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Wendell Smallwood (4 Viewers)

Insein said:
Sproles doesn't affect the lead back. Sproles may take some catch opportunities from Smallwood but otherwise if Smallwood is the starter, he'll get the bulk of the carries.
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Probably see Barner stay steady at his standard 3-5 touches as well. His workload generally isn't affected by anything.

 
Eagles OC Frank Reich said he likes "everything about" Wendell Smallwood.
"I really like what we see in Wendell, both in the run game and in pass protection," Reich said. "I think he's a really good football player, and I think the more he plays that's just going to show more and more." Smallwood should get his shot to play more snaps this week with Ryan Mathews (knee) sidelined. Smallwood will be a borderline RB2 against the Packers.

 
 
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News 
Nov 26 - 9:57 AM
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Have a feeling if Smallwood can have a good game here (which is likely vs Green Bay), he has a real chance to kill this RBBC off for good, even when Mathews returns. Sproles will still get most passing downs obviously. Here's to hoping!

 
I liked Smallwood's upside more if Sproles wasn't playing this week, but I think he still has a solid chance of RB2 numbers even with Sproles. I think he gets the bulk of the carries, and Matthews usage has shown that there's a decent amount of GL carries to be had in this offense, carries that I think go to Smallwood.  His PPR upside is probably capped by Sproles, but PHI uses the RBs enough in the passing game that I think Smallwood can still rack up a few receptions.

 
Rolling him over Martin, Coleman and Sammy in the flex... Maybe. I change my mind every 5 minutes.

 
I've had in on the bench in favor of Booker and Shepherd all week, but with the definitive Mathews news, I am starting to think Smallwood is a better play.

It should be noted that the Eagles' starting RT (who is their backup) is out this week, which is going to necessitate some shuffling of the line.  That could be a problem.

 
Pederson is going to want to control the clock.  Vaitai being out sucks as he's been pretty reliable after his disastrous first week.  Still think Smallwood eclipses 100 total yards and hits paydirt at least once, maybe twice.

 
unckeyherb said:
Pederson is going to want to control the clock.  Vaitai being out sucks as he's been pretty reliable after his disastrous first week.  Still think Smallwood eclipses 100 total yards and hits paydirt at least once, maybe twice.
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Can we have 3 times? Really fell behind this week.

 
Digging this thread up... he's been a hot name in some sleeper/waiver/lotto threads.

I've been looking at him a bit more lately and I think it's a mistake to completely let this guy to go the wayside.

Am I missing something here? The guy has a soon to be 31 year old plodder in Blount (who has been just dreadful in any place other than NE) and 34 year old Sproles to compete with. Granted they drafted Pumphrey round 4, but I haven't heard his name at all (maybe he needs a second look too?) 

My line of thinking is that I believe it's highly unlikely Blound or Sproles will be leading this backfield for >50% of the season. It seems Smallwood has a pretty realistic track to that starting position. That's worth a healthy discussion in my book. Unless people think this is going to be like the NYG backfield of recent years. 

Thoughts? 

I have a short bench league but I have some expendables that I could part with to make room for Smallwood (Lacy, M. Lee, hell even Andrew Luck). 

 
Dr. Dan said:
Digging this thread up... he's been a hot name in some sleeper/waiver/lotto threads.

I've been looking at him a bit more lately and I think it's a mistake to completely let this guy to go the wayside.

Am I missing something here? The guy has a soon to be 31 year old plodder in Blount (who has been just dreadful in any place other than NE) and 34 year old Sproles to compete with. Granted they drafted Pumphrey round 4, but I haven't heard his name at all (maybe he needs a second look too?) 

My line of thinking is that I believe it's highly unlikely Blound or Sproles will be leading this backfield for >50% of the season. It seems Smallwood has a pretty realistic track to that starting position. That's worth a healthy discussion in my book. Unless people think this is going to be like the NYG backfield of recent years. 

Thoughts? 

I have a short bench league but I have some expendables that I could part with to make room for Smallwood (Lacy, M. Lee, hell even Andrew Luck). 
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I agree and currently have him starting as a flex this week due to losing players in the MIA/TB game.  I would rather wait a week or two before starting him though so I am considering other options too for this week.

 
Dr. Dan said:
Digging this thread up... he's been a hot name in some sleeper/waiver/lotto threads.

