Game Info
Kickoff: Sunday, October 10th at 1:00 PM ET
Location: Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina
Betting Odds: CAR -3.5, 45 Total on Oddshark
Network: FOX
Philadelphia Eagles
QUARTERBACKS
Jalen Hurts (Start)
According to FantasyPros.com, here’s the full list of quarterbacks who have finished as a QB1 (Top 12) in each of the four weeks that have made up this young season so far:
- Patrick Mahomes
- Jalen Hurts
End of list.
As it turns out, these two faced each other last week in Philadelphia, and yours truly (QBList Staff Writer Drew DeLuca) was there to witness the resulting offensive fireworks. We all know that Mahomes threw five touchdown passes, but here’s something many don’t realize about that game: neither team punted. Not once. Hurts had three touchdown passes taken off the board due to penalties. Two resulted in field goals; the other in no points whatsoever. Additionally, Eagles receivers dropped two other touchdowns.
Add it all up, and Hurts showed that he has QB1 overall upside in any given week, especially against a soft opponent. The Chiefs defense has struggled this year, but the Carolina Panthers appear to field a much more formidable unit. Well, at least on paper: half of Carolina’s games so far have come against the New York Jets and Houston Texans. With no Christian McCaffrey to keep the ball away from him, Hurts should have no issues extending his streak of QB1 games this week.
RUNNING BACKS
Miles Sanders (Start, Flex), Kenny Gainwell (Start, Flex)
Over the past two weeks, Miles Sanders has carried the ball nine times. That’s a total, not an average. Kenny Gainwell has been more productive during that two-game span, both of which featured a negative game script. Sanders was featured more heavily during the first two weeks of the season, games in which the Eagles either won outright or kept the game competitive.
We can come to one of two conclusions. One is that Gainwell is slowly taking Miles Sanders’ job from him, which may be a premature overreaction. The more likely scenario: Gainwell is settling into a Nyhiem Hines-type role, one that offers weekly flex value, while Sanders, for fantasy football purposes, is morphing into a more game script-dependent (and far less productive) version of Jonathan Taylor.
This week, the recently humbled Carolina Panthers await a team that has allowed fewer receptions to running backs than any other team in the league. Only two teams have allowed fewer fantasy points to the position so far, and an alarmingly low 57 percent (8 0f 14) passes thrown to running backs have been completed to date against Carolina. Points won’t come easy to this backfield in Week 5, but Sanders and Gainwell both offer enough upside to serve as reasonably solid flex options.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
DeVonta Smith (Start, WR3), Quez Watkins (Sit), Jalen Reagor (Sit), Dallas Goedert (Start), Zach Ertz (Sit)
We gave DeVonta Smith the benefit of the doubt as a WR3 last week, and he rewarded us with the best game of his young professional career to date, notching his first 100-yard game in the process. We see Smith as a Top 30 option in Week 5, hands-down, against a team that has played half of its games against the New York Jets and Houston Texans. Yes, we’re suggesting that the Panthers defense looks better statistically on paper than it is in practice.
Quez Watkins received seven targets last week, while former first-round pick Jalen Reagor saw only one pass thrown his way. If Watkins can maintain that level of volume while regaining the efficiency he displayed in his first three games, the sky’s the limit for the second-year player out of Southern Mississippi. We like Watkins as a dice roll and love him as a bench stash, but most fantasy football managers likely have a more dependable flex option this week. If Reagor seems like an afterthought in this write-up, well…consider it art imitating life.
Finally, Dallas Goedert caught all five of his passes last week, scored a touchdown, and had a second called back due to penalty. Zach Ertz was slightly less productive, notching 12 fantasy points despite playing fewer snaps (50 percent) than Goedert (74 percent). Ertz also had a touchdown called back thanks to a penalty.
Carolina Panthers
QUARTERBACK
Sam Darnold (Start)
For the second time in a row, Jalen Hurts will face off against a Top Five fantasy quarterback. That’s right, here’s the list of the top-scoring fantasy quarterbacks through Week 4 of the 2021 season:
- Patrick Mahomes
- Kyler Murray
- Jalen Hurts
- Tom Brady
- Sam Darnold
End of list.
Last week was Darnold’s first full game as a Carolina Panther without McCaffrey in the fold, and all he did was finish as *the* QB1 for the week, outscoring even Mahomes and his 5 TD tosses. We don’t expect Darnold to repeat that same level of success, but we’d be surprised to see him fumble the chance to finish as a Top 12 quarterback for the third week in a row.
RUNNING BACKS
Chuba Hubbard (Start, RB2), Rodney Smith (Sit), Royce Freeman (Sit)
There are three reasons we can see Chuba Hubbard finishing as a low-end RB2 this weekend: Volume, volume, and more volume. Hubbard led all Panthers in snap share last week, but still played fewer than half of his team’s snaps. He’d have to usurp the lion’s share of the Panthers’ backfield work to move up out of flex territory, but regardless, he’s still a player we recommend starting.
Surprisingly, neither Hubbard nor Royce Freeman led the Panthers in running back targets last week. That honor went to Rodney Smith, who saw five passes thrown his way. Hubbard saw only two, and Freeman had none. We don’t expect that trend to continue with the Panthers less likely to play from behind in this one; we see Hubbard dominating the overall workload and producing Top 25 running back numbers this week.
WIDE RECEIVERS/TIGHT ENDS
D.J. Moore (Start, WR1), Robby Anderson (Sit), Terrace Marshall, Jr. (Sit), Ian Thomas (Sit), Tommy Tremble (Sit)
Last year, D.J. Moore was a frustratingly difficult player to roster, as he seemed to disappoint fantasy football managers more often than he’d reward them with a productive week. He has been much more consistent so far this year, as he has seen at least eight targets in every game so far this season, including 11 or more in his last three, a span during which he ranks as the WR2 in PPR leagues behind only Cooper Kupp.
Robby Anderson finally factored into the game plan last week, yet still managed to disappoint; the 6’3″ 190 pound former New York Jet finished as the WR50 despite being one of the more heavily targeted players (11) in Week 4. We can’t in good conscience put Anderson into our lineups if we can help it. We love Terrace Marshall, Jr.‘s tantalizing upside, but we can’t pull the trigger on him until he shows us he can be productive as a secondary or tertiary weapon in this offense. We’re likewise sitting both Carolina tight ends; we see both Ian Thomas and Tommy Tremble as heavy touchdown-dependent options who are far more likely to bust than hit this week.