Life is pretty, pretty, pretty good for the reigning Super Bowl champs at the moment.

Sure, the league's reigning third-ranked defense in EPA allowed per play has to replace a handful of key contributors who left in free agency, but most key parties remain from the squad that posted the NFL's second-best point differential (+160) during the regular season last year.

Of course, that was then, and this is now, so today we'll break down some of the biggest (mostly fantasy-related) questions facing The Birds ahead of 2025.

Eagles 2025 Team Preview

Last season, this was truly the most complete team in football:

Philadelphia Eagles in 2024:

  • Offensive points per game: 26.7 (6th)
  • EPA per dropback: +0.17 (8th)
  • EPA per rush: +0.06 (1st)
  • Points per game against: 17.8 (2nd)

As always: It's a great day to be great, so let's dive into positional fantasy football outlooks for the Eagles.

Does Jalen Hurts have the safest floor of any fantasy QB?

All Hurts has done since taking over as Philly's starter back in 2021 is work as one of the league's single-most productive players at the position.

Hurts fantasy points per game by season:

  • 2021: 20.8 (QB6)
  • 2022: 25.2 (QB1)
  • 2023: 21 (QB2)
  • 2024: 21 (QB5)

Of course, the rushing prowess, AKA the tush push, is a big reason why. Hurts has scored double-digit TDs on the ground in each of the past four seasons—Cam Newton (3) and Josh Allen (2) are the only other QBs with multiple qualifying campaigns in NFL history. We're truly looking at a fantasy football cheat code here.

27 in August, there's no real reason to expect a physical decline from the reigning Super Bowl MVP anytime soon. While it'd be a lot cooler if Hurts could get back to 2022 heights (247 passing yards per game) as opposed to repeating 2024 production (194) through the air, any added explosiveness with his arm would simply be the cherry on top of an already delicious fantasy sundae.

After all, Hurts joined Anthony Richardson and Justin Fields as the only QBs with north of 40% of their fantasy production coming on the ground last season.

Jalen Hurts 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

You don't need more than one hand to count the number of QBs you'd rather have in fantasy this year, although the relative lack of a passing ceiling in the Eagles' perennial run-first offense keeps Hurts behind guys like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and even Jayden Daniels.

How could Saquon Barkley possibly bust in 2025?

From massive house calls, to ridiculous jukes, and of course, hurdling finely tuned athletic machines … backwards: There's no getting around Barkley's status as the game's best RB after his incredible 2,005-yard campaign in 2024. Overall, his 125.3 rushing yards per game were a whopping 43.3 more than his previous career-high mark.

The 28-year-old talent signed a two-year, $41.2 million extension this offseason, making him the highest-paid RB in NFL history. Throw in the reality that PFF's reigning top-ranked offensive line returns four of five starters, and it's tough to poke really any hole in the profile of the arguably fantasy 1.01 ahead of 2025.

That said, there are two itty-bitty "problems" that could perhaps make Barkley look just a bit more human in 2025:

  • Receiving volume: Barkley averaged a career-low 4.6 PPR points per game as a pass catcher last season, which isn't a huge surprise considering Eagles RBs rank 30th in total targets during Hurts' four years as the starter. Still, Barkley joined Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor as THE most rushing-dependent RBs at the top of the position's fantasy landscape last season.
     
  • Goal line work: Hurts racked up the league's third-most rush attempts from inside the five-yard line last season (18). Barkley wasn't too far behind (13, 11th), but only four were actually converted into TDs because Philly isn't too fond of giving their RBs the rock from the one-yard line. This resulted in Barkley getting all the way to the one-yard line only to NOT score a TD on a league-high nine occasions. Consider: Eagles RBs are tied for last in carries from the one-yard line (13) since 2021, but easily first in rush attempts between the two and five-yard lines (78).

And hey, these concerns were more valid than ever entering last season and didn't stop Barkley from finishing as THE RB1 in fantasy land; just realize the ceiling would (somehow) be even higher in a different sort of scheme.

Saquon Barkley Fantasy Football Outlook for 2025

The likelihood that Barkley (again) combines around 400 combined carries and targets with high-end efficiency makes him a near lock to repeat top-five production.

I find the "Curse of 370" sort of studies that reference RBs falling off after a year featuring a heavy workload to be shallow, pedantic, noisy, and flawed; the data pool itself is a very small sample that usually ignores playoff touches and receiving work. The only reason why Saquon shouldn't be THE RB1 in fantasy football drafts of all shapes and sizes is the reality that Bijan Robinson and Ashton Jeanty arguably project for similar volume, but are much younger.