I've been looking at him a bit more lately and I think it's a mistake to completely let this guy to go the wayside.

Am I missing something here? The guy has a soon to be 31 year old plodder in Blount (who has been just dreadful in any place other than NE) and 34 year old Sproles to compete with. Granted they drafted Pumphrey round 4, but I haven't heard his name at all (maybe he needs a second look too?) 

My line of thinking is that I believe it's highly unlikely Blound or Sproles will be leading this backfield for >50% of the season. It seems Smallwood has a pretty realistic track to that starting position. That's worth a healthy discussion in my book. Unless people think this is going to be like the NYG backfield of recent years. 

Thoughts? 

I have a short bench league but I have some expendables that I could part with to make room for Smallwood (Lacy, M. Lee, hell even Andrew Luck). 
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I wouldn't count Lacy out (yet). That being said Smallwood seems like a decent inside runner, good flex potential. But he could easily get vultured by Blount in the red zone. I feel like he is not startable until Blount becomes a non-factor. If you look at the crew they had last year, Ryan Matthews was their goal line back. It looked as if Blount was brought in to address that need.

 
Dr. Dan said:
Am I missing something here? The guy has a soon to be 31 year old plodder in Blount (who has been just dreadful in any place other than NE) and 34 year old Sproles to compete with.  
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I don't disagree that Smallwood has a good path to the lead role as Blount is 30, did not look good in preseason, and doesn't appear to be a very good fit for this offense.

But the bolded above isnt really accurate.  In 51 games and 21 starts in Tampa and Pittsburgh Blount averaged nearly 4.5 ypc on 491 attempts.  That's not dreadful.

 
And Sproles is no joke either. I think the limit on Smallwood is the usage in the offense, that's it. Blount and Sproles are still potentially effective.

 
SaintsInDome2006 said:
And Sproles is no joke either. I think the limit on Smallwood is the usage in the offense, that's it. Blount and Sproles are still potentially effective.
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Yeah, right now none of the 3 are attractive as Pederson seems intent on playing matchups every week.

Sproles role is the one that seems most clearly defined headed into the season.  I'm debating dropping Chris Thompson for Smallwood in a short bench league.  But not quite ready to pull the trigger yet.  At least with Thompson I know his role and he could be a spot flex in PPR right now.  

Smallwood obviously has potential for a larger role but there is still a lot of uncertainty on how it will play out. All part of the fun of FF, glad the season is finally upon us.

 
I grabbed Smallwood late but frankly I'm not that optimistic.  All of these guys will probably see action, rendering each of them useless for FF (except perhaps for Sproles in PPR, or possibly Blount in TD-heavy).

Even if Blount is injured or phased out, guys like Pumphrey and even Clement could sneak into the picture.

 
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Alex P Keaton said:
I don't see how this can possibly be a positive for Smallwood as a RB.
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Wasn't Sproles a KR for years in PHI though? 

But yes, as a prospect for RB1 this is not very good. The only RB1 I can think of who returned kicks in 2016 was Ty Montgomery, and that was mostly because Davis was just awful. Davis is slated for KR duty again, so time will tell. 

 
Drafted Blount in the 9th rd last night and backed him up with Smallwood in the 15th rd.  So I THINK I have the eagles run game locked up.  I like their o line and I think one of them is going to take the job and run with it this year.  I don't care which one!  

Heres hoping it's not some dumb 3 way RBBC all season. 

Btw all of my league mates thought I was idiotic for drafting Smallwood.  We shall see.   

 
Alex P Keaton said:
I don't see how this can possibly be a positive for Smallwood as a RB.
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One could look at it as Pederson wanting to get Smallwood on the field, but as an RB his touches would be limited (for now) with Blount and Sproles. Obviously if his offensive role expanded, that might get him taken off KR duties.

 
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rickyg said:
Drafted Blount in the 9th rd last night and backed him up with Smallwood in the 15th rd.  So I THINK I have the eagles run game locked up.  I like their o line and I think one of them is going to take the job and run with it this year.  I don't care which one!  

Heres hoping it's not some dumb 3 way RBBC all season. 

Btw all of my league mates thought I was idiotic for drafting Smallwood.  We shall see.   
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you missed the best one

sproles

 
rickyg said:
Drafted Blount in the 9th rd last night and backed him up with Smallwood in the 15th rd.  So I THINK I have the eagles run game locked up.  I like their o line and I think one of them is going to take the job and run with it this year.  I don't care which one!  

