The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 14 matchup between the Chargers and Eagles on Monday Night Football.
Find a breakdown of every Week 14 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.
| Philadelphia | Rank | @ | LA Chargers | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -3.0 | Spread | 3.0 | ||
| 21.75 | Implied Total | 18.75 | ||
| 22.5 | 19 | Points/Gm | 23.1 | 18 |
| 20.8 | 9 | Points All./Gm | 21.0 | 11 |
| 58.0 | 26 | Plays/Gm | 64.3 | 8 |
| 65.0 | 28 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 55.4 | 2 |
| 5.3 | 19 | Off. Yards/Play | 5.4 | 14 |
| 5.3 | 17 | Def. Yards/Play | 5.0 | 8 |
| 46.98% | 7 | Rush% | 41.84% | 21 |
| 53.02% | 26 | Pass% | 58.16% | 12 |
| 43.97% | 20 | Opp. Rush % | 42.41% | 15 |
| 56.03% | 13 | Opp. Pass % | 57.59% | 18 |
- The Chargers are allowing 2.42 plays of 20-plus yards per game, the fewest in the league.
- 40.8% of the drives against the Chargers fail to gain a first down, the highest rate in the league.
- The Chargers are averaging 4.7 yards per play on first down, 29th in the league.
- The Eagles have gone three plays and then a punt on a league-high 31% of their possessions.
- 28.4% of Philadelphia sets of downs reach third and long (needing 7-plus yards), ahead of only the Titans (29.4%) and Browns (30.3%).
- The Eagles are 28th in third-down conversion rate (34.5%).
- The Chargers have allowed a league-low 26.5% third-down conversion rate on third downs over their past five games.
- The Chargers have converted 48.3% of third downs, 2nd in the league.
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Jalen Hurts: Hurts and the Eagles are coming off another week where the offense underperformed.
Hurts completed 19 of 34 (55.9%) passes for 230 yards (6.8 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns and an interception, adding 31 yards rushing, but losing a fumble.
Closing the week as the QB16 (16.3 points), this was the third time over the past four weeks that Hurts was not a QB1 scorer.
Hurts only has three top-six scoring weeks on the season.
He had seven of those weeks last season, nine in 2023, and 12 of them in 2022.
This passing game has struggled with creativity.
Hurts is second in the league in rate of throws 20 or more yards downfield (15.2%) while ranking 32nd in rate of throws between the numbers (36.5%).
Only Michael Penix has thrown between the numbers at a lower rate (33.9%).
That is a tough combination against this Chargers defense, which lives in two-high shell coverages.
The Chargers have played two-high coverages on 57.7% of their snaps, second in the league.
They have played man coverage at the league’s lowest rate (14.1%).
Against zone coverages, Hurts has completed 69.3% of his passes (17th) for 7.3 yards per pass attempt (20th) and a 2.4% touchdown rate (16th).
Unlike a zone-based defense like Dallas, the Chargers are also good at their coverage, which limits this passing game even further.
The Chargers have allowed a 61.2% completion rate (sixth), 6.4 Y/A (fifth), and a 3.5% touchdown rate (fourth).
No quarterback has thrown more than 2 touchdowns against the Chargers this season, and only two passers have thrown more than 1 touchdown.
What is interesting is that this is the last game of the week I have written up, and it features another high-end quarterback with an objectively challenging Week 14 matchup.
Hurts is someone you are unlikely to stream for since he always has the potential to Tush Push into fantasy points, but this is not a matchup that inspires a ton of confidence for a spike week throwing the ball.
The game total here says it all, as well.
This is an indoor game, and the Eagles have their lowest implied team total of the season.
The Chargers have allowed 3.4 rushing points per game to quarterbacks (24th), and Hurts has been more willing to scramble against zone coverages (7.3% of dropbacks) compared to man coverage (6.3%).
Justin Herbert: Herbert had surgery on Monday to repair a fracture in his left hand.
He and the team have said they remain hopeful he will play this Monday, but they still need to assess what he can do, and we will not know until their first practice on Thursday.
Even if Herbert does play, we could see Trey Lance involved in some goal-line situations.
If Herbert does play, we have to assume this will limit his ability to play under center.
We saw something with Aaron Rodgers this past week, forced to take all of his snaps out of shotgun and pistol.
After re-entering the game on Sunday, Herbert was not under center, playing 94.7% of his snaps in shotgun in total.
That, in turn, resulted in the lowest play-action rate for Herbert this season (10%).
This passing game has already had enough issues with the offensive line.
