28 of them came on a blitzed “chuck the ball up” that Smith amazingly was able to handle over star Chiefs corner Trent McDuffie. As with A.J. Brown, the volume is there, but it’s hard to divide 97 team passing yards into much better than this and hope for a bailout touchdown. Philadelphia’s wideouts should be able to eat better against the Rams cornerbacks, but this has been a rough start as Smith stands with just 69 yards after two weeks. He’s probably more of a WR3 than a WR2 in Week 3.

One of those “targets” was a measly receiver screen. For whatever reason, Jalen Hurts couldn’t get the ball to his wideouts in OC Kevin Patullo’s play-calling debut. If you thought Smith’s night was bad, it blew A.J. Brown’s out of the water, as AJB’s lone look/catch came at the 1:51 mark of the fourth quarter. Not good enough, but Hurts and Patullo now at least have 10 days to go back to the drawing board ahead of a Week 2 Super Bowl rematch with the Chiefs. Smith will find himself in the WR24-30 range for that one.

“Look for an uptick in production from Smith,” Berman writes. It certainly would make some sense for the Eagles to throw more in 2025 so long as Saquon Barkley actually takes a regression step somewhere along the line, though that obviously is not guaranteed. Smith’s lengthy injury history causes fantasy football managers their own pains, but it’s hard to deny that there’s a path for him to improve on last year’s numbers — at the very least.

The Eagles are likely being conservative with both Smith and A.J. Brown (hamstring), with neither suiting up in recent practices. Smith has also dealt with a back injury in training camp. We don’t expect these injuries to spiral into Week 1 at this time.