Washington Commanders Fantasy Football Preview for the 2026-2027 Season

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    It’s easy to say we saw the WAS offense regression coming because it was fairly obvious.  After being inside the top-15 in FPPG at QB/RB/WR/TE two seasons ago, last season they were outside the top-15 at four skill positions.  When it goes bad, it goes bad everywhere.  That’s the real lesson when predicting a fall-off or when you find a team was insanely lucky one season as WAS was with their fourth-down success.  That was then and this is now and now no one is talking about the Commanders one way or another.  The one thing that was constant between the two season is a dedication to running the ball.  WAS was 4th with 49/51 run/pass split despite not having a bell cow RB to hand off to.  They patched the RB room together and will seek to do the same again.  They brought in Rachaad White and Jerome Ford, two backs who are great in a pinch, but not ones you can rely on week in and week out.  Jacory Croskey-Merritt is the interesting name after posting a top-35 finish as a rookie.  He gets a shot to increase his 39% snap share.  When JCM was on the field, they gave him the ball which is a good sign.  He was 6th in the NFL with % of snaps played that resulted in a rush.  Sometimes, it is simple.  More snaps equals more production.  White will handle the passing down work as JCM never say more than two targets in a game and JCM should clean as defenses focus on Jayden Daniels breaking containment.

    That’s the real story for this team, which Jayden Daniels is going to show up?  The one who was QB5 as a rookie or QB35 in an injury plagued sophomore campaign.  Do we buy the dip on an assuming WAS team that has plenty of weapons and is flying under the radar?  Daniels is the ultimate floor-raiser as he brought Terry McLaurin Back from the dead and was the key engineer in the WAS franchise scoring the second most points in its existence.  Daniels is going the QB5, so there’s no discounts for potential injury and with the way the WAS o-line performed last season, it sounds like he again be running for his life.  The o-line was 20th in pass protection and 24th run-blocking and with Daniels’ aggressive style, he still had at least seven rushing attempts in the six full games he played, it’s tough for me to get too excited about him having a better season than his rookie campaign.  As great as Daniels is on his own, I don’t trust his weapons.  Terry McLaurin had the worst season of his career and will be 31 when the season starts, which mean she’s right at the age cliff that comes for nearly all WRs.  I will always err on the side of caution with older WRs, especially ones who have bad season near the end.  There is always a reason, a rational and a justification, but in the end father time is undefeated.  Using a top-20 WR pick on McLaurin is just not the kind of bet I feel comfortable making.

    Player most likely to beat ADP: Jacory Croskey-Merritt  (115 ADP , RB39)

    Despite the struggles of the o-line, I like JCM to signifigantly increase his workload and the offense to be closer to top-15 in scoring that it was last season (22nd at 20.8 PPG).  There is risk of a dreaded RB committee, but this is too much value for the promising sophomore who averaged 4.6 YPC with eight TDs.


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