Playing in a static shotgun offense against a Vic Fangio defense is not an optimal approach.
You want to be able to use play action against the Eagles.
Philadelphia is allowing 9.4 yards per pass attempt (30th) and a 6.7% touchdown rate (26th) on play-action passes compared to a league-low 5.7 yards per pass attempt and a league-low 1.6% touchdown rate on non-play-action passes.
Even healthy, Herbert was a limited fantasy option since the injury to Joe Alt.
In the games that Alt has missed, Herbert has now been the QB23 (14.6 points), QB14 (18.8 points), QB17 (14.7 points), QB31 (3.3 points), and QB21 (12.8points).
This is another team with a low team total, reinforcing our thoughts here on paper.
Even if Herbert did not have this injury, he would be a QB2 in this matchup. Adding his hand injury layers another level of volatility.
The Eagles have also not allowed any passer to throw more than 2 touchdowns against them this season, with three quarterbacks throwing more than 1 touchdown.
They are eighth in passing points allowed (11.9).
Quarterbacks have rushed for 4.1 points per game against the Eagles (27th), but it is hard to say how much Herbert will be willing to run to protect his hand.
He did not run after his injury on Sunday.
Running Back
Saquon Barkley: Barkley rushed 13 times for 56 yards on Friday against the Bears.
He did not catch a pass for the first time in a game this season.
Barkley has finished as an RB1 scorer in one of his past nine games.
Barkley still controlled this backfield, handling 92.9% of the backfield touches.
We have been handling Barkley as a volume-based RB2.
The Eagles are still expected to be without Lane Johnson for another week, but we will follow his status to see if he can suit up.
With Johnson off the field, Barkley has rushed 74 times for 218 yards (2.9 YPC) and a run of 10 or more yards on 4.1% of his attempts (38th).
Barkley was not the same back as a year with Johnson on the field, but he made a substantial difference.
On 124 runs with Johnson on the field, Barkley has rushed for 4.2 yards per carry with a run of 10 or more yards on 11.3% of his attempts.
If the Eagles can get Barkley going, that is an area where the Chargers have had some issues.
The Chargers are allowing 4.6 YPC to running backs (24th) with a 58.1% success rate (22nd).
What has kept their counting stats in check against backs is that they have controlled games, facing only 18.9 attempts per game (fifth).
Chargers RBs: The Chargers are expecting to have Omarion Hampton back for Monday night.
Greg Roman said last week that Kimani Vidal would remain involved when Hampton returns, but the degree of that distribution is unknown.
Hampton is returning from a fractured ankle, so we should price in some volatility given the missed time, the current state of the offensive line, and Herbert’s injury.
Not knowing the exact split for this backfield, both Hampton and Vidal are touchdown-dependent RB2/FLEX options.
In Hampton’s last game without Alt, he rushed 12 times for 44 yards (3.7 YPC), catching 6 passes for 26 yards.
Vidal is coming off 137 total yards on 26 touches against the Raiders, forcing a league-high 11 missed tackles last week.
That kept up the trend of Vidal as a boom-or-bust rusher.
Vidal has posted 138, 35, 127, 30, 108, 12, and 126 rushing yards during his run as the starter.
The Eagles just allowed 281 yards rushing on Friday to the Bears.
That was the most rushing yards a Fangio-led defense has allowed in a game since 2005.
Before that, though, the Eagles had allowed 3.8 YPC and 73.0 rushing yards per game to running backs over their previous five games.
Are the Chargers capable of doing what the Bears did?
I have a hard time believing that last week’s performance for this run defense will be a regular occurrence.
Herbert’s injury is also a potential factor here.
The Eagles have a 66.7% success rate against running back runs out of shotgun (third) and 4,0 YPC allowed on those runs (7th).
Wide Receiver
More Week 14 Fantasy Breakdowns From The Worksheet:
| Matchup | Time |
|---|---|
| Cowboys @ Lions | Thursday Night Football |
| Seahawks @ Falcons | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Colts @ Jaguars | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Bengals @ Bills | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Titans @ Browns | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Commanders @ Vikings | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Dolphins @ Jets | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Saints @ Bucs | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Steelers @ Ravens | Sunday -- 1 p.m. ET |
| Broncos @ Raiders | Sunday -- 4:05 p.m. ET |
| Bears @ Packers | Sunday -- 4:25 p.m. ET |
| Rams @ Cardinals | Sunday -- 4:25 p.m. ET |
| Texans @ Chiefs | Sunday Night Football |
| Eagles @ Chargers | Monday Night Football |