Preseason Week 1 Fantasy Football Game Recap: Philadelphia Eagles vs. Baltimore Ravens

Kenneth Gainwell has preseason Week 1 off: Gainwell appears to be the current favorite to win the Philadelphia Eagles‘ running back job.
Zay Flowers makes his debut: Flowers was an active part of the Baltimore Ravens’ offense playing both outside and in the slot.
Justice Hill plays ahead of Gus Edwards: Hill not only played ahead of Edwards but also played better in the first half.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2023. Check out PFF's 2023 Fantasy Draft Kit for even more content to help you dominate your league.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Baltimore Ravens

The Eagles backfield gets more complicated: Kenneth Gainwell and Boston Scott received the night off while D’Andre Swift started Saturday night with Rashaad Penny playing into the second quarter.

Swift and Penny both have ADPs among the top 35 running backs while Gainwell is at 52 on Underdog and Scott is going undrafted.
This suggests it should be Gainwell and Scott getting drafted early.
There were reports early in the week that Gainwell was playing like the feature back.
Swift played the first six snaps Saturday night, had a 22-yard run, and then Penny played for the next quarter’s worth of snaps.
An argument could be made that the Eagles know what they have in Gainwell and Scott after the last two seasons, but players like Olamide Zaccheaus, who is a new free agent addition, received the night off even though he should also be a relatively unknown for the team.
Penny seems like the most likely player to not make the roster if Philadelphia decides to stick with three running backs.
It’s worth noting the Eagles typically have different running backs play in different situations, which was not true Saturday night. Penny played in passing situations, which he typically never does, for example. This also happened last preseason, and the Eagles immediately went back to using running backs in situations once the regular season hit.
At this point, it’s probably best to not draft Swift or Penny at their current ADP and potentially draft Gainwell depending on how high his ADP rises.

Zay Flowers makes his Ravens debut: The Ravens rested several key players, but we got a taste of how the Ravens might use him.

Flowers didn’t have an official target, but he had one backward pass that counted as a one-yard run and two targets that led to defensive penalties.
The Ravens didn’t use Odell Beckham Jr., Rashod Bateman or Nelson Agholor. The fact that Flowers played doesn’t give us much indication of where he is on the depth chart.
It was interesting to see Baltimore use Flowers both out wide as well as in the slot.
Devin Duvernay was the primary slot receiver last season. He started this game but was consistently lining up on the outside. This could be just to give him more experience outside, or it could mean he’s no longer a slot player for them.
This probably hurts Duvernay’s chances of seeing significant playing time this season and helps the Ravens' young receivers and Beckham.
Tylan Wallace was the primary slot receiver to begin the evening, but he probably won’t be the primary slot receiver while everyone is playing.
While plenty of teams have restricted their rookie wide receivers to a specific role, seeing Flowers play multiple receiver spots and move around is probably a positive sign for what the team will ask him to do in the regular season.

Justice Hill starts for the Ravens: Hill received every snap on the first two drives before Gus Edwards received his first offensive snaps.

Edwards left Wednesday’s practice early, so there is a chance him playing after Hill if simply Hill has practiced more.
Not that we can take much stock in the official depth charts, but Edwards was listed first on the depth chart earlier in the week, followed by J.K. Dobbins and Hill.
There is also a chance Hill has legitimately passed Edwards on the depth chart as a better fit for the Ravens’ offense.
Hill broke a 37-yard run during his time, which could lead to more opportunities down the road.
For now, this is simply a situation to monitor.

Miscellaneous notes

Ravens’ tight end Isaiah Likely went to the locker room early, potentially with a lower-body injury. He left at a time when his playing could have been over regardless of the injury.

Table notes

Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.