The Linc

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

Who Should Be 1.01 in 2025 Fantasy Football Drafts? – FTN Fantasy
Saquon Barkley’s Case: He just finished the greatest season by rushing yardage by a running back in NFL history, when you count the playoffs. He runs through holes that might help even you gain a few yards. He ripped off 60-plus yard scores like it was nothing. He’s still in his prime (28 years old) and on an absolutely loaded offense. What’s not to like? We’re finally seeing Barkley’s star power now that he’s on a good team. Including the playoffs, Barkley went for over 100 yards in 12 of his last 15 games. The case against him would be that he’s not going to run for 2,000 yards again, and he only caught 33 passes. The two RBs going behind him — Gibbs and Robinson — might catch twice as many balls. The discussion of Barkley’s ceiling vs. Chase’s is interesting. Chase had more 40-plus games (three vs. two) and of course had the 55-point game, but Barkley had more games with 25-plus points (seven for Barkley, five for Chase). But not all 25-point games are created equal! A 25-point game from a WR is usually good enough to push your expected fantasy win rate to about 66% that week. When an RB hits that mark, your expected win rate that week jumps to about 72%. I think you could make a good case for Barkley as the 1.01 based on this stat alone.

Fantasy Football ADP Battle: Saquon Barkley vs. Bijan Robinson – PFF
Barkley dominated the Eagles’ backfield in 2024, leading all running backs in opportunities per game (24.0 combined carries and targets). He was the focal point of the ground game in nearly all situations, except for late downs and short-yardage scenarios, where Jalen Hurts took over. In fact, Hurts was Barkley’s primary competition for rushing volume, registering 150 carries, second-most on the team and more than the RB2 in Atlanta. While Barkley’s volume was elite, Hurts’ involvement near the goal line slightly capped his touchdown ceiling.

McBride’s bad TD luck and 40 other things learned while doing 2025 fantasy football projections – ESPN
34. Including the playoffs, Saquon Barkley had an astounding 482 touches last season. That’s the most a running back has handled since DeMarco Murray had 497 in 2014. Since 2011, there have now been 15 instances of a back reaching 400 touches (again, including the playoffs). Excluding Le’Veon Bell (who infamously skipped the 2018 season), our sample of 13 RBs went on to average 12.3 games (four played every game) and 18.3 fantasy PPG. Ten of the 13 saw a dip in fantasy PPG and only five repeated as top-5 fantasy scorers. Perhaps most concerning is age. Of the five who repeated as top-5 scorers, four were 25 years old or younger (Ezekiel Elliott 24, Ray Rice 25, Derrick Henry 26, Bell 25). The exception is Marshawn Lynch (28), which is the age Barkley will be next season, though Lynch barely hit the 400-touch threshold (403), getting 79 fewer than Barkley. Barkley’s historically high usage, “advanced” age and limited receiving work are reasons to think he could take a step back in 2025, but he should be able to provide RB1-level production on a per-game basis.

Eagles Super Bowl LIX rings (featuring pop out wings) are here! – BGN
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl LIX rings are finally here. The team was originally scheduled to have their ring ceremony back on June 6 (their Super Bowl LII ring ceremony was held on June 14, 2018). That was, until “production issues” purportedly caused the delay to July 18, which is just shortly before players report to the NovaCare Complex for the start of training camp on July 22.

Eagles training camp preview: The five biggest questions going into the Birds’ first practice – Inquirer
How will the Eagles offense be the same — or different — with Kevin Patullo? We’ve seen about as wide a range of outcomes from the Eagles’ offensive-coordinator carousel as possible the last two seasons. Whether Kevin Patullo falls closer to Kellen Moore or Brian Johnson as the Eagles primary play-caller won’t become clear until the regular season, but training camp will offer the first extended glimpse at how things may or may not change with him as the driving force behind the offense. There’s a compelling argument — one that centers around the preferences of Jalen Hurts and the domineering nature of the Eagles’ historic run game with Saquon Barkley — that they shouldn’t change much from last season. The group proved most of last season just how difficult it is for opposing defenses to scheme their way around a multiple rushing attack, an elite offensive line, and a running back who can create for himself in the rare instances that elite line cannot. Still, Hurts’ excellence in Super Bowl LIX against a defense determined to slow Barkley down showed that the ceiling for this offense is even higher than what it showed for most of last regular season. For that reason, all eyes will be on Patullo and his vision for a talented group that will return all but one starter from last year (more on that later). There’s some merit to the notion that most of Hurts’ preferred concepts should carry over from previous schemes, but seeing how the former pass-game coordinator plans to stay ahead of opposing defenses fresh off an offseason of studying Barkley’s big year will be key.

