See what we did there? Eagles beat reporter Eliot Shorr-Parks joined Faraz on the Upper Hand Fantasy Podcast to discuss all things Eagles offense!
Q (Faraz): But now we actually have a new offense coming in. Kellen Moore is installing a new system, one that I think fantasy football fans should be excited about. What do you think are the main philosophies of Moore's offense and how do you think things change at a high level?
A (Eliot): So, I think you're going to see the Eagles run a lot more plays than they did last year, being through nine days of practice so far. As you know, I track every single rep each day - and right now, Hertz is up to around 260 reps or so through nine practices.
If you look at what he did last year in nine practices, that number was far below that (the 260 reps this year). So they're running a lot of tempo, a lot of speed, a lot of getting to the line. And I think one of the reasons they're doing that is because they had issues with the blitz last year. And if you're running tempo, it's hard to blitz, it's hard to substitute. But from a fantasy perspective, what (tempo) means is a lot more plays, a lot more targets, and a lot more rushing attempts.
So the biggest philosophy shift so far, I've noticed, of course, is that they’re doing more motion. There's bunch formations, but that's not really what we're here to talk about. What we're here to talk about is how they're going to be running a lot of plays, and I think they're going to have a lot of rushing attempts, a lot of targets to go around. And through nine practices, this offense looks like it could, without question, be one of the best in the NFL.
Q (Faraz): We've had some high-level receivers have monster seasons out of the slot in Kellen Moore's offense: CeeDee Lamb in Dallas, Keenan Allen in LA… A.J. Brown lined up out of the slot at only a 24% rate last year, and DeVonta Smith at 31%. Is there a chance we see one of these guys - maybe both - move into the slot more often? Because if they do, I'm going to be moving them up my rankings.
A (Eliot): Yeah. So I just left the practice field about an hour ago, and they spent a lot of time hitting DeVonta, hitting A.J. over the middle of the field on crossing routes. So I have seen them line up in the slot a fair amount this year.
I think that's another part of Kellen Moore's offense, that he's going to move these guys around. Last year, it was kind of A.J. lined up on one side, DeVonta lined up on the other. And then after the snap is when they would move around and obviously run different routes.
This year, I think pre-snap, they're going to move. And so far, the results of that have been really good. I have A.J. Brown down for 35 targets in nine practices, and he's caught a whopping 33 of them.
So when they've been throwing the ball to A.J., it has been in situations where he's able to make the catch, but the chemistry between Jalen and AJ has really shown in these nine practices. DeVonta also getting a large amount of targets. I have him down with 32 targets so far through nine practices.
So they're throwing the ball a lot. They're putting the ball in those players' hands in the middle of the field… and yes, they are lining up in the slot.
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