What are the chances that both A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith return high-end fantasy value?

Nobody is debating the reality that Brown and Smith are absolute ballers, shot callers. Just look at the company they (especially AJB) kept last season in terms of the league's most efficient WRs at picking up yards and earning targets on a per-route basis.

 

Side note: That Puka Nacua guy is pretty good, huh?

ANYWAYS, everyone agrees Brown (27 years young) and Smith (26) are quite good at their jobs, and accordingly, they finished 2024 as the WR12 and WR15 in PPR points per game, respectively. This was not the first time both managed to simultaneously put together quality seasons, although it was Smith's best per-game finish since teaming up with AJB back in 2022.

Brown and Smith PPR points per game by year:

  • 2022: Brown (17.6, WR8), Smith (15, WR14)
  • 2023: Brown (17, WR8), Smith (14.2, WR20)
  • 2024: Brown (16.7, WR12), Smith (15.3, WR15)

WR1 production is expected from Brown at this point, but it's curious that Smith is stuck outside the position's top-24 WRs in early ADP despite returning top-20 numbers in each of the past three seasons. It'd be a lot cooler for either WR individually to be the clear-cut featured No. 1 pass-game option; just realize last season, AJB and Smith's combined 58% target share ranked second among teammate WR duos, and their 80% combined air yard share was tied for first.

2025 Fantasy Football Outlook for A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith

Don't get bored making a profit: AJB and Smith might not have the sort of gaudy 180-plus target ceilings that talents of their caliber deserve, but the Eagles' run-first offense has at least condensed its passing game almost solely around them.

Continue to treat Brown as the borderline WR1 he's been throughout his career, while Smith continues to deserve low-end WR2 treatment.

Is Dallas Goedert poised to finally put together a boom year?

There was a lot of smoke to the fire that Goedert could be traded prior to the draft, but here we are in May, and the 30-year-old veteran remains a member of the Birds after renegotiating his contract.

Still, Goedert doesn't exactly project as someone for fantasy managers to get overly excited. Injuries have caused the seven-year veteran to miss 15 games over the past three seasons, and even his per-game fantasy numbers haven't exactly been anything to call home about.

Goedert PPR points per game:

  • 2024: 10.4 (TE11)
  • 2023: 9.7 (TE12)
  • 2022: 11.8 (TE5)

Now, Goedert will go from borderline TE1 territory to an arguable top-six option at the position should either AJB or Smith miss any time (people don't forget his 10-170-0 performance against the Saints in Week 3 last season), but the increase in age and two-year sample of good-not-great production makes it tough to expect too much from him in 2025.

Dallas Goedert 2025 Fantasy Football Outlook

I'm perfectly fine deploying a "first or last" strategy at TE this season thanks to the reality that guys like Goedert and Jake Ferguson are currently carrying ADPs of TE15 and TE17, respectively, but I struggle to see a true "boom" outcome for the Eagles' longtime trusty TE without an injury occurring to one of the team's baller WRs.

Is this the NFL's best defense at wreaking havoc?

"Havoc" is a cool stat that is defined as the percentage of plays where the defense got a pressure, tackle for a loss, interception, forced fumble, or pass breakup. Basically: Anything that, you know, causes havoc.

The top-five defenses in this metric last season were as follows:

  1. Broncos
  2. Lions
  3. Browns
  4. Eagles
  5. Vikings

Not too shabby, although it remains to be seen if losing front-seven difference-makers like Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat, and Milton Williams will prove to be too much to overcome.

Eagles DST Fantasy Football Outlook for 2025

Fantasy's reigning seventh-best DST has some work to do in order to replicate their typical dominance at the line of scrimmage, but I wouldn't count returning defensive coordinator Vic Fangio out from still figuring things out to a fairly high level–especially with all five of Philly's top draft picks going to the defensive side of the football.

Philadelphia Eagles Prediction for 2025

This (again) sure looks a lot like one of the most complete teams in football. It's accordingly not surprising to see the Eagles join the Bills, Chiefs, and Ravens as the only teams with an 11.5 win total ahead of next season.

Give me OVER 11.5 wins for a team that has averaged 13 wins per season since 2022, and my bold fantasy-specific prediction is that Smith will out-score AJB in full-PPR land for the first time.

Go Birds!