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By Matt Morrison (@dynastyjerk)
Good day Dynasty Owners and welcome back to another contract breakdown article. The regular season continues to approach as we are currently 24 days away from regular season football. The road that we have traveled together was a long one. After this article concludes, we will be one team away from having discussed every single team in the NFL. Today we will talk about a few players from the Eagles, next week we will discuss the Washington Football Team. First, let’s talk about some free agents that the Eagles had coming into the 2021 off-season.
Free Agents
In all, there were four Eagles’ free agents that I planned to discuss. Three of these players are returning for at least one more year in Philly, while one has moved on to a division rival. As I’ve mentioned before, there are many more free agents that the Eagles had to make decisions about after the 2020 season. I would be here all day if I were going to write about each and every one of them. Instead, what I do is pick out the most important free agents for us as Dynasty Owners. These four players are the most rosterable in our format and are therefore, more important to discuss. Here are the four players that I felt were notable enough to write about this week…
- Richard Rodgers
- Boston Scott
- Greg Ward
- Corey Clement
Let’s start from the top with Richard Rodgers. Rodgers was an unrestricted free agent following the 2020 season, but the Eagles elected to bring him back on a single year deal worth a little over one million dollars. The formal deal is 1 year – $1,027,500. The hard truth is that Rodgers will not make much of a fantasy impact in the 2021 season. In fact, he really didn’t make much of an impact in 2020 either. He compiled only 70.5 fantasy points on the whole season, and he averaged only 8.8 fantasy points in the games that he recorded at least one reception. The situation is further complicated by the fact that he is projected to be the TE3 for the team. As we know, Zach Ertz has still not been traded, and it doesn’t appear he will be dealt before the start of the season. Additionally, Dallas Goedert is there and looks to be the number one fantasy points leader for tight ends on the Eagles in 2021. Suffice it to say, the Eagles have a crowded tight end committee, and I see no reasonable path forward for Rodgers to receive a high amount of volume. Obviously, an injury can occur to either of the other two tight ends, and that would make Rodgers a little more of an interesting option. For now, consider him a deep stash and don’t expect a large fantasy output from him at least in the short term.
Boston Scott is a player that I love to watch. Despite posting only 80 rushing attempts and 25 receptions, he ended the 2020 season with 111.5 fantasy points. Not bad for an extremely cheap player with low volume. Scott came into the 2021 off season as an exclusive rights free agent (ERFA). I have mentioned this type of free agent in the past and this is the quick breakdown of what an ERFA means…I wrote this quote about JaMycal Hasty back in January:
“ JaMycal Hasty’s situation is a little more complicated. Hasty is an ERFA. An ERFA is any player that has not accrued three years of service in the NFL and has an expiring contract. These types of free agents are almost always undrafted rookies. Hasty fits that description, and being an ERFA, he really has no options. The 49ers are able to sign him to a one year tender for slightly more than their original contract. ERFA have no leverage to meet or sign with other teams. Essentially, expect Hasty to be back in SF next year with a very similar contract.”
This is the same situation that Boston Scott was in this off-season. Scott had virtually no leverage after he was offered an ERFA tag. The Eagles offered it and he signed in in the beginning of March. His contract is 1 year – $920,000. This is a great value for a player of Scott’s talent, but I’m worried the opportunity will not be there once again. Complicating matters is the fact that the Eagles signed Kerryon Johnson after he was waived by the Lions last year. I still consider Scott the number two running back on the team due to his tenure, but I wouldn’t doubt if Johnson shows to be the more talented running back quickly. Scott is a clear hold candidate as there isn’t much risk associated with it.
Greg Ward is another player that resigned with the Eagles after being offered an ERFA tag. Like Scott, Ward had almost no leverage and was virtually forced to sign the tag. The good news is that with an ERFA tag comes a cheap contract. This is good news for Dynasty Owners, but obviously not great news for Ward himself. At any rate, Ward’s contract is 1 year – $850,000. As is the case with Scott, hold Ward in the event that he works his way up to the starting wide receiver rotation.
