Week 5 Matchup Previews

Dave Kluge (0:11)

Buy Weeks are here, which means paying attention to every upcoming matchup is even that much more important. Trying to find gold in every one of these Week 5 matchups. Today, Jeff Bell and I are going to go through all of them one by one, talking about every single fantasy relevant player. And Jeff, let's start over the pond. We're going over to London here. We've got the Philadelphia Eagles facing off against the Jacksonville Jaguars. For the sake of this episode, we always start with the injuries as the jumping off point, and injuries are aplenty in this matchup.

Let's start with Stekwan Barkley, who's dealing with a hamstring injury, has yet to practice this week. Devontae Smith, also dealing with a hamstring injury, has yet to practice this week. Marquise Brown, still not practicing with an ankle injury. Dontavian Wicks popped up on Thursday's injury report, limited with a hamstring. Dallas Goddard, who missed the last couple of weeks, is now limited. He is back at practice, but doesn't seem like he's 100% ready to be going. And then for the Jaguars, we got Laquin Allen and Jacoby Myers. They're practicing in full, but they are on the injury report. So Jeff, when you look at all of these injuries for the Philadelphia Eagles, what do you think they're going to do this week?

Jeff Bell (1:14)

Lose?

Dave Kluge (1:16)

Potentially, yeah.

Jeff Bell (1:17)

Yeah, no, it is, you look at the Eagles season, I mean, they're sitting there 2-0 two weeks ago, and now 2-2 just absolutely decimated. And you could even tell, like that Bears game in week 3, that Monday night game, it seemed like they just walked in, thought they were going to roll over at Case Keenum and didn't really take that game correct, seriously, it seemed like. And then everything since then, I feel like we're at a boy that really escalated quickly here with the Eagles. Of you look at training Cam Jergens and Lane Johnson's retirement, all these injuries. And this looks like now an organization that came in every single year, thinking that they have Super Bowl expectations. And now it seems like they're tanking for next year. And so, yeah, I mean, what are they going to do? They're going to try their best with the pieces that they do have available. And again, it's not a lot right now.

And I mean, this is going to be a tough spot for them.

Dave Kluge (2:13)

So when you look at this backfield, we weren't even getting great production from Saquon Barkley. Saquon Barkley, prior to the injury, was heading into week four as the RB 33 in fantasy. So now if we're expecting one, Lane Johnson's gone and Cam Juergens is gone, as you mentioned. And then Will Shipley and Damian Pearce, nowhere near the talent level of a Saquon Barkley. I mean, I know a lot of people, by a lot of people, I mean me, Jeff. I somehow have Will Shipley in over 50 percent of my fantasy leagues. So I'm putting him into a lot of lineups, but it does feel like a trap. Like this feels like we're going to get Will Shipley in the line up. You're going to wake up at 7 a.m. to watch this game in London, and then you're going to finish your breakfast, and you're going to be looking at 6.1 fantasy points in your lineups, and why did I do that to myself?

Jeff Bell (2:57)

Well, it's not a trap because it's not like you're playing Will Shipley over Chase Brown or something like that. You're playing Will Shipley where desperation is in the deal.

Dave Kluge (3:04)

Or Kaylen Black and the guys, right.

Jeff Bell (3:07)

You're hunting predictable volume, and to some level, you need to live with the results when you're at the point of hunting somewhat predictable volume. And sometimes those results are good. Last week, we saw by the Fab Wars over Olly Gordon last week, where everybody was saying he was a top pickup on Tuesday, and then everybody was cracking jokes about how much Fab was spent on Wednesday, and then he turned out to be a pretty good play last week. And I think that to some level, all we're trying to do is hunt the volume and get backs, get wide receivers in there that we think can get the volume. And you just have to live with the volatility on the other side of it. Will Shipley could find the end zone three times and catch four balls and be very relevant, or he could have six points.

But to some level, like Caitlin Black, you're like, please, for the love of God, find the end zone versus a guy that can get to 100 scrimmage yards.