Fantasy Football Player Notes

From the time that Dwayne Haskins took over as the starting quarterback, McLaurin saw 47 targets, hauling in 30 of them for 461 yards and two touchdowns. He was the No. 36 wide receiver during that stretch. We have little concern about McLaurin's talent, but more concern about lack of touchdown upside with Haskins under center. Now the clear-cut No. 1 receiving option for this team, he'll surely see Darius Slay in coverage this week, a cornerback who's continually among the best in the game. He allowed just a 58.3 percent catch-rate in his coverage last year, which again, isn't great because McLaurin saw more than nine targets just once in 2019. In the game he did, it just so happens it was against the Lions (and Slay) in Week 12 when he turned 12 targets into 5/72/0. That's a realistic finishing stat line for him this week, though he'll have to do it on fewer attempts considering how few plays Eagles' opponents run. Many will run to say that the Eagles allowed 10 different wide receivers hit the 100-yard mark in 2019 and that McLaurin accounted for two of them, but that doesn't account for their massive upgrade with both Slay and Nickell Robey-Coleman. As the clear-cut No. 1 receiver in a negative gamescript, McLaurin should still be played as a low-end WR2 who offers a solid floor.

Do you know how many touches the Washington backfield averaged last year? 24.4 touches per game. Trying to project how the timeshare in Washington is going to work out might be a waste of time, as there's not enough volume for any of them to be consistent. Can that change under a new offensive coordinator? Sure, but it's hard to say that'll happen without any actual game reps together. Teams like Washington are behind the 8-ball with the shortened offseason and non-existent preseason games. Their offensive line got worse when they traded away Trent Williams, as they're likely to lean on fourth-round rookie Saahdiq Charles at left tackle. That's... not great. Fortunately, the Eagles are not a team to attack with running backs. They ranked No. 7 against fantasy running backs last year and were No. 6 against them in 2018. They added interior lineman Javon Hargrave to the mix this offseason, which should only help matters. Gibson is a wild card where it wouldn't shock me if he saw as little as five touches or as many as 15 touches, though I'd lean on the cautious side considering he saw less than 80 touches during his entire college career. The Eagles have been a very good unit against the run, and though Gibson is somewhat a hybrid running back/wide receiver, the Eagles allowed just 1.33 PPR points per target last year, which ranked as the fifth-lowest mark in the league. Gibson is a risk/reward RB3, but I'd play safer options until we know his role on this offense. He was technically listed behind McKissic on the depth chart, though that may mean nothing.

We saw the Panthers force the issue getting Samuel targets last year, though his efficiency was among the worst in the league. Was it due to the quarterback play? Maybe, though there are a lot of receivers who have to deal with poor quarterback play. New offensive coordinator Joe Brady should get creative with Samuel and find ways to utilize him closer to the line of scrimmage, though we have to project that to happen, as we haven't seen it with Samuel in the NFL just yet. The most consistent cornerback on the Raiders last year was Lamarcus Joyner, who covers the slot, which is where we should expect Samuel to play most of his snaps. Looking at the wide receivers who did well against the Raiders last year, not many of them were smaller receivers. The best game a sub-5-foot-11 receiver had against them was Mecole Hardman's 4/61/1 when Tyreek Hill was out of the lineup. I don't think Samuel offers so much upside that you can't pass on starting him, especially considering the negative reports that were coming out of camp. I'd rather sit back and watch how he's utilized in the new offense.

It's tough to gauge who will get the touches in the Washington offense outside of McLaurin, but it appears that Sims is on the right track. After a season-ending injury to Kelvin Harmon, they went out and signed Dontrelle Inman, though he's not someone who'll siphon many targets. Sims took over as the full-time slot receiver over the final four weeks of the 2019 season, totaling 36 targets, 20 receptions, 230 yards, and four touchdowns. Clearly, Haskins found a target in him, and it's not like they have a tight end who'll be stealing a bunch of those targets over the middle of the field. The issue is that Nickell Robey-Coleman was signed in free agency and he's quietly been one of the best slot cornerbacks in all of football. On 53 targets in the slot last year, he allowed just 32 receptions for 272 yards and one touchdown in his coverage. To better understand why it's a problem, Sims played 79 percent of his snaps in the slot last year, so he'll see a ton of Robey-Coleman. Sims is going to have some usable weeks, though this isn't one where I'd want to rely on him.

McKissic is a borderline RB3/RB4 in this matchup in Half PPR formats, but he does get a boost in Full PPR. Washington should be trailing in this matchup, which leads to some garbage time opportunity for McKissic in the receiving game. This is going to be a messy backfield and we need to see how it plays out on the field before we start any of these options with confidence. McKissic can be deployed as a FLEX option in Full PPR leagues, but only if you absolutely need.

It seems that Thomas is the primary pass-catching tight end for Washington, though I can't say you should be excited about it. Washington's tight ends combined for just 73 targets last year, the sixth-lowest mark in the league. On top of that, just one tight end reached 10 half-PPR points last year. It's a new coaching staff, but it's clear that Haskins isn't deliberately targeting his tight ends (there were just three occasions where someone saw more than four targets). Thomas himself has been capped at four targets in all but one of his 42 NFL games. On top of all that, the Eagles have been one of the best in the league at stopping tight ends under Jim Schwartz. Throughout the entire 2019 season, they allowed just 681 receiving yards to the position, or 42.6 yards per game. They did lose Malcolm Jenkins, which will hurt, though moving Jalen Mills to safety will likely be a good thing for his efficiency. We'll keep a close eye on Thomas' targets and playing time in Week 1.