2026 Team Outlook: Philadelphia Eagles
WR Makai Lemon, PHI - Sleeper (undervalued)
Lemon saved his best for his third season at USC, setting career highs across the board with 79 catches for 1,156 yards and 11 touchdowns. The big-play ability was always there. He's averaged 14.7 yards per reception throughout his college career, but scoring chances were scarce early on, with just three touchdowns over his first 21 games. He made up for lost time in 2025, surpassing 150 receiving yards four times (4/158/2, 11/151/2, 11/161/1, and 10/153/1) and finding the end zone five times over his final four starts. For teams in the market for a smaller-framed receiver in the Puka Nacua mold, Lemon offers a compelling profile at 5'11" and 190 pounds. He plays with a physicality that belies his size in the short area of the field and has a knack for breaking tackles after the catch. His route running is a strength: clean, purposeful, and equipped with a second gear that shows up when he gets into the intermediate and deep portions of the field. Lemon competes for contested catches and wins more than his size would suggest, thanks to reliable hands. His projection is a high-volume slot receiver who could thrive with the right offensive infrastructure around him. Lemon picked up an early June hamstring injury, which should be cleared up by training camp. Fantasy Outlook: The early pricing for Lemon in the high-stakes PPR market is a backend WR3/early WR4 with a seventh-round ADP (81) in 12-team formats. The Eagles’ offense has supported two top-20 wideouts over the past few seasons, and Lemon’s slot profile should
give him a consistency factor in his rookie season. His first step is proving that he can beat NFL cornerbacks over the short areas of the field. My starting point is 65 catches for 850 yards and a chance at five touchdowns.
RB Tank Bigsby, PHI - Fantasy Handcuff
Bigsby brought a well-rounded early-down skill set to the Jacksonville backfield, vision to find the right crease, quickness to exploit it, and enough power to finish through contact in short-yardage and goal-line situations. He has the burst to make defenses pay when lanes open, though ball security was a concern during his 2022 college season. His Auburn career spanned 35 games and produced 2,903 rushing yards on 540 carries with 25 touchdowns, plus 62 catches for 448 yards on 89 targets. His best season came in 2021 with 223 carries for 1,099 yards and 10 scores alongside 21 receptions for 184 yards. Jacksonville eased Bigsby in as a rookie, handing him 50 carries for 132 yards and two touchdowns, with both scores coming within the first three weeks. The Jaguars limited him to 141 snaps and one catch on
four targets. His two busiest games (9/21 and 10/32) produced nothing of note in the yardage department. 2024 started slowly, with just 21 carries over the first four games, but Bigsby flashed his potential twice in that stretch (12/73 and 7/90) before Jacksonville opened the door wider in Weeks 5, 7, and 8 — producing lines of 13/101/2 with a 28-yard catch, 26/118/2, and 18/78 with two receptions for eight yards. An ankle injury in Week 10 cost him a game. Bigsby scored three times over his final five outings and averaged 13.8 touches, but his efficiency told a more sobering story (just 3.3 yards per carry on 66 attempts for 219 yards), with almost no receiving contribution (three catches for 11 yards on six targets). The Eagles acquired Bigsby in early September last season. His arrival led to a split RB2 role in snaps behind Saquon Barkley, but he was the better runner (58/344/2 – 5.9 yards per carry). Philadelphia gave him only four targets on the year, leading to three catches for 32 yards. His best fantasy value came in Week 8 (9/104) and Week 18 (106 combined yards with a touchdown and one catch). Fantasy Outlook: In the early draft season in the high-stakes market, Bigsby is the favorite to be the backup running back in Philadelphia. His ADP (160) makes it easy to handcuff Saquon Barkley. He brings a front- runner style of play, which means that Will Shipley will have the playing advantage in games when the Eagles chase on the scoreboard in the second half. If Barkley has an injury, both backs will have rotational roles, depending on game flow.
RB Will Shipley, PHI - Low Potential
Shipley spent three productive seasons at Clemson, with his sophomore year standing as the clear high-water mark (210 carries for 1,182 yards and 15 touchdowns), supplemented by 38 catches for 242 yards. Across 36 career games, he compiled 3,350 combined yards, 33 touchdowns, and 85 receptions. His senior season was more modest,
with just two 100-yard rushing performances (17/114 and 18/126/1) before a minor right knee injury cut his December short. Most of his college work came out of shotgun formations, and his running style reflects that, a quick-footed, rhythm-based approach that relies on a shimmy through the line and burst in the short areas rather than power through contact. His decision-making in open space leaves something to be desired, as cleaner reads would turn good runs into great ones. He's not a between-the-tackles grinder, so finding and hitting gaps quickly is essential to his success. His hands keep him on the field in passing situations, and he offers change-of-pace value on early downs when deployed correctly. The transition to Philadelphia was slow. Over his first 15 NFL games, he managed just 50 yards on 20 carries before a concussion ended his Week 17 appearance. He returned for the regular season finale in a split role (10/32 with four catches for 35 yards), then provided a glimpse of his upside in a postseason blowout (four carries for 77 yards and a touchdown, highlighted by a 57-yard burst) that showed exactly what he can do when given a crease and room to run. The addition of Tank Bigsby before the start of 2025 led to Shipley finishing third on the Eagles in running back snaps (119). He ended the year with only 105 combined yards with nine catches on 23 touches. An oblique issue cost him a couple of games in September. Fantasy Outlook: Shipley will compete for a handcuff role in 2026 while offering no playable fantasy value with Saquon Barkley healthy. He will be found in the free agent pool in most 12-team redraft leagues.
