Latest news with #DeVontaSmith
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Eagles' DeVonta Smith A Contract Bargain As Receivers' Salaries Skyrocket
Eagles' DeVonta Smith A Contract Bargain As Receivers' Salaries Skyrocket originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Philadelphia Eagles have created a legacy in many ways, including for being an organization often willing to pay its young stars on the come. Philadelphia's philosophy focuses on extending players before they have to, which can be a dice roll but can also allow them to remain flexible in building their roster with long-term saving of elbow room under the cap. Extensions to stars like A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts have allowed the Eagles to remain among the more dominant teams in the league. Along the way, as time passes, those contracts – so eye-popping when initially announced – move from being massive and lucrative long-term commitments to being relative bargains. That is, if the team is right about the player's star potential. It's a game of "Keeping Up with the Joneses,'' in a sense; the NFL offseason always features the paying of the next great player a bit more than the highest-paid star the year before. A great example of how this has worked for the Eagles comes not just from an All-Pro like Brown (making $32 million APY) but also from his running mate, DeVonta Smith. Smith's current contract pales in comparison to the latest receiver to sign a long-term extension. New York Jets wideout Garrett Wilson signed a four-year extension Monday afternoon worth an average annual salary of $32.5 million. Wilson became the fifth-highest-paid receiver in the game with his contract. And relative to his contract? The Eagles figure to be appreciative of Smith than ever better. The Heisman Trophy winner Smith was a first-round pick by the team back in 2021 and has enjoyed the best start to a receiver in team history. He has recorded over 300 receptions with over 4,000 yards and 27 touchdowns. Following the 2023 season, Smith signed a three-year extension worth just $75 million. The average annual salary of just $25 million may have been a milestone mark a few years ago, but that changed quickly in just the last calendar season. Suddenly, his contract ranks at just 13th in the league. With Wilson's extension, the deal highlights some of the players now at his position who produce similar numbers but cost millions less. Smith is that player for the Eagles. This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
ESPYS 2025: Saquon Barkley's iconic hurdle wins best play
It was one of the most memorable plays of the 2024 NFL season. It left Pro Bowl wide receivers and a Super Bowl-winning coach in awe. It will grace the cover of the newest Madden NFL video game. Saquon Barkley's hurdle now has another accolade: ESPY Award winner. The annual sports awards show gave Barkley's incredible feat against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9 of last season the "Best Play" award. The Philadelphia Eagles running back flew like an eagle on the play, reverse hurdling over Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones to convert a third-and-six in the second quarter. Philadelphia ended up winning the game 28-23 thanks in no small part to Barkley's 199 total yards (159 rushing, 40 receiving) and two touchdowns. It was one of his six games with at least 100 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns but that play stood out to his teammates and coach. "It was the best play I've ever seen," Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said after the game. "What I think is so cool, there's going to be kids all over the country and all over Philadelphia trying to make that play and talking about that play and simulating that play as they play backyard football or peewee football. They ain't going to be able to make it – I believe he's the only one in the world that can do that. I'm speechless. It was unbelievable." "Crazy," Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith said. "I ain't never seen nothing like it." The ESPYS certainly agreed. It was an iconic play in an incredible season for the former No. 2 overall pick. Barkley signed with the Super Bowl champion Eagles last offseason following six years with the New York Giants. He led the league in carries (345) and rushing yards (2,005) and tallied 15 total touchdowns. That was good enough for first-team All-Pro and Offensive Player of the Year honors. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ESPYS 2025: Saquon Barkley hurdle wins best play
New York Times
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Why you need to make ‘shooting for the stars' your go-to fantasy football draft strategy
