Some Eagles love fantasy football, some hate it

Malcolm Jenkins recovered a fumble on Sunday and it didn't help just the Eagles. It helped Jenkins' fantasy football team.

Fantasy football has been popular among Eagles fans for years, but now it's also infiltrating the team's locker room. Go to the front right corner, where the defensive backs spend their time, and you can hear how Chris Maragos offers lopsided trades and C.J. Smith mastered the draft.

"We get pretty competitive about it," safety Jaylen Watkins said. "You can see where fans and people who are actually doing it for money go crazy about it."

The just-for-fun league has no stakes other than bragging rights in the meeting room and on a group text message exchange, and there are no conflicts of interest because they bench players they're facing that weekend. So Nolan Carroll will never cover a wide receiver on his fantasy team. But he might know more about how that receiver is performing from the box score of a fantasy football contest against Leodis McKelvin.

Walk across the locker room to the wide receivers and running backs, and opinions on fantasy football are different. They are the ones whom fans draft, trade, sign, and release. And they're too consumed with trying to figure out their game plan against the Dallas Cowboys to worry about the lineups of their Twitter followers.

"I hate it," running back Ryan Mathews said. "I just can't stand it."

Jenkins introduced fantasy football to the defensive backs room last year. He played in two leagues and thought it would be a fun activity for his teammates. Most of them had never played fantasy football and are just now learning its nuances.

Jenkins was 3-3 after the first six weeks of the season. Like most owners stuck in mediocrity, he blamed injuries and wished he made some different picks.

"I can't seem to master the draft," said Jenkins, who takes part in a fantasy football segment for NFL Network.

Carroll missed the draft last year and learned the perils of autodraft the hard way. He didn't follow it because they weren't his players. This year, Carroll is more involved - and would be in first place if not for Smith, a rookie who already has the veterans marveling at his ability to assemble a roster.

"C.J. rigged the draft somehow," said Jenkins, who organized the league. "Because if you don't score 115 points, you don't have a chance" against Smith.

Smith, who said he had never played fantasy football before, identified the key as picking in the middle of the rounds of a snake draft - not the top or the bottom. His roster includes Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell, Atlanta's Julio Jones, and Denver's C.J. Anderson. The other defensive backs can either envy his roster or try to poach from it.

Every fantasy football league has that owner who offers crazy trades. Maragos appears to fit that description with the Eagles. He offered Smith a trade involving an underperforming wide receiver last week - and then he cut the receiver after Smith turned down the deal.

"I'm trying to think like a GM would," Maragos said. "We're having a good time with it. . . . I'm always throwing out wild trade requests."

It makes sense, because only one owner needs to click accept for Maragos to upgrade his roster. Just don't expect it to be Ron Brooks.

"I beat Maragos' ass," Brooks said. "I don't want none of his players."

This is Brooks' first time playing fantasy football. He drafted Andrew Luck and LeSean McCoy, two players who have helped him to a strong start.

"I've got a great scouting department," Brooks said.

So does McKelvin, Brooks' former teammate with the Buffalo Bills whose introduction to fantasy football also came in Philadelphia. McKelvin was shrewd enough to draft Carson Wentz.

"[Shoot], that's my quarterback," McKelvin said. "I've got to ride with my quarterback."

Except McKelvin's fantasy team didn't benefit from Wentz's best performances this season the way his real team did. Wentz was McKelvin's backup during the Eagles' three-game winning streak, and McKelvin was too superstitious to make a change.

"Me being a GM, I see him doing good on my bench for fantasy, but we're winning, so I'm not going to touch him," McKelvin said.

There are Eagles on other rosters, too, including Zach Ertz on Maragos' team, Jordan Matthews on McLeod's team, and Ryan Mathews on Brooks' team.

Of all the players in the league, only Jenkins owns the Eagles defense. His explanation wasn't biased, either - he noted Darren Sproles' ability as a returner and the Eagles' propensity for takeaways. When Jenkins streaked down the field on an interception return for a touchdown against Washington, the points also registered for his fantasy team.

Jenkins is so meticulous in his preparations for each NFL game that he keeps spiral notebooks in his locker with handwritten notes on every quarterback he faces. But his knowledge of the league has expanded since he started fantasy football three years ago.

"It really broadens your horizons," Jenkins said. "You grow up, you have your one team. You start doing fantasy, and now you know guys from every team and you're keeping up on every game, and it's fun."

In Week 2, with Ertz nursing a displaced rib, Jenkins noticed how well Trey Burton practiced during the week in Ertz's place. So Jenkins claimed the Eagles' No. 3 tight end for his fantasy team. He even pestered Burton that week about the tight end's increased workload.

It's one thing when it's coming from a teammate. Burton is less patient when it's a fan he's never met. Burton played fantasy football as a teenager, but earlier this season he considered pinning a message to the top of his Twitter account: "I don't care about your fantasy football team."

Ertz is used to it by now. He's heard from fantasy football owners since he entered the NFL in 2013, with remarks ranging from draft position to weekly production.

While Ertz waited for his rib to heal, the inquires about his health reached a crescendo on Thursdays, before lineups needed to be set. Sympathizers weren't so concerned about Ertz's well-being, just his status for their fantasy football lineups.

"That's all they care about," Ertz said. "I would say, after the game, 30 percent are Eagles fans, the rest are fantasy football players. We could win, 42-0, but if I don't have 100 yards and a touchdown, they'll be like, 'How come you didn't get the touchdown?' "

Ertz noted how it's helped the NFL's popularity, but he'd rather not play fantasy football analyst. That extends to the people he loves, too

"My family has kind of asked me who to play," Ertz said. "I tell them, 'If you ever ask me that again, I'm never talking to you again!' If anyone asks me a fantasy football question or for help, I don't respond."

Sproles walks through airports and is stopped by fantasy football owners, but he neither pays attention to fantasy football nor knows how it works. He even acted in a television comedy, The League, based on a fantasy football league. Sproles watched the episode, understood the humor, but still doesn't get consumed by how much a touchdown is worth.

"Oh, my goodness, I can't stand it," Sproles said. "I really don't understand it."

There are 40 million people who play fantasy football, according to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, and it nets an unofficial estimate of $16 billion in revenue. Jordan Matthews, who might be the Eagles' most popular player in fantasy football, acknowledged that it brings attention and marketability to the players. Matthews admitted he has benefited from this interest. But Matthews also said it takes away from the purity of the game, with fans watching more for a player's success than a team's. He compared it to being like "chips at a casino."

"There are Philadelphia Eagles fans everywhere. Everywhere," Matthews said. "But literally, I hear, 'Hey, you're on my fantasy team' way more. Because so many people are in so many different leagues."

The reason is because it's fun. The defensive backs can attest to that. When Matthews catches a touchdown pass during a red zone period in practice, he's bound to get a nod from McLeod. The players experience it differently than a fan would - Jenkins sat Sam Bradford last week because the Eagles played against him - but they can understand why it's so popular.

"It's good for the fans, it's good for our game," Jenkins said. "Until you cause somebody to lose a game. Then they hate you."

zberman@phillynews.com

@ZBerm