WR Dontayvion Wicks, PHI - Sleeper (undervalued)
Wicks announced himself in 2021 with a breakout season at Virginia (57 catches for 1,203 yards and nine touchdowns on 95 targets), at a jaw-dropping 21.1 yards per reception. His follow-up was a significant step back, as a hip flexor issue limited him to eight games in 2022, and his catch rate cratered to 41.1% on the way to a 30/430/2 line on 73 targets. The same hip problem resurfaced at the NFL Combine, adding to his injury history that already included a lost 2020 season with a foot issue. His 40 time (4.62) at the 2023 Combine wasn't a selling point, but the big-play profile remained intact. Route running was a work in progress coming out of college, but the tools to win out of breaks and beat coverage at the third level were evident. Improving his hands under pressure became the central developmental question, and his open- field ability after the catch gave him a path to carving out a role. Wicks made the most of his rookie opportunity in Green Bay, catching 39 of 58 targets for 581 yards and four touchdowns over 15 games, a role that expanded after Christian Watson went down with an injury. He closed the year with two strong fantasy performances over the final four weeks (6/97 and 6/61/2), missing two other games due to ankle and chest injuries.
His counting stats looked similar in year two (39 catches again), but the context was worse. Wicks played two more games, saw 18 additional targets, and still produced a smaller output (39/415/5), finishing with eight drops and a yards-per-catch figure that tumbled from 14.9 to 10.6. Through his first 10 games, he was blanked three times on eight combined targets while offering fantasy value in only three outings (3/26/1, 5/78/2, and 3/48/1). He averaged just 7.15 PPR points over his final eight games on a 25/262/1 line across 38 targets, a stretch that raised real questions about his long-term role in the offense. Wicks had one playable game all season (Week 13 – 6/94/2), which just happened when I had the fantasy nuts at every other roster slot. As a result, I didn’t get the long-awaited million-dollar payoff at DraftKings, despite cashing on 135 of my 150 $5 entries. I had a net $500 win for the day. Over his other 13 matchups, Wicks failed to score over 8.50 PPR fantasy points in any game. He missed three games with calf, ankle, and concussion issues. The Eagles acquired him in April for two draft picks (2026 fifth round and 2027 seventh round). Fantasy Outlook: Wicks brings scoring value and size to the table, but he remains a challenging fantasy player to time and trust. He’ll be found in the last couple of rounds in fantasy drafts this summer (ADP of 217 in the NFFC in mid-June).
WR Marquise Brown, PHI - Deep-league Only
Brown came out of the gate on fire in Arizona during the first six weeks of 2022, hauling in 43 of 64 targets for 485 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 18.25 PPR fantasy points per game. A left foot injury then shelved him for five weeks, and his return was a letdown. Without Kyler Murray under center, Brown managed just 24 catches for 224 yards over his final six starts, averaging a pedestrian 9.3 yards per reception and offering little in the way of weekly starting value. The Murray connection never fully materialized in 2023, and the numbers told the story. His catch rate fell sharply to 50.5% after sitting at 61.8% across his first 58 career games. He gained fewer than 35 yards in eight of his 15 starts, and his final two appearances produced zero catches on just three combined targets. The only stretch worth noting came early in the year with three back-to-back contributions (6/54/1, 5/61/1, and 7/96) before a heel problem surfaced in November and eventually ended his season. The hope that Brown would revitalize his career in Kansas City never got off the ground in 2024. A right shoulder injury requiring surgery in mid-September wiped out the first 14 games of the season, derailing any momentum before it could build. His return produced five quiet outings (5/45, 4/46, 0/0, 3/35, and 2/15) on 28 targets, a forgettable end to what had been a highly anticipated chapter. Brown’s second dance with Patrick Mahomes led to 10 catches for 99 yards on 16 targets in Week 1, creating a tease outcome for fantasy game managers in 2025. After Week 2 (5/30), he had never caught more than four passes in a game while drifting off into the sunset over
his final nine matchups (17/271/1 on 26 targets). Brown finished with 49 catches for 587 yards and five scores on 74 targets across 16 games, almost creating a false sense of fantasy value. Fantasy Outlook: Other than his 2024 season (9/91), Brown has had a floor of 45 catches and 570 receiving yards each year in the NFL. His experience should be a plus for the Eagles, but he has a lot to prove before being rostered in any fantasy league. On the positive side from last season, Brown caught 66.2% of his chances with a five-year high in yards per catch (12.0).