How do we measure success in drafting our fantasy football players? Answering that question is a key to ranking and ultimately selecting them. It's fantasy football podcast season for me. Given what I do here, I unplug once we get closer to the season. I want to develop my own player takes and theories that I investigate for proof of concept with the objective data. But right now, people are talking more generally about their ranking process, and I'm more interested in that than in the player takes. Advertisement One of the smartest fantasy football podcasts is Underdog Fantasy's 'Fantasy Football with Josh and Hayden.' When smart people say something that runs contrary to your process, it makes you think. On a recent show, in discussing the value of DeVonta Smith, they cited his current ADP (they had his ADP at WR27) and their point, very reasonably, was that Smith is pretty much guaranteed to again be a top 24 WR and probably no worse than WR20; so that's a win. But that's not how I rank. I have Smith at WR28 in my rankings, even though I agree he'll finish higher. In my write-up of Smith, I said he's a great WR4 in a Flex 10 build. He has a beneficial ceiling in the format, but there's no difference between Smith and Jordan Addison, who is WR36, so I'd wait for Addison. Smith is stuck in the WR3 fantasy bucket. He can't escape his tier. He can't crush Addison in value just like Addison can't crush the other WRs with them in the third tier of WRs. I'm not looking to break even or generate some small profit in scoring when I draft a player. I want players who I think have a chance to escape their tier, which is why I'm in the minority in ranking Jakobi Meyers over Smith (and Addison). Meyers could escape the third tier because he could see 150 targets in his offense. It's tough to conceive of Smith getting much more than 100, and efficiency only goes so far in our game unless you are a big-time TD producer, which Smith is not. So I would never proactively take Smith (absent a Jalen Hurts stack) over Addison because both are stuck in their tier, and Addison is drafted so much later that he has a WR4 price with a reasonable expectation of a WR3 return. I want my WR4 to have a WR5 or lower price (Rashod Bateman). I want the RB I pick around No. 30 at the position to have the chance to be an RB2 (Isiah Pacheco, for example). Advertisement Why shoot for the moon when you can shoot for the stars, knowing you can fall short and still get the moon? Shooting for the stars means factoring in expected opportunity. Where Smith goes in drafts, multiple receivers are likely to lead their team's wide receivers in targets — DK Metcalf, Courtland Sutton, Jauan Jennings, Meyers and even Jerry Jeudy (whose QB situation petrifies me, but he's locked in as the WR1 on the Browns). The same goes for RBs. Why would I take Omarion Hampton at RB17 when he's probably not going to get close to bell-cow touches and when there's a clearer path to that happening with later drafted RBs? For example, Joe Mixon, Quinshon Judkins (ignoring his potential legal issues), Pacheco, Tony Pollard, etc. I'm not necessarily telling you to agree with the players, but I hope you agree with my rankings process. My weekly in-season 'Market Share Report' column is such a valuable tool because we see who is getting opportunities that defy their consensus ranking and who is falling well short of those key benchmarks — 30% of touches per offensive snap for RBs, 25% of team targets for wide receivers and 20% of targets for TEs. It's hard to find players who can break out of their tiers. You'll be wrong more than you're right. But when you're wrong, you can still break even on the cost. I will eat a bug if a healthy Meyers and Jennings fall significantly short of their current ADPs, for example. You don't want to be right, technically. You want to be EMPHATICALLY right. Drafting just one or two players who escape their tiers can help you win your league. (Photo of Jakobi Meyers: Matthew Hinton / Imagn Images)
USA Today
12-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
8 Eagles stand out in a rare but unique ranking of the best college-turned-pro teammates
8 Eagles stand out in a rare but unique ranking of the best college-turned-pro teammates While we can spend a ton of time going back and forth about what makes a successful draft class and what doesn't, we can all agree on one thing. Howie Roseman has been killing it for the Philadelphia Eagles as of late. Things began with a great blueprint, one he learned from former head coach Andy Reid. It's always wise to build from the trenches, and as often as possible, Philadelphia selects an offensive or defensive lineman early. There are exceptions. Dire needs must also be addressed, and recently, we've seen the first-round selections of DeVonta Smith and Quinyon Mitchell, but no one hates a team that wins in the trenches. No one hates prospects who dominated the best conferences at the collegiate level. There were drafts when Philadelphia outsmarted itself. Those days are over. Roseman learned something. It doesn't hurt to raid an elite program like the Alabama Crimson Tide. Eight current members of the Eagles' roster played college ball in Tuscaloosa: Jalen Hurts, Landon Dickerson, DeVonta Smith, Tyler Steen, Jihaad Campbell, Eli Ricks, Byron Young, and Cameron Latu. Then, there's that other SEC school. Stop us if you've heard this before, but the Birds have developed quite a pipeline in Athens, Georgia. A half-dozen Eagles make noise on one of the more unique rankings constructed recently. Everyone is ranking everything at this time of year: positions of need, the best units on each NFL roster, and so on. Every once in a while, someone takes a unique angle, as Cody Benjamin did for CBS Sports. He ranked the ten best pairings of teammates who played together at the NCAA and NFL levels. The 'Philly Dawgs' cracked the