Chase Holden’s Who Dat Fantasy Football Report: Eagles vs. Saints

Ahhhhhhhhh (just took a sip of Sprite), another fantastic week of New Orleans football is here! It seems like the Saints can’t lose at this point, and if you're an owner of the powerful duo that is Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara, then you are more than likely crushing your league. Last week was a “trap game” like most expected, and throwing up the ‘X’ was a classy respect move by the Saints to the recently injured Dez Bryant. I feel terrible for Bryant (not to mention all the fantasy players that picked him up), but with the recent signing of Brandon Marshall, I feel Sean Payton will get a bit of what what he was looking for by adding another veteran receiver and I’m quite excited to see one of my favorite players rocking a black and gold uniform.

This week, the Saints return to the Superdome to take on the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. Luckily, that N’awlins Voodoo or Dome Magic, or whatever you want to call it has taken over the house on Sundays and becomes total Kryptonite to the opponents. The Eagles made a move two weeks ago to snatch Golden Tate from the Detroit Lions for a 3rd round pick in 2019. This move added a PPR monster to the team, and my hot start on the Eagles side of the ball this week.

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

With the Saints giving up 34.4 points on average to wide receivers, you can’t go wrong starting the man. Carson Wentz is another easy play with this defense giving up 24.5 POA to quarterbacks. These numbers are wild! When I see this, it’s hard to believe that one of the best defenses in the league last year slipped to these averages, but its an unpredictable league year to year. As for the run game, the Eagles have a lot of mediocrity in the backfield, and the Saints defense is still holding it together in that area. These Eagles should have some big fantasy production (receivers mostly), but with the Saints high-powered offense, I can’t see it being enough to pull the win for Philly Philly.

When breaking down this Philadelphia defense, it’s easy to see that they are not the defense that took home the Lombardi. Currently, they are allowing around 19 fantasy points to quarterbacks, 14 to running backs, and 29 to receivers. Thomas and Kamara are easy starters as always this week, but we can’t deny the increase in production from Mark Ingram and Benjamin Watson. Most of you know I’m a Kamara owner in all but one of my leagues, but I can’t deny that the Boom and Zoom has found its way back finally in the latter part of the season. Be looking for at least one touchdown and a few yards from Ingram.

Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images

While I’m unsure of the role Brandon Marshall will play in this offense, it certainly doesn't worry me that Tre’Quan Smith will come into the picture and have a bigger role down the stretch. I know I've preached about the 2018 draft selection a lot in my writings this year, and after his breakout performance in Week 5 against the Redskins, you have to know that more of that could be coming. If anything, Marshall could just be a decoy in the offense, and that allows Smith to catch that pigskin in the end zone. Definitely be sure to have the usual suspects in your lineup, start Smith in deep leagues and be cautious of Watson this week. This Eagles defense is only allowing about 5 points to opposing tight ends, so I don’t see the man doing what he has been doing in the past two games.

I hope you guys are doing excellent in your leagues this year, and as always feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @GarageGuyChase for any and all Fantasy Football questions and be sure to listen to the Garage Guys Fantasy Sports Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcasts.