Every year in fantasy football, there’s one player that pundits and prognosticators are divided on. They have a WIDE range of outcomes, and fantasy experts will plant their flag on the positive or negative as to why you should or shouldn’t draft them.
This year, that player is DeVonta Smith. His offense is changing, and he’s now being thrust into a true WR1 role now that AJ Brown has been traded to the New England Patriots.
There have been 137 instances since 1990 where a pair of teammates have both totaled 1,000 or more receiving yards. There have been 20 such instances since 2021, when DeVonta Smith was drafted. Paired with A.J. Brown since 2022, the teammates have each crossed 1,000 receiving yards in the same season three times.
You might be wondering what this has to do with why you should want to draft DeVonta Smith in fantasy heading into the 2026 season. Trust me, I’m getting there.
What people want to focus on is that Smith hasn’t shown the ability to be a team’s number one receiver because he’s been paired with a dominant WR1 in Brown for the last four seasons. So let’s spend some time debunking this lazy narrative.
Is DeVonta Smith a Fantasy Football WR1?
Smith is a Talented Receiver (with and without A.J. Brown)
If all you focus on is the last four seasons, you’ll see that DeVonta Smith has put up three seasons of over 1,000 yards, scored 26 touchdowns, and hauled in 321 receptions. He’s averaged over 1,000 yards per season and missed only five games. In fact, Smith had MORE receiving yards than Brown in 2025.
Missed games are important here because over the last four seasons, Brown missed some games as well. So the onus fell on Smith to be the leader of the WR corps. So how did Smitty do without Brown?
DeVonta Smith splits with and without
A.J. Brown from 2022-2025via @FTNFantasy NFL Splits Tool
16.2 PPR pts per game in 5 without AJB
^ 16.2 pts = WR9 in 2025
(this does not include a 2023 playoff game against the Buccaneers in which Smith caught 8 of 12 targets for 148 yds) pic.twitter.com/xFBWplN00x
— Colin McTamany (@Colin_McT) April 20, 2026
Smith only averaged 87.8 yards and put up 16.2 PPR points per game. Sure, it was in five games, but we take information as it’s available. By the way, over a full 17-game season, that’s 1,493 yards and 275.4 PPR fantasy points. Call me crazy, but that’s pretty good.
But for those that don’t like small sample sizes, I direct you to Smith’s 2021 season, his rookie season, when he WAS the Eagles’ WR1. As a rookie. He played all 17 games, saw 104 targets, and registered a 64/916/5 stat line. He posted the highest yards per reception of his career (14.3), and did this while catching balls from 1st-year starter Jalen Hurts. Who, if I’m to believe the internet, is not a good quarterback.
We sure Smith can’t handle being a WR1?
The New Scheme
I’m not worried about Smith as a WR1. He can be, and he is. What has me most curious as we head into 2026 is the new scheme that former Packers QB coach Sean Mannion is installing. Green Bay hasn’t seen a pass catcher top six targets per game since 2022 when Aaron Rodgers was throwing to Allen Lazard (of all people).
That tells me one of two things: Matt LaFleur doesn’t want to hyper-target someone so his QB can focus on just finding the open receiver. OR. No one on the Packers the last three seasons has proven to be a target earner the caliber of Allen Lazard.
The latter is important, and I’ll get to that in a minute. Any time a first-time play caller steps into the role, questions abound. We only know what has influenced Mannion. He’s spent the last couple of seasons on the Packers coaching staff learning from LaFleur. But he also spent time as a quarterback in the NFL, having played behind Jared Goff with Sean McVay, and behind Kirk Cousins with Kevin O’Connell. All three offenses have a lot of similarities. And while McVay and O’Connell don’t have a problem giving their star WR 160+ targets, LaFleur clearly did.
Or maybe he just didn’t have that kind of target earner on his team. Because I know he has players on the roster that are better than Allen Lazard… right??
If you don’t think Smith is a WR1, fine. But you can’t say he’s not a target earner. He’s logged targets per game of 6.1, 8.0, 7.0, 6.8, & 6.6 over his five seasons as a pro. Literally every season is higher than anyone the Packers have employed during Mannion’s time with the organization.
Oh, and this was in a run-first offense. Where not one, but TWO WRs have been fantasy viable.
The haters can put that in their pipe and smoke it.
The College Connection
Clearly, Jordan Love never had a pass catcher he trusted enough to consistently target. Or Matt LaFleur told him that’s not how you win games. It’s pretty clear Jalen Hurts has no issue throwing to guys he trusts as much as possible. And he DOES win games. (He’s even won a Super Bowl.)
In fact, the Eagles drafted Smith in 2021 after they decided Hurts would be their starting QB going forward in part because the two of them had a relationship going back to their days playing for Alabama in college.
They didn’t play together long — 2017 was Smith’s freshman year, and he caught eight passes, and 2018 saw Hurts as Tua Tagovailoa’s backup much of the year — but clearly, a bond was built.
Smith’s rookie season in Philadelphia with Hurts showed they didn’t miss a beat. And in those five games Smith played without Brown, Hurts looked his way around nine times per game. For reference, nine targets per game would yield 153 targets in a season. Only five players in the NFL saw 150+ targets in 2025.
With Smith being one of the few carryovers from last year to this year, how do we think this season will go for Hurts and Smith?
Be sure to check our fantasy football preview of DeVonta Smith and the 2026 Eagles!
