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Week 1 is in the books, and we finally have some worthwhile data to parse through to determine the moves we need to make to win our fantasy league. One player that had a significant performance was a rookie wide receiver, Jahan Dotson.
The Washington Commanders drafted Dotson in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. Usually, there is a huge outpouring of excitement for first-round picks in the fantasy community, but Dotson has flown under the radar for most of the offseason compared to players taken after him. Dotson responded with three receptions and two touchdowns in his first career game, putting him firmly on the fantasy radar.
With one week of information, fantasy managers now need to decide what to do with Jahan Dotson. Is he somebody we can rely on for this season?
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Is Jahan Dotson a Good Fantasy Football Pickup for Week 2?
There are two sides to this conversation that fantasy managers must consider. On one hand, we have actionable information that shows that Jahan Dotson CAN have big weeks in the NFL. One of the worries coming into this season was that new quarterback Carson Wentz would just look to Terry McLaurin, leaving Dotson by the wayside.
McLaurin had a long touchdown play of his own, but Dotson was the player that caught two touchdown passes in his first career game. Even with that, Dotson is still just 40% rostered in Yahoo fantasy leagues. The underlying data tells us a deeper story about how much we can trust Dotson going forward.
According to PlayerProfiler.com, Dotson played on 90.0% of the Commanders’ snaps in his first game. He also ran a route on 95.1% of his plays and drew five of the team’s targets (12.8% target rate) and caught three passes for 40 yards. Two of those passes went for a touchdown. This tells us one very important thing: Dotson was on the field and running routes throughout the game. The team sees him as one of the team’s top-two receivers.
On the other hand, Dotson was the deep shot player and has real competition for targets with Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel. We know that Carson Wentz can throw the ball down the field, but he’s also prone to critical mistakes (his two interceptions in Week 1 were very bad). It isn’t easy to trust WR2s in an offense with inconsistent quarterback play.
Given what we saw in Week 1, Jahan Dotson is absolutely a player that should be rostered after his Week 1 performance, but it is too early to say that he can be started. Dotson will produce a lot of boom-or-bust weeks early in his career and we can’t expect him to score twice every game. But he is on the field and drawing targets and could have a huge role if anything happens to Terry McLaurin. Dotson is worth a roster spot after Week 1 and could play an important role this year in fantasy.
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