Monday Night Walkthrough Week 3: Saquon Barkley Soldiers On
Welcome to the Week 3 Monday Night Walkthrough.
In this article, I'll outline critical fantasy football context for the third glorious football Monday of 2025.
(The stats below are from PFF, NFLfastR, rbsdm.com, RotoViz, FantasyLabs, Fantasy Life, Fantasy Points, ESPN, FTN, and NFL Next Gen).
PROE data is available for subscribers at the bottom of the post.
Eagles at Bears, 8:15 PM
Eagles
Implied Team Total: 23
Jalen Hurts opened the season with an efficient but very inconsistent performance against the Commanders.
He was significantly better last week against the Titans.
Of course... the Eagles almost lost that game. What happened?
In part, the Eagles got in their own way. After a conservative game plan against the Commanders, they were extremely run-heavy against the Titans.
Philadelphia was playing like a team hiding their QB.
Ordinarily, the Eagles might have had success with a conservative approach against the Titans. But Saquon Barkley exited early in the game with a stinger. He later returned, but the injury severely limited his playing time.
That put the backfield in the hands of Tank Bigsby...
And Will Shipley.
Shipley has been a terrible runner this year. He's really just a passing down complement.
Bigsby is the Eagles' secondary runner. Unfortunately, he's been just as inefficient as Shipley on the ground.
With Barkley injured, the Eagles' game plan last week makes very little sense. This is the type of game that has me questioning things. Like, are we sure Sean Mannion is sharp? And if Mannion does actually know what he's doing... is Jalen Hurts just cooked?
On the Hurts question, it's hard to believe a good coach couldn't build around him at all. Hurts is definitely a specific and potentially frustrating player. He's been very inconsistent this year. But even so, he's been solidly efficient.
And while Hurts holds the ball a long time and often moves off his first read, he's an aggressive downfield thrower with high-end mobility. There are limitations, but also things you can work with.
But we're not calling plays for the Eagles; Mannion is. And last week was a strong signal that he's going to try to run the ball in situations where he doesn't think the pass is necessary—he's going to try to grind out wins.
Maybe I'm wrong (I hope I'm wrong). But... even if Mannion only has a slight proclivity for ball control football, this matchup is likely to trigger it.
The Eagles are traveling to Chicago to take on Case Keenum or Tyson Bagent. A week ago, this game would have required the Eagles offense to be at its best to keep up with Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson. Instead, they are 3.5-point road favorites against a team with an 19.5-point implied team total.
The Bears defense also looks vulnerable on the ground.
Last week, the Vikings leaned on their defense and run game to beat the Bears, and that was with Williams playing most of the game.
This week, the Eagles expect to have Saquon Barkley back. Barkley has been very efficient this season and is very likely to be the focal point of this game plan. His health slightly hurts his outlook. The Eagles would be smart not to overwork him if they have the game in hand. But Barkley is still a low-end RB1.
Against the pass, the Bears defense looks better than against the run. But this is still not a particularly impressive unit.
And the Bears have only faced Bryce Young and Carson Wentz so far. This may actually be a truly bad pass defense masquerading as a mediocre one.
A lack of passing volume could get in the way for the Eagles' receivers, but not if things are concentrated enough.
Against the Titans, DeVonta Smith overcame the lack of dropback volume by dominating targets.
With Dallas Goedert out with an MCL sprain, Smith projects as the clear top target again this week. He's a high-end WR2.
Dontayvion Wicks' route participation dropped off against the Titans in a pretty meaningful way.
Meanwhile, Makai Lemon retained healthy route participation.
That's a good sign for the rookie. Unfortunately, like in Week 1, Lemon was unable to deliver value to the passing game.
Lemon's profile is pretty rough right now. Granted, he's just two games in and was a 1st-round pick with strong college production. I remain optimistic about what he'll do eventually. But for this week, even with healthy route participation against an unimpressive pass defense, he's a WR5.
For now, I prefer Wicks as a bet on the connection he's shown with Hurts so far. Although with limited dropback volume in this game, Wicks also looks like a WR5.
At tight end, Dallas Goedert was limited to just 21% route participation before being injured last week.
Johnny Mundt took over as the primary tight end.
Mundt is a major downgrade from Goedert and is only relevant for Showdown.
