Terry

McLaurin

It wasn’t the 100-yard outing McLaurin enjoyed in Week 3, but it was another strong fantasy day for the Commanders WR1. McLaurin led the team with 10 targets on the day and hauled in a 10-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to help the Commanders put the game out of reach. McLaurin’s 10 targets were the most he’s seen in any game this season. We’ll see if he can make it three straight weeks with a touchdown next week when the Commanders host the Browns. He’ll be a high-upside WR2 play.

McLaurin caught a pair of deep balls from quarterback Jayden Daniels, the first going for 55 yards in the first half and the second a highlight reel touchdown catch on a beautiful raindrop pass from Daniels off his back foot to seal the victory in the fourth quarter. It was refreshing to see McLaurin finally targeted on deep passes after running mostly short area routes through the first two weeks of the season. McLaurin could find further success in Week 4 when the Commanders travel to Arizona to take on the Cardinals.

McLaurin has eight catches on 12 targets through two games but has only converted those looks in 39 yards. The veteran receiver is seeing more shallow targets than ever, giving him fewer chances to find explosive plays. Another issue for McLaurin and the entire passing game has been Jayden Daniels’ propensity to take off when pressured. Daniels leads the NFL with 11 scrambles this year. Kingsbury’s comments are encouraging for fantasy managers who drafted McLaurin as a potential WR2, but it’s going to be hard for him to turn his season around in this version of the Washington offense. He remains a frustrating WR3 for his Week 3 date with the Bengals.

The bulk of McLaurin’s targets came around the line of scrimmage. Offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury tried to get him going with some layup targets but the veteran wideout couldn’t turn them into anything. McLaurin now has 39 receiving yards on the year. Zach Ertz topped that number in Week 2 alone. Jayden Daniels’ struggles as a passer have trickled down to McLaurin and it’s going to take time for the rookie to find his footing. The decrease in passing volume via Daniels’ rushing hasn’t helped either. Until the Commanders’ offense improves, McLaurin will struggle to get beyond a WR3 rank.

McLaurin was also wide open down the sideline for what would have been a 75-yard touchdown pass but Jayden Daniels overthrew him. There was some thought that McLaurin would have fantasy appeal because there were no receiving options in Washington and Daniels would pepper him with targets, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. The Bucs were down to only one healthy cornerback for three-quarters of this game, and McLaurin still couldn’t get anything going, which doesn’t inspire much confidence for his season-long value.

There have been some concerns about McLaurin’s preseason usage being stationary, but Keim says the Commanders won’t show everything they will do with him in preseason games. McLaurin has seen more reps in the slot, so Keim expects when the season starts, he won’t be stationary in OC Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and they will move the 28-year-old wideout around the field more. With lack of production from other receivers in the Commanders offense and a rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels coming in, Kingsbury will need to get creative to generate offense. Preseason usage is not always the best indicator of regular season reps for guys of McLaurin’s pedigree, so expect him to move around the field rather than be a stationary outside receiver heading into the season.

The team has not yet committed to Daniels — the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft — as their Week 1 starter, though it would be a massive upset if Marcus Mariota got the opening day call for Washington. Keim expects Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury to lean heavily on the rushing attack, which will be led by Austin Ekeler and Brian Robinson. Ekeler is most likely to be the primary pass-catching back while Robinson functions as the team’s early-down back. A lack of passing volume could be an issue for Washington’s pass catchers. Terry McLaurin could still see a solid target share, however, as offenses that use lots of run-pass option plays tend to target their WR1 heavily.

The 2023 Heisman Trophy winner enters the league as one of the most polarizing — but high upside — elite prospects in recent memory. Already 23 years old, Daniels (6’4/210) was a 2019, pre-pandemic enrollee at Arizona State, largely muddling through his three campaigns in Tempe before a transfer-infused step forward at LSU in 2022. He then went supernova for the Heisman, posting a ludicrous 40:4 TD:INT total through the air while churning up 135/1,134/10 with his legs. Those absurd numbers speak to a boom/bust skill-set that focuses on deep passing and tucking-and-running whenever possible. Daniels handles pressure well but also invites it with his play style, and has shown blatant disregard for his body. The highlight-reel hits he took all too often in the SEC will threaten to land him on the injury report in the NFL. Daniels is going to have to rein in his game without losing the wild hair spark that makes him special. It can be done, though it is the kind of transition that has proven difficult to pull off. Either way, Daniels’ dual-threat game should make him an instant fantasy superstar as long as he can stay on the field. Real-life progress doesn’t even need to follow for the time being, but if Daniels can clean up his game, he’s in rarefied air when it comes to ceiling. In Washington, Daniels will operate in Kliff Kingsbury’s horizontal raid offense. He could easily lead all QBs in rushing yards this season. Daniels’ propensity to run will hurt target volume for Terry McLaurin and the rest of Washington’s pass catchers.

Kingsbury and Brian Johnson, the team’s assistant head coach and pass game coordinator, dismissed any mention of the Air Raid offensive scheme, saying Washington would strive to be balanced in 2024. Last season, only the Chiefs and Bengals had higher pass rates over expected than the Commanders. “We want to be able to run the football and play-action pass and really do whatever it takes to win,” Kingsbury told The Washington Post. Johnson and Kingsbury said the Commanders could use far fewer shotgun formations than they’ve used at previous NFL stops, especially if they’re breaking in a rookie quarterback. In 2022, Kingsbury’s Cardinals led the league in pistol and shotgun usage, as Denny Carter and Patrick Daugherty discussed on a recent Rotoworld Football Show. The 2022 Cardinals were 28th in net adjusted yards per attempt out of pistol and shotgun looks.

Questions arose around Kingsbury’s role with the Commanders after the team hired former Eagles OC Brian Johnson as an assistant head coach. The assistant coach title, according to Jhabvala, is “more to give Johnson more experience with the organizational side and the things head coaches handle that may help set him up for future [head coaching] opportunities.” Kingsbury could have a rookie quarterback operating his offense if Washington uses their first round draft pick on a signal caller following Sam Howell’s disappointing 2023 season.