list, landing at eight. They're ahead of the Justin Fields/Garrett Wilson and Terry McLaurin/Marshon Lattimore combos. How about all of that talent the Ohio State Buckeyes have had come through Columbus? Here's a shoutout to Malcolm Jenkins! Here's what Benjamin had to say about all of those Georgia Bulldogs on their roster. "Say hello to half the Eagles defense! Carter may be the one bona fide stud of the group, which fully overlapped with the Bulldogs in 2020, but the relentless Smith could be the next to break out off the edge of the Birds' title-winning front. Dean is coming off an injury but has been a vocal anchor for the linebacker corps. And Ojulari, the newest addition of the Georgia bunch, could be a sneaky sack artist after a mercurial start with the rival New York Giants, afforded a one-year, prove-it deal in free agency." Don't forget about Lewis Cine, Mr. Benjamin. He was on that roster, too. Smith is ahead of schedule. He came on at the end of last season and during the Eagles' Super Bowl run, leading all postseason participants in sacks (four) and tackles that resulted in a loss of yardage (also four). Ranked ahead of Philadelphia's young stars on this list are Jahmyr Gibbs, Terrion Arnold, and Brian Branch (ranked seventh) and Tua Tagovailoa, Jaylen Waddle, and Minkah Fitzpatrick (sixth). Two members of the 'Crimson Tide', Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith, land second on this list. Here's what Benjamin stated on that front. "Hurts finished his college career at Oklahoma, but he spent 2017-2018 alongside Smith in Tuscaloosa, helping bring the wideout up to Alabama speed when he was a true freshman. Since then, the two have been to two Super Bowls and claimed one Lombardi Trophy, bringing a rugged fortitude to the Eagles' all-star offense. Not included here is fellow Alabama product Landon Dickerson, a meaty leader for Philadelphia's vaunted O-line, who just missed playing with Hurts in college." No lies were told there. To those who are interested, the rest of the top five is as follows: That's a nice list. It's great to see the Eagles gaining recognition for the excellent jobs they are doing. The most important thing, however, is that they take care of business on the field this season.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Eagles Need To Sign Super Bowl Slot Receiver, Claims ESPN
Eagles Need To Sign Super Bowl Slot Receiver, Claims ESPN originally appeared on Athlon Sports. Do the Philadelphia Eagles have an obvious roster hole on offense? As defending Super Bowl champions, the first reaction might be "no.'' At second glance? Advertisement Heck, we still think it's a "no.'' But ESPN politely disagrees. ESPN analyst Aaron Schatz has identified one potential upgrade that - if he's right - could solidify their championship foundation: veteran wide receiver Tyler Boyd. Schatz's recommendation centers on addressing depth at the wide receiver position, particularly finding 'a slot receiver who can open underneath and convert third downs.' While the Eagles boast one of the NFL's most formidable receiving duos in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, the questions begin to mount when examining what lies beneath their star tandem. Boyd registered 39 catches for 390 yards over 16 games in 2024 with Tennessee, numbers that were hampered by poor quarterback play and a late-season foot injury. However, these modest statistics tell only part of Boyd's story and underscore a crucial point about his career trajectory: he has never been a true number one receiver, yet has consistently produced when placed in complementary roles. Advertisement During his eight seasons in Cincinnati, Boyd compiled 513 receptions for 6,000 yards and 31 touchdowns. His most impressive campaign came in 2018, when he finished as the Bengals' leading receiver with 76 receptions for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns. What makes this achievement particularly noteworthy is that Boyd accomplished this without the benefit of being a primary focal point of opposing defenses. Having said all of that ... is Boyd better than Jahan Doston? The Eagles' current situation at the third receiver spot centers around Dotson, whose first season in Philadelphia raised more questions than it answered. After being acquired from Washington, Dotson managed just 19 catches for 216 yards in 17 regular-season games. The organization's decision to decline his fifth-year option speaks volumes about their confidence level in his development. While Dotson still possesses the athletic tools that made him a first-round pick, his struggles to find consistent production in the Eagles' system highlight the challenge of projecting young receivers. Advertisement Boyd, conversely, brings a track record of reliability that could prove invaluable in critical moments. Boyd's postseason experience, including appearances in Super Bowl LVI and multiple playoff runs with Cincinnati, give him a history of performing under pressure. The Eagles' question here: Would an addition like this really only serve to slow Dotson's development? ESPN apparently thinks not. The Eagles' inaction here suggests their answer. Related: Eagles 'Doom' Predicted For Saquon as 2025 'Bust' This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 9, 2025, where it first appeared.
