Welcome to the NFC East version of Optimus Fantasy’s Team Previews! Today, we’re looking at the Philadelphia Eagles. In order to best know where we’re going, we often need to study where we’ve been. With that in mind, I will cover what the team looked like in 2024, fantasy significant changes to philosophy and personnel, and what I expect from the team in 2025. Your fantasy drafts are coming. Stay ready, so you don’t have to get ready.

The Philadelphia Eagles in 2024

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Team Stats
PROE	-9.14 –
4th Down Go For It!	21.38
Target GINI	0.5985
Rushing GINI	0.7815 +
Plays/Game: Offense	65.1 +

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Let’s start off by defining a few things, shall we?

Note: Any stat highlighted green with a “+” means it’s significantly, at least 1 standard deviation, above average. Any stat highlighted red with a “-“ means it’s significantly below average. If the stat is highlighted in blue and doesn’t have a symbol, it is within the standard deviation for that stat.

PROE – Pass Rate Over Expectation

2nd and 1 for the offense? Sure makes sense to run. 3rd and 12? Yup, absolutely reasonable to pass. PROE measures how often a team passed the ball when we would “expect” them to run. Such as on 2nd and 1. Obviously, this is our expectation, and part of the strategy is to do the unexpected. So it’s not a perfect encapsulation. However, over 17 games, this gives us a general idea of how an offensive coaching staff envisions their offensive strengths.

4th Down – Go For It!

It’s kinda just what it sounds like. Unlike PROE, there’s no “expectation” to this stat. Of all 4th downs, this is how often a team chose to go for it. Higher rates mean an offense has more chances to accumulate fantasy points. Conversely, it’s not as great for kickers. 

Target GINI

This is where my background in economics comes out. Without going too far down the rabbit hole, Target GINI is how concentrated a passing attack is among pass-catching targets. A Target GINI of 1 means every target went to one player. Perfectly evenly distributed targets among players result in a Target GINI of 0. 

Rushing GINI

The same as Target GINI, but for rushing. So a Rushing GINI of 1 means one player had 100% of the rushing attempts. A Rushing GINI of 0 means every player received an equal number of rushing attempts.

“Ok, I get what GINI is, but how is it helpful for us?” You know, you’re really great with these questions. Are you sure you’re not a fantasy football expert? At any rate, these metrics tell us how concentrated or siloed a team’s passing and rushing attacks are. For fantasy, we’re looking for them both to be as close to 1 as possible.

Plays/Game: Offense

Literally just what it sounds like, this is an average of how many plays per game a team’s offense runs. The idea is that more offensive plays equal more opportunities for our players to score fantasy points. Simple enough, right?

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Top Performers (HPPR 2024)
Jalen Hurts	QB9
Saquon Barkley	RB2
Kenneth Gainwell	RB61
A.J. Brown	WR18
DeVonta Smith	WR30
Jahan Dotson	WR119
Dallas Goedert	TE27
Jake Elliott	K15

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Significant Offseason Changes from ’24 to ’25

Lost: Kenneth Gainwell

Added: AJ Dillon

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s the story of the Eagles’ offseason in a nutshell. When your 2nd/3rd string RB is the only change among all the skill positions, that’s a quiet offseason.

Just like the Eagles had almost no turnover at skill positions, they likewise have very little on the offensive line. They did lose guard Mekhi Becton and will rely on the inexperienced Tyler Steen to step up. But the rest of the superb bones of the Philadelphia offensive line remain intact and should allow Steen to get up to speed.

Head coach Nick Sirianni remains; however, OC Kellen Moore is now the head coach in New Orleans, and Kevin Patullo takes over. Considering the experience of the offensive unit, it’s doubtful that much changes in terms of scheme.

Looking Ahead to the Philadelphia Eagles in 2025

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Lou’s Confidence Level 1 – 5
Jalen Hurts	5
Saquon Barkley, Will Shipley	5
A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Jahan Dotson	5
Dallas Goedert	2
Jake Elliott	2

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Lou’s 2025 HPPR Rankings
Jalen Hurts	QB4
Saquon Barkley	RB3
Will Shipley	RB93
A.J. Brown	WR10
DeVonta Smith	WR26
Jahan Dotson	–
Dallas Goedert	TE19
Jake Elliott	–

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Week	Opponent	Expected W/L
1	Dallas	W
2	@ Kansas City	W
3	Los Angeles Rams	W
4	@ Tampa Bay	W
5	Denver	W
6	@ New York Giants	W
7	@ Minnesota	L
8	New York Giants	W
9	BYE	–
10	@ Green Bay	W
11	Detroit	L
12	@ Dallas	W
13	Chicago	L
14	@ Las Angeles Chargers	L
15	Las Vegas	W
16	@ Washington	L
17	@ Buffalo	W

Lou’s projected 2025 “fantasy season” record: 11-5

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OK, Now For the Important (Non-Kicker) Eagles

“Lou, you didn’t rank Jake Elliott!” Very astute, and you are correct. I’m a big believer in saying, “I don’t know,” when someone asks me about things I’m ignorant about. I’m kicker-dumb. So if you’re here looking for insight on kickers, I’m very sorry. He struggled at times last year after being superb for a few years in a row. But it’s a good offense, so maybe? But also, they don’t kick FGs because Tush Push. 

It’s tough to find new things to talk about when a team won the Super Bowl the previous season and almost nothing changed. Outside of maybe the RB2 on the team, that is. As a result, this section will be a little lighter than you’re used to.

I love the Eagles-Saquon Barkley fit. As we saw last year, it’s a perfect storm. And it’s not reasonable to expect a repeat of that kind of performance. It’s reasonable to expect Philadelphia’s PROE won’t skew quite so heavily towards the run. It’s also reasonable to expect Barkley won’t have quite so many 60+ yard rushing TDs. I’m not saying he’ll be bad, of course, but I am saying don’t draft him as the overall RB1 expecting a repeat, is all.

In a similar fashion, it’s reasonable to expect Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith to all have bounce-back seasons. Last season was a great exercise to figure out what their reasonable floors are, assuming they all stay healthy. The nice thing about a floor is that you can’t really get lower than that. 

If There is a League Winner In Philadelphia, It’s…

Will Shipley.

Even if Shipley doesn’t win the backup RB role and AJ Dillon does, the answer is still Will Shipley. We’ve seen what Dillon can do. He’s slow. He doesn’t have the vision. He’s not a pass-catcher. Shipley does everything Dillon doesn’t do well.

Throw that concoction behind the Philadelphia offensive line and alongside the rest of their A-game skill position players, and there’s no reason he can’t be a high-end RB2—possibly even a low-end RB1.

Deep League Draft Target

I’m going to lean into this “Will Shipley” angle even harder. With a FantasyPros ADP of 240, you can roster this potential league-winner with a 20th-round draft pick. Just because RBs stayed healthy at a historic rate last season doesn’t mean they’ll do it again this year.

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Lou Brunson is a Senior Analyst and THE social media brains for Optimus Fantasy. Find his dynasty stylings on right here and at draftbuddy.com.