Best Ball Guy called DeVonta Smith the 'safer pick' inside the mid-third-round receiver cluster but emphasized that his upside is still enormous. He argued that if Smith ever became the unquestioned focal point of Philadelphia’s passing attack, the smooth route-runner would 'have no problem putting up a 13- or 14-hundred yard season.' That ceiling, combined with Smith’s reliable weekly floor, makes him an attractive selection for Best Ball drafters who want both safety and playoff-week spike potential.

Best Ball Guy said DeVonta Smith is flat-out mis-priced at his current fifth-round ADP and should be treated like a third-rounder again. He reminded listeners that Smith finished as the half-PPR WR10 in 2022 and WR20 in 2023 despite missing four games last year. Even with the Eagles ranking near the bottom of the league in pass attempts, Smith has logged 7–8 touchdowns every season of his career. BBG called the 47th-overall price tag a classic "flop lag" because the market is reacting to last year’s injury dip rather than his per-game production. He expects Philadelphia’s passing volume to rebound slightly and argued that a healthy Smith gives you locked-in weekly floor with room for 1,200-yard, double-digit-TD upside—an easy click in Best Ball Sprint, Chow Chow, and BBM rooms.

Shawn Siegele called DeVonta Smith one of the simplest clicks in FFPC best-ball rooms, claiming the market still discounts his true ceiling. Smith routinely falls to the 4/5 turn even though he owns week-winning spike ability and provides bye-week diversity for drafters stacking elite wideouts. Siegele argued that concerns about Jalen Hurts’ passing volume are already over-penalized, while an injury to new teammate Saquon Barkley would force Philadelphia to lean harder on its receivers, further boosting Smith’s target share. Because he is drafted well behind the first-round receiver tier but carries similar efficiency in a proven offense, Siegele says Smith is a “free win” when available after pick 45.

Jim Coventry argued DeVonta Smith remains an undervalued fourth-round pick. Even though "Philly doesn’t throw enough," he noted Smith’s per-game production was "very, very solid" when healthy—despite missing a few contests. The Eagles distribute targets narrowly, so Smith’s weekly workload is safe, and Coventry expects that concentrated usage to offset the overall low pass volume. Result: Smith profiles as a reliable high-end WR2 with spike-week potential in Season-Long leagues.

Freedman called DeVonta Smith the clear arbitrage play over Tee Higgins. His projections have Smith at 114 targets, 1,066 yards and virtually the same fantasy points as Higgins (115 targets, 1,057 yards), yet Smith is available at WR26 near the Round 4/5 turn while Higgins costs a late-Round 2 pick. The Eagle wideout has also proven more durable, missing only three games in four seasons compared to Higgins’ 13 absences. Given identical production expectations inside an elite offense and a two-round discount, Freedman advised loading up on Smith wherever possible.

While scanning the draft board, Best Ball Guy argued that last year’s wide-receiver disappointments have created an exploitable ADP pocket in Rounds 5-6. He highlighted DeVonta Smith—along with Jaylen Waddle and Chris Olave—as former second- or third-round staples who have slid because drafters were "bruised and battered" by 2023 busts. Smith still posted a 24 percent target share on 93 percent route participation last season and now benefits from an Eagles offense that added no target competition beyond rookie Brock Bowers. Best Ball Guy expects at least one of these ‘flop-lag’ receivers to end up a league winner and is purposely hammering them whenever his room chases running backs early. His takeaway: do not leave the 6th round without at least one of Smith, Waddle, or Olave, because their ceiling is identical to the WRs going two rounds earlier but comes with far less ownership in playoff weeks.

Josh Norris said DeVonta Smith is still a bargain because the Eagles were dead-last in pass attempts at only 25 per game, yet both Smith and A.J. Brown still cracked the fantasy top-20. Norris expects Philadelphia to throw more in 2025 now that Saquon Barkley’s between-the-tackles style should lead to longer drives instead of one-play explosives. Even a modest bump of two or three attempts per contest would hand Smith an extra 30-plus targets over the season, which, paired with his established 25-plus percent target-per-route rate, would vault him into weekly WR1 territory. With drafters pushing him into the late third round, Norris called Smith a clear buy in both season-long and best-ball formats before the market prices in any pass-rate regression.

Josh Norris doubled down on DeVonta Smith as his Round-4 preference, highlighting several new reasons to expect a step forward. Smith logged a career-high 41 % slot rate last season, and every Kellen Moore offense has funneled targets to the slot—yet Moore left for New Orleans, meaning a fresh play-caller could decide to pepper Smith there even more. Norris also thinks Saquon Barkley’s 11 runs of 40-plus yards are bound to regress, which would keep the Eagles in tighter games and force more drop-backs. Historically that’s mattered: in the two contests A.J. Brown missed last year, Smith saw 10 targets in each and nearly doubled his normal usage. Combine a likely uptick in pass rate with Smith’s already elite efficiency (WR13 in both yards per target and touchdown rate) and Norris projects a strong WR2 floor with spike-week WR1 upside that rivals any option in the fourth round.

Josh Norris slightly prefers DeVonta Smith to Xavier Worthy in Round 4, arguing that Smith’s NFL resume offsets target-share concerns. With A.J. Brown active last year, Smith averaged only 5.7 targets but still finished WR22 because he ranked WR13 in both touchdown rate and yards per target, scoring three more TDs than expected. Norris acknowledged the boom-bust nature—Smith’s expected points placed him around WR40-45—yet trusts the Eagles’ consistently explosive offense to keep the downfield opportunities flowing. Meanwhile, Worthy must coexist with Rashee Rice in the exact underneath zone where the rookie thrived in 2023, and Kansas City historically prefers horizontal spacing over deep shots. For managers forced to take a wideout in a shaky ADP pocket, Norris believes Smith’s proven chemistry with Jalen Hurts and Philadelphia’s high TD equity provide a sturdier weekly floor while still offering spike-week upside.

Erik Beimfohr said DeVonta Smith is a glaring Round-4 bargain because the market has over-corrected after last season’s disappointment. Smith sometimes lasts to pick 50 on DraftKings despite a fully consolidated Eagles passing attack that funnels almost every target to A.J. Brown, Smith, and Dallas Goedert. Beimfohr argued that drafters are ignoring Smith’s baked-in floor—he has finished no worse than WR21 in any of the last three years while never dipping below a 23 % target share when Brown was absent. He also highlighted Smith’s contingent upside: if Brown were to miss time, Philadelphia does not shift targets to depth receivers like Johnny Wilson; they simply condense them to Smith and Goedert, a pattern we already saw during Brown’s injury games last season. With Jalen Hurts expected to regress back toward 500 pass attempts, Beimfohr believes Smith’s 140-target ceiling is very much alive, making him an easy click in the mid-fourth round of Best Ball drafts.

Tyler Knaeble urged caution on DeVonta Smith, noting that Philadelphia’s offense could remain extremely run-heavy after Jalen Hurts was asked to throw for only 2,900 yards and 18 touchdowns last season. With the controversial ‘tush-push’ still legal, Knaeble expects Nick Sirianni to keep leaning on the ground game, which already forced both Smith and A.J. Brown to “take a step back” in 2023. Unless the Eagles change their philosophical approach or face far more negative game scripts, Knaeble doubts Smith can deliver WR1-level consistency at his current ADP.