Eagles News: DeVonta Smith will help you win your fantasy league

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles news and links …

Fantasy Football 2026: 5 league winners for drafts – PFF
WR DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles (ADP: 4.02). Smith has been a dependable fantasy starter during his time in the NFL, averaging at least 3.5 receptions and 50 receiving yards per game throughout his career. He’s ranked among the top 30 wide receivers in fantasy points per game in each of the last four seasons despite being the second option in the Eagles’ offense behind A.J. Brown. Smith has consistently graded between a 78.0 and 84.0 each season, putting him in the range of a great, but not elite, receiver. That’s culminated in an 89.4 career overall PFF grade, slotting 20th among wide receivers over the last five seasons. Because career grades reward sustained performance over larger samples, his sits above any single season’s mark. That is particularly impressive considering Smith’s career 20.5% target rate, tied for third-lowest among those 20 receivers. Smith has played more in the slot over the last two years than in his first three, but has improved most out wide. He posted an 89.9 PFF receiving grade out wide in 2025 with a 25.3% target rate. Smith also achieved 2.95 yards per route run when lined up out wide last season, tied for third-best behind Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Puka Nacua. Meanwhile, Smith’s grades in the slot have deteriorated over time. The Eagles traded away Brown and lost Jahan Dotson in free agency while adding Makai Lemon, Hollywood Brown and Dontayvion Wicks. Lemon will primarily be a slot receiver, while both Brown and Wicks have played inside at times in their careers. We should see a significant shift toward Smith playing out wide rather than in the slot. The departure of Brown should help Smith’s target rate.

2026 Dynasty Riser, Faller and Longshot Predictions: Philadelphia Eagles – Dynasty League Football
RISER: DeVonta Smith […] A.J. Brown has seen more targets, receptions and yards in every season for the Eagles since 2022 than Smith. While Smith is a fantastic receiver, Brown is more of the typical WR1 archetype as a bigger-bodied alpha. What’s notable is that in games without Brown, per Fantasy Points, Smith has been the WR8 in yards per route run, WR6 in targets per route run and WR4 in expected fantasy points per route run since 2022. With Brown leaving the team, Smith has a chance to leap into an alpha role – both for fantasy and on the field.

LeBron James joins Michael Jordan in Philadelphia – BGN
What was first just a dream has become a frightening reality for those who may oppose the City of Brotherly Love. Philadelphia now has both Michael Jordan AND LeBron James. Wow!

Mike Gansey has orchestrated the greatest offseason in Philadelphia 76ers history – Liberty Ballers
That transformation set the stage for the final stroke in Mike Gansey’s offseason masterpiece: the signing of LeBron James. The greatest NBA player of his generation is going to suit up for the Philadelphia 76ers. Now, I’m not going to suggest Gansey is personally responsible for James coming. More than anyone else in the league, LeBron has his own personal agency over how things will unfold in his career. The Klutch connection with Tyrese Maxey played a large part, I’m sure. But you can’t deny Gansey and LeBron being friendly from their Mr. Ohio Basketball days playing some sort of role. And everything else Gansey did with this roster allowed LeBron to view himself as a final missing piece in potentially bringing a championship to Philadelphia. If he was going to set aside personal history with his childhood home in Cleveland or somewhere where he spent a lot of years in Miami, it had to be for basketball reasons. This roster allowed Gansey and Bob Myers and whoever else to make the “basketball reasons” case to LeBron. The Sixers team that get swept by the Knicks in May isn’t snagging King James.

LeBron James signs with Philadelphia 76ers on stunning 2-year deal – SB Nation
LeBron James is trying to win the NBA’s GOAT argument on longevity, and he’s somehow still going strong on the brink of his 42nd birthday. James isn’t the best player in the NBA anymore, but he proved last season with the Los Angeles Lakers that he can still carry a team for long stretches and look like an All-NBA player in his best moments. James hit free agency for the fourth time in his career this summer, and now he has announced his next chapter after eight years in LA. James announced he’s signing with the Philadelphia 76ers for the 2026-27 season, in a move first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania. This will be the 24th season of his career, and he’s spending it with a team no one could have seen coming a few weeks ago.

