good start, though I worry that his last seven receptions have gained just 54 yards.
If you thought Philadelphia was run-heavy last week (33 rush attempts against 19 passes) in Baltimore, what do you think is going to happen with Carolina coming to town?
For me, this is a DeVonta Smith discussion. The burner sat out last week (hamstring), and if that’s the case again on Sunday, I think you can get away with starting Goedert. If not, and this is where I currently lean with Smith not being far from suiting up last week, Goedert slips below my comfort tier and resides in the streamer range at the position.