Question of the Day, Eagles RBs

Photo: Junfu Han, USA Today Sports

In August, we will ask our staff a single question on a variety of topics ranging from a huge news event to a tough fantasy decision or player evaluation.

See the landing for more pages just like this here.

If you like this format, come back for another Question of the Day. Today, we look at the Philadelphia backfield and project how it shakes out.

Here's the question we asked our staff.

Who will lead Philadelphia Eagles running backs in PPR fantasy scoring? Where will their leading back rank among all fantasy running backs?

And here's the quick answer:

• D'Andre Swift - 7
• Kenneth Gainwell - 2
• Rashaad Penny - 1
• Big Committee - 2

Swift gets support from more than half of our staff, but it's far from consensus.

Here are the full answers.

Matt Waldman: The succinct answer is D'Andre Swift as a mid-range RB3 in fantasy just inside the top 30 at the position. The best answer is the back who emerges from the mid-season forward from the RB competition/rotation that will continue well into the season. That runner will likely lack a season-long fantasy points value equal to Swift, but he'll deliver high-end RB2/low-end RB1 value for the stretch of weeks that he's finally featured.

Boston Scott is only in consideration if there are two or more backs injured because he's good at a lot but not great at anything. Swift is a space player—draws, perimeter runs, and screens with subpar decision-making between the tackles. If the Eagles use the RB as a passing-game decoy as they did last year, expectations for Swift may be too high.

Gainwell is a smart decision-maker with efficient movement and receiving skills. Unless he has added 10-15 pounds of muscle and explosion with his game, he lacks the power for short-yardage and close-out touches. I don't trust goal-line "results" from practice to tell me differently.

That leaves us with Rashaad Penny and Trey Sermon. Penny has improved as a zone runner but is far more natural as a gap runner. He has the most every-down upside, but injuries and lingering boom-bust decisions may hold him back.

Sermon lacks top speed but has Gainwell's versatility as a decision-maker and Penny's size to hold up as a lead back. It's likely this becomes a three-headed committee with Swift, Gainwell, and one of Penny/Sermon as the big back with the most scoring upside down the stretch.

Gary Davenport: Kenneth Gainwell. Hear me out. Full disclosure--I have Rashaad Penny ranked ahead of D'Andre Swift. At their respective ADPs, I'm hoarding Penny shares. But the odds that Penny plays 17 games are only slightly better than my odds of winning that $1.5 billion Mega Millions jackpot, which I, um, didn't. That leaves Swift, who hasn't exactly been the model of durability himself and carries the highest ADP of the lot. Then there's Gainwell, who is all but free. The last game the Eagles played in was rather important--and Gainwell out-touched Miles Sanders. When the injuries start piling up (as they always do), Gainwell could emerge as the kind of dart-throw that wins leagues.

Phil Alexander: Kenneth Gainwell will lead Philadelphia's backfield and finish as a low-end RB2 with RB1 upside in any given week. If asked this question yesterday, I would have answered Rashaad Penny. I assumed Penny would receive the lion's share of base-down work, leaving D'Andre Swift most of the receiving opportunity on a team that doesn't throw to running backs much. But now reports have surfaced that Gainwell has received the most carries with the first-team offense, by far, in training camp, including featured duties in short-yardage and at the goal line. One beat writer even has Penny projected fourth on the depth chart! Maybe Gainwell owes his early lead in the position battle to his experience in the Eagles' system. But this feels more like a situation where we should let go of our prior assumptions when presented with new information.

Ryan Weisse: D'Andre Swift will lead the team's backs in fantasy points and finish as a low-end, top-30 running back. Talent wins out, and Swift is the best back on this team. His injury concerns are overblown, and the Eagles have already talked about getting back to their 2021 scheme, where they threw to their running backs 106 times, 21% of their passing plays. Swift will lose rushing volume, but no other back will compete with him on passing downs. He was the RB21 last year with just 99 carries. The Eagles won't throw to him 70 times, but 50-60 is reasonable, and in this offense, he can easily match his eight touchdowns from last year.

Jason Wood: D'Andre Swift will lead the team in PPR scoring, assuming he can stay healthy, which is no guarantee based on his history. But he ranks RB32 in my current projections, and no one should expect any Philadelphia tailback to be a fantasy league winner. This team has an elite offense that's built comfortably around a committee. Last year, Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell, and Miles Sanders all routinely got 30% or more touches depending on the game script. Respectfully, a few of my colleagues are falling prey to the "breaking news of the moment" based on one beat writer's report that Gainwell is seeing more snaps in the first-team base offense. That stands to reason because Gainwell is the incumbent. There's also a fallacy at play about Swift being hurt by the Eagles' tendency not to throw to the running backs. Don't mistake what has happened for what will happen. A year ago, those same critics were downplaying A.J. Brown because the Eagles were run-heavy, and yet we now know the coaches significantly altered the offense to build around Brown and the passing attack. This year we have to expect a greater emphasis on using the running backs, and Swift will be on the field far more than Quez Watkins, who played a ton as the WR3 but was largely ineffective.