Commanders fans have a keen interest in seeing drafted rookies and a veteran free agent in training camp and preseason – Hogs Haven
The one veteran player on the list who hasn’t yet played a snap for the team — Deebo Samuel — ran away with the vote, more than doubling the vote tally for the next player on the list, QB Marcus Mariota. Deebo Samuel got 28% of the vote in this survey of Hogs Haven readers. Players frequently cited as instrumental in the success of the 2024 Commanders — Bobby Wagner, Zach Ertz and Austin Ekeler, all polled below 20%, with two of those players actually finishing with single-digit totals. There’s no real mystery about the reason for that. Wagner and Ekeler will each be 36 years old in 2026, while Ekeler will be 31, which is roughly 49 years old in running back years.

Dallas Cowboys roster-building approach: Why can’t they advance in the playoffs? – Blogging The Boys
We all have our own theories about what’s holding this team back, but it’s hard to be too critical of a front office that, for the most part, has done an excellent job buying the groceries. With an excellent track record when it comes to the draft, and employing other methods that might be a little over-criticized, the Cowboys put together good teams, and they might be closer than we think to finally turning the corner if they can just get some of these other things worked out. [BLG Note: Keep telling yourselves that, Cowboys fans.]

Eleven NFL teams facing the most pressure in the 2025 season: Cowboys, Steelers among top five – NFL.com
5) The Cowboys are always under pressure. Such is life as a high-profile team with a high-profile owner who regularly tells the media how badly he wants another Lombardi Trophy. Over three straight 12-win seasons from 2021-23, the main burden on Dallas was to make a meaningful playoff run for the first time since 1995, or at least avoid an embarrassing postseason exit. Now, new head coach Brian Schottenheimer is taking on an even stiffer challenge: bringing the ‘Boys back to the competitive picture after a 2024 campaign in which they fell into deep irrelevance by November. OK, so Dak Prescott ‘s return to health from the hamstring injury that limited him to eight appearances last season should do a lot of the heavy lifting there. And Schottenheimer — getting his first spin in the head seat after 25 NFL seasons as an assistant — should have an extremely firm grasp on how to best support Prescott, who led the NFL in touchdown passes (36) and hit a new personal high in passer rating (105.9) with Schottenheimer as his offensive coordinator in 2023. But Prescott’s absence wasn’t the only thing that sank the Cowboys, who were further hindered by a run game that averaged a pitiful 4.0 yards per carry (tied for 27th in the NFL) and a defense that coughed up 5.8 yards per play (tied for 28th). Can Schottenheimer shore up those weaknesses after an offseason in which the most juice was added at the No. 2 receiver spot (which was, it must be said, desperately needed) via a trade for George Pickens ? A second straight losing season would be extremely tough to swallow in Dallas, which should want to make the most of its hefty commitments to Prescott and CeeDee Lamb (and, presumably soon, Micah Parsons).

Fantasy Football ‘25: RB rankings and tiers – Big Blue View
Commentary: A lot of rankers have knocked Saquon Barkley from the No. 1 spot, but I haven’t. Yes, no RB1 has repeated in almost 20 years, and yes, he had almost 500 touches last season including playoffs, and the next-year history of guys with that kind of workload isn’t good. Plus, he’s now 28. So what? He’s in a perfect situation and I think he has the best chance to finish as the RB1 this season, so he stays at the top spot for me.

NFL trivia: Your in-5 daily game, Saturday edition – SB Nation
Think you can figure out what NFL player we’re talking about? You’ll get five clues to figure him out.