Eagles News: DeVonta Smith among rookies with most fantasy football potential

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The 14 NFL Rookies With the Most Fantasy Football Potential in 2021 - The Ringer
5. WR DeVonta Smith, Eagles: The concerns about the Heisman Trophy winner’s size are legitimate, but they won’t matter too much if Smith can get open consistently. Smith will benefit greatly from motion looks and lining up off the line of scrimmage to avoid getting pressed out of plays in year one, and I’m confident he’ll find his way into fringe WR3/flex territory by midseason, which makes him a viable eighth- or ninth-round fantasy pick in 12-team PPR leagues. There’s some boom-or-bust fantasy potential here, especially with an unproven, mobile quarterback in Smith’s college teammate Jalen Hurts, but I’m betting on a top-35 fantasy finish for the former Crimson Tide receiver.

Fantasy Football: Top-5 rookie QB, RB, WR and TE for 2021 - PFF
2. Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith . The Eagles always stood out as one of the prime teams for a rookie WR to land, let alone before Smith got to reunite with former teammate Jalen Hurts. Obviously the Eagles’ rising second-year QB isn’t the most polished passer in the world; he still threw for 300-plus yards in two of his four starts as a rookie. Even if Jalen Reagor works as the No. 1 WR (I wouldn’t be on it), there should be enough volume for Smith to have a target total beginning with a one. I’m not down on Smith because of his size, and clearly the Eagles aren’t either. Smith is not a full tier below Chase; this is more of a 1.A/1.B situation. Still, Chase’ superior size and offense has me leaning toward the LSU talent at the moment. Here’s to hoping Smith is utilized to the best of his talents and feasts from the slot with plenty of pre-snap motion along the way.

Rookie wide receiver dynasty rankings for 2021 fantasy football - DraftKings Nation
The NFL Draft is officially in the books and players have been sorted into their respective houses. It’s now time to take a look at those draftees and where they fall in the rookie rankings. This was a good year for wide receivers, but evaluations are all over the board. If you like a receiver, there’s a real chance your league mates won’t like him as much as you do. Of course the top three guys are ahead of the pack enough to be the first three picked, but after that it’s a bit of a free-for-all. Ja’Marr Chase, DeVonta Smith and Jaylen Waddle are considered the best three receivers in the draft. That’s the order I’ve had them in from the start and their new teams haven’t changed that.

Chiefs offensive line, Eagles receivers: Which position groups among NFL’s 32 teams improved most in NFL Draft? - The Athletic
Philadelphia Eagles: Wide receiver. The Eagles improved their depth at defensive tackle more than any position, but the position that improved the most was wide receiver. By adding DeVonta Smith in the first round, the Eagles didn’t just add their No. 1 wide receiver. They also improved the rest of the lineup by pushing everyone else down a spot. Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner, was a prolific wide receiver in college who will be featured in new coach Nick Sirianni’s offense. There will be less pressure on 2020 first-round pick Jalen Reagor, who makes more sense as a complementary player than the lead receiver. If Travis Fulgham can show he’s closer to the player from October than November, the Eagles will have a young group to build around for years. The key was adding Smith.

Grading the Eagles’ 2021 NFL Draft class - BGN
I couldn’t possibly be more confident in Smith being an awesome NFL player. Which is exactly why I made a thorough case for the Birds selecting him with their first-round pick. When Angelo Cataldi asked Howie Roseman to explain what he loves about Smith, Roseman replied: “What isn’t there to love?” And it’s a fair point. Smith doesn’t really have any significant weaknesses. But he’s only 166 pounds! Couldn’t care less. There’s nothing about his weight that has manifested into a concern thus far. He hasn’t had durability issues and he thrived against press coverage. Smith is going to make an instant impact. He can line up at multiple positions, which Nick Sirianni indicated is the plan for him. Smith figures to be a volume target for Philly but it’s not like they’ll merely be relying on him to move the chains. He’s a threat at every level of the field. I could really go on about DeVonta forever. It’s impossible to not get excited about him when you consider the marriage of his talent with his insatiable desire to be truly great. I truly believe he has the potential to be the football version of Allen Iverson in Philadelphia. This is a future star we’re talking about here. A true difference-maker. Kudos to Roseman for being aggressive and trading ahead of the New York Giants to make sure Smith ended up in Philly instead of North Jersey.

NFC East Mixtape Vol.3: Draft recap, Division Grades + Division Favorite - BGN Radio
RJ Ochoa jumpstarts the show by accusing DeVonta Smith of being a fraud! Later in the show, Brandon Lee Gowton and RJ Ochoa recap the draft class for each team in the division and hand out grades to every one.

Helping Hurts - Iggles Blitz
Jalen Hurts showed us NFL talent in his four starts as a rookie. He also showed that he’s got plenty to work on. He was very hot and cold. When things were good, the offense was impressive. When things weren’t so good, he looked like a rookie who had no idea what he was doing. In his defense, he played behind a makeshift offensive line. He didn’t have great skill players. Hurts is talented, but he’s not one of the rare QBs who can put a team on his shoulders and overcome mediocrity. As we saw in the Super Bowl, even a guy like Patrick Mahomes will struggle when he doesn’t have the right pieces around him. The Eagles want to see what Hurts can do this year. One of the keys to the offseason was building around him so he would have a chance to succeed. The first order of business was the coaching change. Last year the offense was hampered by a group of coaches that were forced on each other and didn’t work great together.

