Commanders fantasy football starts and sits for Week 3 at the Bengals
By Seth Jones
There weren't many fantasy takeaways from the Washington Commanders' Week 2 win against the New York Giants. You can almost just forget about the fantasy implications of that game and move on.
For one, we won't have the true answer for fantasy until the offense is opened up more. Secondly, the offense scoring zero touchdowns, and having a false start in every red zone possession, will likely not happen again this season.
The Cincinnati Bengals have had a solid defense thus far, so this should be a good test on the road on Monday Night Football for Jayden Daniels and company.
All fantasy stats are courtesy of Fantasy Pros.
Commanders fantasy football starts and sits for Week 3
Starts
Jayden Daniels
Daniels didn't have as good a fantasy outing in Week 2 as he did in Week 1 at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He only put up 13.4 points, good for QB18 on the week. His passing stats were better, finishing with 226 yards. However, his rushing wasn't as influential, carrying the 10 times for 44 yards.
We should expect this to be more of the norm for Daniels from here on out as the offense continues to open up. What we shouldn't expect weekly is zero total touchdowns. He should have at least one scorer, whether that be passing or rushing on Monday night.
The Bengals only allowed 12.9 fantasy points to Patrick Mahomes in Week 2, so this will be a tough test for the rookie. With that being said, Daniels' rushing upside - along with Kliff Kingsbury looking to become more expansive - means this could still be a good fantasy game for Daniels. He should be a weekly start.
Brian Robinson Jr.
The one fantasy takeaway for the Commanders from Week 2 is that Brian Robinson Jr. should be a good RB2 for the rest of the 2024 season. It was a great matchup against the Giants, but the backfield had his true breakout game in the home opener, taking 17 carries for 133 rushing yards, good for 7.8 yards per carry.
Even with the Commanders likely playing from behind, Robinson should still comfortably get 15-20 touches along with a solid chance of finding the end zone. If he can stay efficient, he should be a good RB2 with a low-end RB1 upside.
Terry McLaurin
It is completely understandable to have concern for Terry McLaurin's fantasy production. He only has eight catches for 39 yards to show for the opening two weeks. Still, it is not time to abandon ship yet.
This seems like the week that the offense will start to fully unleash for Daniels. It will have to if the Commanders want to win this game.
If the offense gets unleashed, so will McLaurin.
This feels like McLaurin's 2024 breakout game for fantasy. Kingsbury said it himself when he addressed the media on Saturday, stating that "...we got to find a way to get Terry more involved. That's on me completely. He's a tremendous player, one of the best players in the league, and I got to find ways to get him the football and I expect that to improve and I'll do a better job of doing that."
Start McLaurin as a flex with upside against Cincinnati.
Sits
Luke McCaffrey
Even with 56 percent of snaps in Week 2, Luke McCaffrey earned zero targets in Week 2. He will likely continue to be the WR3 for Washington, but this is not a role that bodes any fantasy relevance. The rookie should only be rostered in deeper leagues.
Dyami Brown
Dyami Brown, like McCaffrey, is in the battle of being the WR3 for Washington. Noah Brown's emergence spells disaster for any hope of fantasy relevance for the wideout. He earned four targets and caught two for 17 yards in Week 2, but his 69 percent of snaps will likely go down tremendously with the recent arrival looking like he's the guy for the team's WR2 spot.
Washington Defense
For both real-life and fantasy purposes, this defense has been downright horrible thus far in 2024. Washington's defense is currently last in the league in fantasy football, and that won't change against a high-powered Bengals offense.
Expect Joe Burrow to light up the Commanders in Week 3.
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