DeVonta Smith — Week 1: Six Targets, Team High, Three Catches
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Smith led the Eagles with six targets and caught three for fifty-three yards, the longest a thirty-one-yard catch on third and five with two oh one left in the third quarter that set up a field goal. Three of his targets came on third down and one converted, none came inside the Washington twenty, and the three touchdown throws went to Dallas Goedert twice and Dontayvion Wicks, in a 24–22 win over the Commanders.
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Third and five at the Philadelphia 45, two oh one left in the third quarter, Eagles up 14 to nine. Jalen Hurts deep right to DeVonta Smith, pushed out of bounds at the Washington 24, 31 yards. The catch was worth +2.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 6.6 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it, the sixth-largest gain on any Eagles pass or run and the largest among his six targets. The drive did not reach the end zone: an incompletion, seven yards from Saquon Barkley, an incompletion to Dallas Goedert on third and three, and the field goal that made it 17 to nine.
Six targets, three catches, 53 yards, no touchdown, one first down, +0.8 expected points on the targets. Six targets led the Eagles; Goedert had five, Dontayvion Wicks and Makai Lemon four. The first catch was second and 24 at the Philadelphia 25 with six 25 left in the first, short middle for 12, and Hurts was sacked for nine on the next snap. The second was second and 16 at the Philadelphia 14 with 10 28 left in the third, short left for 10; the third and six that followed was incomplete to him, −1.5 expected points and −5.1 points of win probability, his worst target. The other two incompletions came back to back at the Philadelphia 47 with under a minute left in the half, deep left on second and two and short middle on third and two. Three third-down targets, one first down. 79 air yards on the six throws and five yards after the catch. One catch for 12 before halftime, two for 41 after. None of the six came inside the Washington 20.
Six throws to Smith, five to Goedert, four each to Wicks and Lemon, two to Barkley, one to Will Shipley, and three with no receiver. The 14 completions were four to Goedert, three each to Smith and Lemon, two to Wicks, one each to Barkley and Shipley; the receiving yards went Goedert 77, Wicks 73, Smith 53; the three touchdowns went to Goedert twice and Wicks. 16 pass plays before halftime and 12 after.
Back in June the preview made no call on Smith — WR12 at pick 30, priced above where the one pattern it trusted put him, which was around his WR30 finish, with A.J. Brown's departure and a hundred 21 vacated targets as the upside it would not let carry a call — and it said to watch the target share with Brown gone, and the red-zone looks. Sunday the share was six of 25 throws, the most on the team, and the red-zone looks were none. That is one game, and the first one under a new play-caller; it is a data point for the share and a zero for the other thing. Philadelphia is at the Titans on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
When DeVonta Smith's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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