An Elite Track Record
There’s a reason I brought up 1,000-yard tandems early in this article. When we look at some of the great WR duos over the years — Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt, Marvin Harrison and Reggie Wayne, Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, etc. — many featured players who couldn’t find success outside of the tandem. But some did.
Holt had two 1,000-yard seasons when Bruce didn’t. Wayne had five 1,000-yard seasons with Harrison, then four more after Harrison retired when he served as the Colts’ WR1. Boldin had 1,377 yards in his rookie season without Fitzgerald. Had four more seasons over 1,000 yards with Fitzgerald, then continued to be a WR1 in stops with Baltimore and San Francisco. Fitzgerald also did some great things after Boldin left, I’m told.
Holt, Harrison, Wayne, and Fitzgerald were all former 1st-round picks. Boldin and Bruce were 2nd-round picks. Those are just some examples for the positive.
We can look at tandems like Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker that excelled together. Decker’s lone 1,000-yard season came while paired with Brandon Marshall (who had 1,000-yard seasons with four different teams). Decker was a 3rd-round pick, for what it’s worth.
Chris Godwin has never had a 1,000-yard season without Mike Evans. Were we saying Godwin wasn’t a WR1 when he finished 2019 as the WR2? Jaylen Waddle had a 1,000-yard season without Tyreek Hill, and people still question his ability to lead a WR room.
Smith is a former top 10 draft pick. He’s one of only five wide receivers in the history of college football to win the Heisman trophy. He’s an NCAA champion. And he’s won a Super Bowl.
Smith has the track record to be given the benefit of the doubt.
A New Era in Philadelphia
When you have the ability to acquire a talent like A.J. Brown, you do it. The Eagles didn’t make that draft day trade with the Titans because they didn’t think DeVonta Smith couldn’t lead their WR room. They did it because they like to acquire talent. And talent leads to Super Bowls.
Smith played well opposite Brown. Smith also played well when Brown was on the sidelines. There’s plenty of evidence that suggests Smith will be just fine as the Eagles’ WR1 in 2026 and beyond. And yet, people still doubt him.
What I have reservations about is the new system being implemented. But just like we’re not fading AJ Brown in New England as he adjusts to a new system and a new quarterback, you shouldn’t be fading Smith either, and he already has a relationship with his QB (a good one, at that).
His current price of WR12 in best ball drafts is certainly high for someone who has finished as the WR30, WR9, WR19, WR27, & WR20 in PPR formats over the last five seasons. But Best ball is different than your typical redraft leagues. And the platform you play on matters.
If you’re playing on Yahoo or ESPN, where he’s going as a 3rd-round pick, fine. If Smith falls into the 4th or even 5th round like he is in Sleeper drafts, you’re walking into championship games.
Smith is a fringe top-12 WR for me. So even with reservations about the new scheme, talent wins out. And talent earns targets. And targets breed WR1s in fantasy football.
Slim Reaper. Smitty. Skinny Batman. What you refer to him as is up for debate. What you should be calling him is a top WR in not just fantasy football, but real-life football.
Looking for your favorite team? This link will take you to the rest of our 2026 Look Inside team previews.
A Look Inside the Philadelphia Eagles
Editor’s Note: While this article focused on DeVonta Smith in fantasy football, we don’t want to leave you hanging on the rest of the team. Here is a quick look at the other fantasy-relevant Eagles from Ryan Weisse.
Jalen Hurts
No matter what you think about Hurts as a thrower, and I think he’s fine, his rushing upside is what matters in fantasy football. If you take out his rookie year, he has rushed for 3200 yards and 60 TDs in the last five years. That’s an average of 124 fantasy points with just his legs. That is the definition of a safe floor. He may not finish top-5, but he’s equally unlikely to miss the top 10.
Saquon Barkley
After the massive workload he saw in 2024, we expected regression in 2025, and we were right. But even Barkley’s down season produced an RB14 finish. He is a top-15 running back when he is bad. With this new system in place, we should actually expect to see more TDs this year. Josh Jacobs scored 30 TDs in his two seasons with Mannion in Green Bay. Barkley scored just nine last year. Even if his efficiency never recovers, if you give him six more TDs, he’s a top-10 fantasy back again.
Makai Lemon
Lemon was one of the Big 3 receivers in this year’s draft, and some saw him as the best of the group. He was the third receiver selected, but the Eagles adding him in the 1st Round should not be ignored. He will play second-fiddle to Smith, but as Josh pointed out throughout this article, it’s not unheard of for teammates to both succeed. Lemon will be the second option, but if Mannion lets Hurts throw the ball enough, that could work out fine for fantasy. He is a WR3 with big upside.
Dontayvion Wicks
Wicks needs to be acknowledged because he played with Mannion in Green Bay. He is a field stretcher, and an ideal fit to play outside, opposite Smith with Lemon in the slot. Volume will be the key here. He is, at best, the third look, and in an offense that may only pass 500 times, that won’t be enough targets to make Wicks relevant. He is a fun best ball pick though.
Dallas Goedert
Goedert was a top-10 TE last year, scoring 11 TDs. That makes him look like a value at his TE13 ADP. But I am not sold. The Eagles have waited until the last minute in each of the last two offseasons to bring him back. They clearly want to move on, but had no better options…until the NFL Draft. The team added Eli Stowers, widely regarded as the second-best TE in the class. Goedert and Stowers will likely split time this year, hurting both in fantasy, but then in 2027, Stowers will take over. You can probably skip both in a basic redraft league this season.
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Before you go, check out where DeVonta Smith and the rest of the Eagles fall in our 2026 Fantasy Rankings here!