Why D’Andre Swift can’t be trusted in Philly | Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast

In the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast podcast, analysts Matt Harmon, Andy Behrens and Dalton Del Don look at the crowded Eagles backfield after Philadelphia acquired the fourth year running back during the NFL Draft.

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MATT HARMON: Philadelphia Eagles, next team up here. Look, the only pick they made of any offensive relevance was Tanner McKee at 188th overall, backup quarterback prospect, but they did trade for D'Andre Swift, which is interesting.

Dalton, you made the point, though, that most of Swift's appeal is as a pass catcher, and Jalen Hurts, I don't think, when you have the rushing ability that he does, and also you can say, hey, I'm going to throw this thing downfield to AJ Brown, to DeVonta Smith, or to Dallas Goedert.

I think D'Andre Smith doesn't make a big impact as an actual rusher here, but he's competing with Rashaad Penny. This feels like a backfield, Dalton, that we're going to discuss a billion times for fantasy over the next few months, and I don't know. It's a confusing one to sort out.

DALTON DEL DON: The Eagles were last in the league in running back target share last year. He has to deal with Rashaad Penny. There's also Gainwell and Scott, and obviously Hurts at the goal line. So it's pretty much a terrible landing spot, despite the team. Well, this team is going to score points, and they have an awesome offensive line.

It's unclear if Swift is good or bad as a runner. Like, he's really high in the avoided tackle percentage, breaking tackles, but some other advanced stats don't like him at all. Obviously, his own coaches don't like him, don't like his patience and his vision. So yeah, it's just a mess with the four-headed backfield, and the premiere touchdown score at quarterback, getting all those short ones, and the rules remain the same for Hurts.

So not getting the touches-- I mean, the targets, and the guy is always perennially dinged up too. So for once, I'm going to be off Swift here. Typically, I'm drafting him too high in fantasy leagues, but this is not great for his fantasy value.

This knocks down Penny a few rounds, and you can get him. Right now, he was tossed in about an eighth-round fantasy pick. You can get him in the 10th, 11th now. I suggest doing that.

ANDY BEHRENS: What a roller coaster for Rashaad Penny's fantasy perception over the last few days. He didn't even do anything. None of it-- like, he wasn't involved in any of it, right? There's all this speculation that they're going to draft Bijan, and that would wreck him, and then it didn't happen. And we were like, oh, OK, that's nice for Penny, and then D'Andre Swift arrives on the scene, but I agree with everything that Dalton said.

I think, combined, they targeted Sanders and Gainwell last year something like 50 times, right? There's just no path here for D'Andre Swift to catch 75, 80 balls or whatever you might have hoped for with Detroit. I imagine that a big part of the reason that he got on the outs with the Lions was simply availability.

He was hurt a lot, and then he would come back, and he would come back to a limited role. Fantasy managers remember that all too well, and I completely understand the team wanting to move on from him. I don't know how you can possibly forecast a season that's any better than the one that he just had. So I'm not super bullish.

MATT HARMON: Yeah, I love that both of you guys were just kind of like, eh, to this because, again, there are going to be some knockdown, drag-out, all-out fights on fantasy Twitter in July when people should be outside, on a beach, beer in hand, and, you know, goofballs are going to be absolutely putting their gloves on for D'Andre or Rashaad Penny in this backfield. And come December, it's probably going to be like Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell. So that's how that's going to go.