The final player I want to mention is Corey Clement. He is the lone free agent in the article that signed with a new team. Clement finished the 2020 season with nearly zero fantasy impact. He had only 21.6 fantasy points, and he looks to provide valuable running back depth to the New York Giants. Even with the signing, he will have a tough path to volume. He is currently third in the pecking order for running backs. Saquon Barkley is obviously the top dog, but newly acquired Devontae Booker will most likely start the season as the RB2 for the Giants. Clement’s contract is 1 year – $990,000.
Now that we got all the former free agents out of the way, let’s do a contract breakdown with one of the most undervalued players coming into the 2021 season…Jalen Reagor.
Contract Breakdown
It seems like Jalen Reagor has all but been forgotten this offseason, especially after the 2021 NFL Draft. The addition of DeVonta Smith certainly nuked the optimism for Reagor. The truth is that Reagor had his own issues prior to Smith being drafted. There were five games in the 2020 NFL season that Reagor did not catch a pass. The majority of these goose eggs were due to the fact that he had right thumb surgery early on in the season. Reagor comes into 2021 with three years remaining on his rookie contract worth $3,317,669. Let’s see how he compares to similar valued wide receivers…
| Salary | 2021 Projected FPs | 2021 DD/FP | |
| Marquise Brown | $2,946,835 | 204.8 | $14,389 |
| Jerry Jeudy | $3,798,243 | 238.7 | $15,912 |
| Jalen Reagor | $3,317,669 | 176.9 | $18,754 |
| Kadarius Toney | $3,429,877 | 159.9 | $21,504 |
| DeVonta Smith | $5,035,348 | 217.9 | $23,109 |
With the exception of Hollywood Brown, all five of these players are current rookies or were rookies last year. I did this on purpose to give a comparison of value for similar seasoned players. Which of these five players would you rather own in Dynasty Owner? For me, I rank them like this…
- Jerry Jeudy
- DeVonta Smith
- Jalen Reagor
- Marquise Brown
- Kadarius Toney
I think that Jeudy is most poised to make an impact in the 2021 season. His quarterback situation is a little shaky, but with three years remaining on his contract, he will continue to be a large value. As I mentioned earlier, DeVonta Smith is the new kid in town, and that is what has pushed Reagor’s dynasty outlook so far down. Both receivers will be the top targeted wide receivers for the Eagles in 2021, but it’s likely they aren’t the most targeted players on the team. Dallas Goedert and Miles Sanders could both receive more targets than both receivers.
Here is the biggest discrepancy I have with Smith and Reagor. At the time of this writing, here are each receivers Dynasty Owner ADP…
| Salary | ADP | |
| DeVonta Smith | $5,035,348 | 57.2 |
| Jalen Reagor | $3,317,669 | 147.9 |
This is actually not hard for me to understand, but it doesn’t mean I agree with it. Smith does have an additional year remaining on his rookie deal, and he has more draft equity invested in him, but here is a shocking stat…Reagor is actually younger than Smith. This combined with the fact that Reagor is being drafted eight rounds later than Smith in startup drafts makes me heavily favor Jalen when we factor in the draft capital you need to pay for each receiver.
The bottom line is that Jalen Reagor is being criminally undervalued in his sophomore year, and it’s about time we change that…
Next week I will wrap up this entire Contract Breakdown theme when we talk about the Washington Football Team. After next week, I will do a couple of weeks of recaps of this year’s article as we lead into the start of the NFL regular season. I want to thank everyone for reading and for watching my video breakdowns on YouTube. Message me on Twitter (@dynastyjerk) and let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I would appreciate it if you followed @Dynasty_Owner on Twitter as well as subscribed to Dynasty Owner on YouTube. Thank you all. Take care and be safe.
TheJerk