Eagles winners and losers from the draft - NBCSP
LOSERS — Zach Ertz: He’s still here. There seemed to be a chance Ertz would be traded during the draft and that didn’t happen. Not only that, but the Eagles didn’t even draft a tight end, which would’ve made it even easier to move him. I still don’t expect Ertz to return for 2021 but he’s probably getting more frustrated the longer this takes.

One-on-One: Milton Williams | May 4, 2021 - PE.com
Get to know third-round pick Milton Williams in this exclusive interview with Eagles Insider Dave Spadaro.

The entire state of the NFC East could look very different if Washington hadn’t won it in 2020 - Blogging The Boys
What if Philadelphia hadn’t done that and had gone on to win? What if Washington lost is really the point. The New York Giants would have been the NFC East champions and therefore would have been around the 19th overall pick last week where Washington was while the Football Team would have been around 11 where New York sat. The reason that this is particularly interesting is that the 11th overall pick was where the final notable quarterback of the first round wound up going, no disrespect to Mac Jones but draft minds are not high on him, granted not to the Giants. The Chicago Bears traded up with New York to land Ohio State’s Justin Fields. Imagine if Washington had been sitting in that spot as opposed to New York.

Aaron Rodgers trade offers: Seven NFL teams and proposals, ranked from least appealing to most attractive - ESPN+
Daniel Jones hasn’t shown enough to keep the Giants out of any quarterback trade discussions. I wrote in my column last week about how quarterbacks who start their careers with two below-par seasons across their first three years have struggled to turn into viable pro starters afterwards. Jones already has those two dismal seasons before even making it to Year 3. He has struggled to stay healthy, cost the Giants dearly with turnover problems and hasn’t shown any sort of natural feel for dealing with the pass rush. He wouldn’t net more than a midround pick at this point, and it’s difficult to see the Packers wanting him back as part of this deal. The Giants aren’t exactly close to winning the Super Bowl, but they’re desperate to become relevant again. They haven’t won a playoff game since the 2011 run to the Super Bowl; their lone foray into the postseason over the past nine years was a blowout loss to the Packers at Lambeau in 2016. Rodgers would inherit a deeper set of weapons than the ones he has in Green Bay, although he wouldn’t have anybody on Davante Adams’ level in his new digs. Slayton would be a cheap option to add to the receiving corps, although he might not profile as much better than Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

Five best offseasons in the NFL: Buccaneers, Patriots riding high - NFL.com
Quarterback Daniel Jones is heading into a sink-or-swim Year 3 — but never let it be said GM Dave Gettleman didn’t do everything in his power to give him the weapons needed to succeed. Receivers Kenny Golladay (signed on a four-year, $72 million contract) and Kadarius Toney (drafted 20th overall after Gettleman, yes, traded down!) and versatile tight end Kyle Rudolph (signed to a two-year, $14 million deal) join a skill-position group that will be further augmented by the return to health of running back Saquon Barkley. On defense, Gettleman secured a long-term agreement with centerpiece defensive lineman Leonard Williams. He also rolled the dice on comeback Adoree’ Jackson (three years, $39 million) rebounding from the knee injury that ruined his 2020 season. Another move that could pay huge dividends: snagging pass rusher Azeez Ojulari, a first-round talent who slipped to the second round

Why I liked the decision to draft long snapper Cameron Cheeseman - Hogs Haven
At 6’4” and 235 pounds coming out of college, Cameron Cheeseman has the prototypical size and was rated by most people who rate long snappers as the #1 prospect, slightly ahead of the smaller Crimson Tide long snapper, Thomas Fletcher, who was drafted this weekend by the Carolina Panthers. From Justin Albright, who carried Washington from the last millennium to this, to Nick Sundberg, who was the team’s 2019 nominee for the Walter Peyton Man of the Year award, to young Cameron Cheeseman, the Football Team is likely to see 3 men play for thirty years and three team names. That seems like good use of a sixth round pick to me. If I was going to doubt it for a moment, I would just start reciting names: Lache Seastrunk, Baccari Rambo, Evan Spenser, Tevin Mitchell....

The Palpably Unfair Podcast #34: The Aaron Rodgers Saga w/Justis Mosqueda - The SB Nation NFL Show
Michael Kist fills in for Kyle/Kate by sitting down with Justis Mosqueda to detail the current battle between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers! Tracing the origins of the feud back to 2005. Why winning didn’t cure all for Rodgers & Mike McCarthy. Ted Thompson falling asleep in meetings. Brian Gutekunst is Jerry Krause? What impact did the Jordan Love selection have? What does a Rodgers trade look like? And 10,000 other reasons why Aaron Rodgers is the pettiest man on the planet.

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