Heres hoping it's not some dumb 3 way RBBC all season. 

Btw all of my league mates thought I was idiotic for drafting Smallwood.  We shall see.   
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idiotic in the 15th round? that's bizarre.

 
If anyone can be a genuine lead back in the offense, Smallwood has the best chance.

Pumphrey has almost no chance of having an impact this year.  Too small and overmatched so far.  Also doubt Clement does much (barring injuries).

Sproles is too old (though Doug really leaned on him last year).

Blount will be in there for the TDs, but doubt that he fits with the offense overall (still think he has value though).

Smallwood has been getting raves and potential starter discussion despite being injured all preseason.  His youth plus a little bit of experience suggest that he is best poised to potentially seize the job.

However, I would still put that probability at like 20-25%.  It was good enough for me to take a flyer on him on my bench, but overall I wouldn't have high expectations.

 
Anyone still feel good about him? :popcorn:

Debating dropping Forte to pair him with Blount but from what I saw last week he didn't look great in the chances he had. 

 
Per the local beat guys and seen on film in the preseason and week 1, Smallwood is really struggling in pass protection.  I think he's a talented runner but he's got one foot in the doghouse and the second one is heading there.  If he's going to get Wentz killed he's not going to play.

 
I dropped him in a dynasty league. Might be premature, but I don't believe the Eagles RB of the future is on their team right now. Smallwood my get an opportunity this year, but he seems average to me. Still might be worth a hold in deep bench leagues as he should have a path to get some PT with Blount and Sproles being old and RBs being scarce.

 
I'm holding because I have Sproles as a RB4. 

Agree he looks shaky in pass pro, but if Sproles goes down I could see Smallwood having a nice stretch of production in PPR formats. 

I think he's one of the more compelling Handcuffs/lottery tickets due to caliber of team around him, and Sproles being 127 years old and a huge injury risk. 

 
I dropped in my redraft league.  Was holding just in case blount absolutely sucked week 1 like he did in preseason.  But blount was solid and small woods usage told me what I need to know. For now at least. I'll keep him on speed dial

 
rickyg said:
I dropped in my redraft league.  Was holding just in case blount absolutely sucked week 1 like he did in preseason.  But blount was solid and small woods usage told me what I need to know. For now at least. I'll keep him on speed dial
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Same.  Dropped. 

 
This is a process from my perspective.  Peterson has demonstrated support for Blount, so until and unless Blount falls flat repeatedly, Smallwood is a more fragile version of Brandon Oliver, i.e. in case of emergency break glass.  This weekend's matchup vs a stout Giants run D is an important milestone in the respective vectors of Blount and Smallwood this year.  Although I don't think it's fair to Blount, my expectation is that Blount does not impress because the Eagles run blocking is marginal at best, and that Smallwood will eventually see an uptick in his carries, but I don't for that until mid way into the season.  There's also the chance that Blount is successful....guessing game at this point.

 
SeniorVBDStudent said:
This is a process from my perspective.  Peterson has demonstrated support for Blount, so until and unless Blount falls flat repeatedly, Smallwood is a more fragile version of Brandon Oliver, i.e. in case of emergency break glass.  This weekend's matchup vs a stout Giants run D is an important milestone in the respective vectors of Blount and Smallwood this year.  Although I don't think it's fair to Blount, my expectation is that Blount does not impress because the Eagles run blocking is marginal at best, and that Smallwood will eventually see an uptick in his carries, but I don't for that until mid way into the season.  There's also the chance that Blount is successful....guessing game at this point.
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Blount had 0 carries last game.  All around the run game usage was terrible, so who knows what it will mean, but I don't know how Pederson has demonstrated support for Blount.

 
Long Ball Larry said:
Blount had 0 carries last game.  All around the run game usage was terrible, so who knows what it will mean, but I don't know how Pederson has demonstrated support for Blount.
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in preseason, blount demonstrated ZERO.  pederson came out and squashed the smallwood talk with schtick that blount was going to do big things for the eagles this year, yadda yadda yadda.

 
Do we expect Smallwood to take over from Sproles and get TDs poached by Blount?  Is Clement a threat to make it a complete mess? 

 
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