Maybe DeVonta Smith Should Get on Twitch This Week

2025 Fantasy Football Impact

The game extended Brown's lead over Smith in targets per game for the season -- 7.2 to 6.7 -- even though Smith has been demonstrably better across categories.

• His 73.1% catch rate dwarfs Brown's 58.5%.
• His receiving success rate stands much higher, 55.2% to 44.6%, according to Pro Football Reference.
• Smith leads in yards per catch (13.6 to 12.0) and yards per target (9.9 to 7.0).
• He has converted first downs on 57.1% of receptions, compared with Brown's 47.4%.
• Smith's working on a 2.26 yards per route rate, compared with Brown's 1.59, according to Pro Football Focus.
• He's beating Brown in contested catch rate: 53.8% to 41.2%.
• And Smith has supported a 124.9 passer rating on throws his way, vs. 103.7 for Brown.

Despite his lead in targets per game, Brown did enter Sunday night trailing Smith in percentage of first-read targets: 32.5% to 30.7%, according to Fantasy Points Data.

We can trace about half that edge to the one game Smith played without Brown: Week 8 vs. the Giants, when he got 42.9% of first-read targets. Take that away, and it's 31.4% for Smith to Brown's 30.7%. And those numbers should shift further toward Brown once the stats update for Week 11 games.

Will Philly Wake Up to Reality?

It makes sense to keep trying to get Brown going when you factor in both his production history and the Eagles' shallow passing depth chart.

But when you combine Smith's superior efficiency with the offense's 2025 struggles and the fact that Smith's younger -- in actual years and likely by even more in remaining effective years when you factor in Brown's knee histories -- Slim Reaper should be leading this WR corps in opportunities.

Ultimately, we shouldn't count on any big changes to this offense after it has returned from the Week 9 bye looking no better than before (and maybe worse).

Perhaps HC Nick Sirianni claims wrests playcalling duties at some point, but we'd have to see what that would change on the usage front.

As it is, we can only chalk up Smith's disappointing Week 11 to the volatility of the position and Philly's low passing volume.

This did, at least, mark the first time since Week 4 that Smith caught fewer than four passes in a game. Expect a rebound in the Week 12 visit to Dallas.