Saquon Barkley, NFL players react to LeBron James joining Philadelphia: ‘Welcome to the city!’ – NFL.com
LeBron James’ decision to join the Philadelphia 76ers shook up the sports world on Friday, inspiring reactions from the NBA legend’s fellow athletes, including in the NFL. Eagles teammates Saquon Barkley and Lane Johnson were especially excited to welcome James to the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. “Welcome to the city!” Barkley posted on X, tagging James. “Let me know when you tryna tee it up.” Barkley’s invitation comes two weeks after the star running back told reporters his pitch to bring James to the City of Brotherly Love. “I think it is one of the greatest sports towns in the world,” Barkley said at the time. “If you want to go out with a bang, I feel like a great spot would be in Philly, and bringing a championship to Philadelphia, you’d be remembered forever.” It appears James picked up what Barkley was putting down.

Hurts – Good and Bad – Iggles Blitz
One of his bad habits is bailing to the right and throwing the ball way out of bounds. That is fine on occasion, but Hurts does it too much. We know he can make plays outside the pocket. He’s got some big time highlight moments. There is a need for more consistency. This is an important season for Hurts. He’s won a Super Bowl for the Eagles, but Howie Roseman can’t entirely focus on the past. He’s got to think about the future and how Hurts fits in that. If Jalen can adapt to the new scheme and coaches, he could sign an extension in the future and stay QB for the foreseeable future. It will be interesting to see how this year plays out.

Taking a closer look at Eagles’ backup QB battle in 2026 training camp – NBCSP
That becomes the next big question. Would the Eagles really keep four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster? Roster spots are precious, so that’s not an ideal way to build. But the Eagles value the position and have said publicly they would keep four. Perhaps a team comes calling with an offer for McKee or Dalton. That seems possible and with a surplus at the position, the Eagles could decide to be opportunistic this summer. Until then, this is looking like a competition. But there’s a chance the battle is decided when Howie Roseman makes a trade.

Eagles to receive $4 million in state funding to assist with Jefferson Health Training Complex expansion – Inquirer
The Eagles listed their planned renovations in the application, which included the expansion of the locker room and the training room, the construction of a cafeteria addition to include a rooftop area, the expansion and renovation of the seating area in the existing cafeteria, the renovation of the kitchen, the expansion and renovation of the staff locker rooms and coaches locker rooms, and the expansion and development of the main lobby and coaches’ entrance. The grant, the Eagles wrote, would be used to “offset hard construction costs associated with the renovations to the amenities” they listed in the application, resulting in a “more efficient workplace and training facility.”

Riq Woolen: ‘The sky is the limit’ – PhiladelphiaEagles.com
Riq Woolen loved watching football movies growing up. “Any Given Sunday,” “The Comebacks,” “Varsity Blues,” “Friday Night Lights,” you name it – Woolen has watched it. So, it was no surprise that one of Woolen’s first actions upon arriving in Philadelphia was to ask where Mark Wahlberg’s character from “Invincible” was. “I just like the story of him just being a guy, being able to get off the street and come and play football with everybody else,” Woolen said after a June minicamp practice. “There’s a lot of guys out there on the street that wish they could have the chance just like us, and we get these chances every day.” Woolen is not an average person off the street; in fact, he’s not even an average cornerback in the NFL. The Pro Bowl defender stands at a whopping 6-foot-4 with a wingspan measuring just under six feet, seven inches. How rare is that for a cornerback? In 2025, only one other cornerback (Nahshon Wright of the Bears) was listed as 6-foot-4 alongside Woolen.

We asked 13 athletes for the best mental advice they’ve ever received – The Athletic
Jason Kelce: Embrace losing. Kelce played 13 seasons in the NFL, all with the Philadelphia Eagles, and was a six-time All-Pro. Kelce: As much as that sucks, you don’t like losing — the goal is to go out and win — but you learn a lot in those losses and in those training days. It’s a feedback loop of how to improve. I think sometimes people get so down on themselves because in the moment they had a poor performance. In reality, yeah, that was a bad game, you didn’t do what you were supposed to do, and that sucks. But it’s also an opportunity to now do better the next time.

Pro Bowler Cam Jurgens returns home to host free youth football camp in Beatrice – Nebraska.TV
Long before he became a Super Bowl champion and two-time Pro Bowl center with the Philadelphia Eagles, Cam Jurgens was a kid growing up in Beatrice dreaming of one day playing football at the highest level. This week, Jurgens returned to where that journey began, hosting a free youth football camp for hundreds of children in his hometown.

