2022 Washington Commanders Fantasy Preview

Notable Players- Carson Wentz

Wentz really was the butt of everything that went wrong for the Colts last year. But, on a personal level, he played better last season than we have previously seen.

For all of the hate that has come his way, Wentz is actually not a bad QB. He isn’t the type that will do something that single-handedly wins a game, but he is able to support players for fantasy, and that’s what we are concerned about here.

I’m not going to draft him, because I’d rather take a late-round flyer that has some big upside, but Wentz is fine as a solid QB2/ occasional streaming option.

Notable Players- Antonio Gibson, J.D. McKissic & Brian Robinson

Gibson had some great fantasy performances last season, but they really came at the end of the season as McKissic was forced to miss time. Before that, Gibson was edging his teammate in PPR leagues, but not by much. For fantasy, you’d love for Gibson to get more targets, but I think we can, at this point, agree it isn’t likely to happen.

McKissic signed (or did he) with a different team in the offseason, before Washington matched the deal to keep him in town. He is the pass-catcher out of the backfield, that much is obvious from his 205 targets from 33 games. 

I have Gibson as a mid-level RB2 in my projections, with McKissic an RB3. Those are based on PPR scoring.

Robinson is a dart-throw and is likely the next man up for the team if Gibson were to go down, so worth considering in deep leagues only.

Notable Players- Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson & Curtis Samuel

McLaurin is a talented receiver, he just has to do all of the work. The group of QBs that he has played with in his career are a list of backups and journeymen.

Wentz probably is going to be the best QB that McLaurin has played with. As a result, we could see a real bounceback season for McLaurin, with the a number of WR1 weeks. We have seen his floor in recent seasons, now it’s time to see that ceiling from early in his career.

Given the ability of the offense overall, it’s unlikely that Wentz is going to support another receiver consistently. Even so, you’ll see some performances from Dotson and Samuel.

Dotson is likely to step into the starting slot receiver role. He has good skills to fill that role, and should be able to show his ability early in the season. I don’t want to draft him, as he feels like that type of player that is just going to clog my roster and I can replace from waivers (pretty much).

Samuel feels like he is going to be given more of an opportunity this season to try and live up to the deal that he was given by the team. So I feel like I’d prefer to take a flyer on him, but really I don’t want to grab either of these guys.

Notable Players- Logan Thomas & John Bates

Lets start with Bates, because he is likely the player that is going to suit up for the start of the season. Thomas suffered an ACL injury, which required surgery.

Given the struggles of Bates previously being able to move the chains in games, the team unlikely to have a big role for Bates in the offense. Instead, the team are far more likely to lean on their other receivers. 

Once Thomas returns, he is worth considering for your roster. Thomas has a track history of being a target-machine and as such a PPR option for your roster.