Julio Jones, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith’s Updated Eagles Fantasy Football Outlook

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The Philadelphia Eagles are tapping a future Hall of Famer to improve their wide receiving corps.

Julio Jones inked a practice squad contract with the Eagles on Tuesday, with the team placing Quez Watkins on injured reserve in a corresponding move. The signing will allow the Eagles to activate Jones for three games before deciding whether to sign him to the 53-man roster.

Jones spent the 2022 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, hauling in 24 receptions for 299 yards and two touchdowns.

While his recent impact hasn’t been as strong as his name value, Jones signing with the high-powered Eagles offense may put him on fantasy radars. Here’s a look at what to expect once Jones is ready to make his Philly debut.

Jones looked like a shell of himself last season in Tampa and has progressively regressed each of the last three years. After posting at least 950 receiving yards in eight of his first nine NFL seasons, Jones hasn’t topped 771 since and has just 733 yards combined the last two years.

The Eagles will be his third team in as many seasons, and there’s a reason someone with his robust resume is hanging out as a free agent six weeks into the 2023 season.

There might be a week or two where Jones becomes a flex play, but that would require either Devonta Smith or A.J. Brown to miss time.

Let someone else pay for the starry name on the waiver wire while you focus on the 80 or so receivers who will be more fantasy-relevant the rest of the way.

A.J. Brown, Devonta Smith

In that sense, we’ll knock out Brown and Smith in one fell swoop because Jones shouldn’t have any impact on either Brown or Smith. Brown is a clear WR1 quietly on pace to approach 2,000 yards, and Smith is a mid-tier WR2 who should improve on his inconsistent start the rest of the way.

Jones may wind up lightly impacting Brown and Smith by taking away the occasional big play down the field. Julio still has elite top-end speed, and his most likely contribution to the Eagles’ offense will be beating defenses over the top or occasionally breaking a play on a screen pass.

In the macro sense, though, keep deploying the Eagles’ top two pass catchers as you would. Jones isn’t going to be noticeably more impactful than the likes of Olamide Zaccheaus.