Panthers Training Camp Roundup: Nic Scourton is out for the season – Cat Scratch Reader
Nic Scourton is out for the season. One day into training camp, and the Panthers have lost their first casualty for the season, and it was their promising young 2025 2nd round pick, EDGE Nic Scourton. Scourton appeared primed to have a big role on this front seven opposite Jaelen Phillips, but we’re going to have to wait til 2027 as Scourton went down with what appeared to be a severe knee injury early in the day. Speculation was it was very serious due to how he and the players around him reacted, and sure enough, its a torn ACL. Horrible news for the Panthers, sending best wishes to Nic on a speedy and healthy recovery. [BLG Note: The Eagles host the Panthers in Week 6.]

Six NFL win total over-unders I like – PhillyVoice
The Cowboys are what I would call a good fantasy football team, in that they have some good players at the skill positions in QB Dak Prescott, WR CeeDee Lamb, and WR George Pickens. But, man, the rest of that roster has major issues. As we detailed in their dumpster fire post this year, they have no pass rush whatsoever, the corners got absolutely destroyed last season, and they whiffed on all their free agent targets at linebacker. And then on offense, although they have their share of guys who can make plays, they have one of the worst pairs of offensive tackles in the NFL. It’s a high-profile team with some high-profile players, but no real backbone. I don’t see a double-digit win season here.

Will Grier to join Cowboys coaching staff as offensive assistant – Dallas Cowboys
Grier, a collegiate standout at West Virginia, has also spent time with the Bengals, Patriots, Chargers and Eagles – along with the Panthers and Cowboys.

Here’s why the Cowboys need to win now – Blogging The Boys
The folks at ESPN put together a ranking of NFL teams by under-25 talent. With all due respect to the list, the age of 25 is an arbitrary point and that should be said. If the same exercise was done for under-26 talent then things significantly change based off of just a single year. You get the point. We can still have takeaways from this type of thing, though. The idea here is that these are teams in the NFL who are on the rise as their young groups gather experience and time in the league. The New England Patriots came in at the top spot for some context. The Dallas Cowboys are nowhere near the top, though. In fact they are much closer to the bottom. Dallas ranked 24th for under-25 talent with not much to show for their name in this particular capacity.

Tony Romo’s OWI arrest came after he participated in a golf tournament – PFT
More details are emerging regarding the arrest of former Cowboys quarterback and current CBS analyst Tony Romo on suspicion of Operating While Intoxicated. Other important details have not. From Fox 6 News, apparently the first to obtain the arrest detention report, Romo was in Wisconsin for a golf tournament. He had participated in the Wisconsin Amateur Championship in West Bend, which concluded on Thursday. Romo finished tied in a four-way tie for 73rd. The arrest reportedly happened on I-43 in Milwaukee, some 40 miles away. Romo is a native of Burlington, Wisconsin.

27-yr-old Odafe Oweh poised for career-best season in Washington in 2026 – Hogs Haven
In fact, 70% of respondents said that they are either generally confident or absolutely confident — a strong indication of support for a player who peaked with 10 sacks in 2024, but who went sack-less in his first 5 games of the 2025 season before being traded from the Ravens to the Chargers. That change of scenery seemed to do Oweh a lot of good. He tallied 7.5 sacks in 12 games in his powder-blue jersey — that pace put him on track for 10.5 sacks in 17 games. What are the expectations, then, for a player who is being paid $24m per season as a pass rusher?

NY Giants depth chart entering training camp: What the roster looks like – Big Blue View
If Malik Nabers is ready Week 1 I think Nabers, Darius Slayton, Darnell Mooney, Calvin Austin, and Malachi Fields are roster locks. The last spot or two is anyone’s guess. Odell Beckham probably wins a spot if he makes it through camp healthy. […] Will the Giants choose to move on from Jon Runyan? Could Bryan Hudson win the backup center job?

Former NFL guard Jordan Devey, 38, died by suicide, family says – ESPN
Former NFL guard Jordan Devey died Tuesday at the age of 38, with family saying the Super Bowl champion with the New England Patriots died by suicide. Devey appeared in 44 career games (21 starts) for five teams over seven seasons. He played in seven regular-season games for the Patriots when they won the Super Bowl in the 2014 season and 15 games with nine starts for the San Francisco 49ers the following year. He retired in 2021 after playing one game for the Buffalo Bills in 2020

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