In this article series, I’m analyzing every one of the 32 NFL teams and all of their redraft-relevant fantasy assets. It’s a long project, but I want to make sure that you, the reader, have something you can refer to for every team. For each article, I’ll split up the fantasy assets into three categories: high-end assets, usable contributors, and dart throws. I’ll reference my PPR redraft rankings at the time of writing. If you want to read my previous work in this series, the full list with links is at the bottom of the article. Let’s jump into the Redskins since, unfortunately, we have to get to them eventually.
High-End Assets
Considering the disaster that I’m projecting for this Redskins team, it should come as absolutely no surprise that they have no players in this group. I expect the offense to be anemic once again, as they failed to add any significant weapons to make it better. They did replace their previous dumpster fire of a coaching staff with a competent head coach in Ron Rivera and an exciting offensive coordinator in Scott Turner. That’s a small positive, however, compared to this mess of an offensive roster.
Usable Contributors
McLaurin is the lone bright spot in this pit of despair. In his 2019 rookie year, he led the Redskins in targets with 93, with no other player having more than 58. He turned his targets into 58 receptions for 919 yards and seven touchdowns. However, he only scored 13.7 PPR points per game, 29th among wide receivers.
Going into 2020, McLaurin’s biggest concern is the quarterback play of Dwayne Haskins. In the six games McLaurin played with Case Keenum at quarterback, he averaged 16.0 PPR points per game and scored five of his seven touchdowns. On the other hand, he averaged only 12.0 PPR points per game with Haskins and didn’t look like the same player. With Haskins entrenched as the 2020 Week 1 starter, it’s fair to have significant worries about McLaurin.
Overall, I think I’ve split the difference with McLaurin. I rank him as WR29, exactly his per-game average from 2019. In that range, I would prefer D.K. Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, or Deebo Samuel. The Redskins didn’t add any real competition for his number one role, with only Antonio Gandy-Golden and Antonio Gibson as significant additions to the offense. A full season with Haskins is likely to be a negative, but McLaurin could progress in his second year. I probably won’t get many shares of McLaurin, though. I would instead pick receivers from potential high-powered offenses, not from one of the worst in the league.
Unfortunately, I have to put Guice in the “usable contributors” tier based on his overall ranking. If you read my previous article describing Guice as a bust, you would know that I hate Guice for redraft in 2020. After the Redskins drafted Guice in the second round of the 2018 NFL Draft, he’s participated in five of a possible 32 games in his first two years in the NFL. While I previously detailed his whole injury history, suffice it to say that he’s shown no ability to remain healthy as an NFL player.
The Redskins’ made personnel moves in the offseason that demonstrate their complete lack of confidence in Guice. They signed J.D. McKissic and Peyton Barber in free agency and exercised Adrian Peterson’s 2020 option. Also, they drafted hybrid RB/WR Gibson in the third round and emphasized that they saw him as a running back. At the very least, Peterson will mix in on early downs, and Gibson or McKissic will take passing-down work. Turner has said recently that he sees roles for each of those three players but has conspicuously not discussed Guice.
In my previous article, I had Guice as my RB35, which I thought was low at the time. By now, I’ve dropped Guice down to my RB40. He’s sharing early-down work on a terrible offense with no PPR upside. Why on earth would you want to draft such a player? I don’t care what his talent was coming out of school or how much potential he had. In redraft, you have to play the cards on the table, and Guice is a hard fade based on that.
Dart Throws
Antonio Gibson
After starting at junior college, Gibson eventually transferred to Memphis before his junior year. He barely played that year but finally saw the field as a senior. He had an interesting split of dynamic rushing and receiving production, averaging 11.2 YPC and 19.3 YPR. While he only saw 71 total touches, he scored a touchdown on 12 of those. Even though he never played significantly, his explosiveness got the attention of NFL teams.
As discussed previously, the Redskins selected Gibson in the third round of this year’s NFL Draft. The Redskins labeled him as a running back, so I have to go with that for my breakdown. In a widely-quoted statement, Rivera compared Gibson to Christian McCaffrey, whom he coached in Carolina. While I don’t think Gibson is even half the talent McCaffrey is, it’s true that Gibson presents a similar upside as a receiving and rushing hybrid.
Even though Gibson has a tantalizing skill set, it’s hard to imagine that he makes a massive impact in year one. Between Peterson and Guice, Gibson won’t get early-down rushing work. Therefore, the best he can hope for is the old Chris Thompson role. In 2019, Thompson had 42 receptions on 58 targets for 378 yards in 11 games played. He didn’t score and wasn’t fantasy-relevant.
Similar to Guice, I don’t want Gibson this year in the Redskins’ weak offensive attack. He’s my RB51, alongside other PPR-only players like Nyheim Hines and Duke Johnson. Gibson is a decent flier since he’s somewhat of an unknown, but that’s not enough of a reason to draft him. I’d rather mine for value elsewhere.
Peterson has enjoyed somewhat of a career revival for the Redskins, with back-to-back solid seasons in 2018 and 2019. He had 251 and 211 carries and averaged 4.2 and 4.3 YPC. However, he didn’t catch over 20 balls in either year and finished as the RB19 and RB32 in PPR formats, respectively. At 35 years old going into 2020, I certainly don’t expect Peterson to improve on his previous numbers.
If I don’t want the starting early-down running back in Washington, I have no interest in the backup. He has no upside compared to other handcuffs and comes in as my RB61. Unless Guice goes down in the preseason once again, I won’t look Peterson’s way in redraft.
As Haskins is a starting quarterback in the NFL, he has some potential to be redraft-relevant at some point during the fantasy season. Based on my experience writing a streamers column, I considered almost every single quarterback at least once. However, Haskins was one of the worst fantasy quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. In nine games played, he averaged a vomit-inducing 8.3 fantasy points per game, 44th among quarterbacks. Even if you only count the seven games he started, he still only averaged 10.7, ranking 31st.
As a real-life quarterback, Haskins wasn’t any better. He threw seven touchdowns compared to seven interceptions and completed a measly 58.6% of his passes. Also, he took 29 sacks and averaged 6.72 yards per attempt. He lost five of the seven games he started and looked lost on the field at times.
While Haskins has a stranglehold on the Week 1 starting job, let’s not forget that the Redskins traded a fifth-round pick for Kyle Allen. Allen started most of the season for Rivera in 2019 with the Panthers, so he has more familiarity with the offense than Haskins. If Haskins struggles once again, I would not be surprised at all if the Redskins make a quarterback change. Because of that possibility and my complete disdain for Haskins, he’s my QB28. There’s no need to pay any attention to him for 2020 redraft formats.
Everyone Else
The Redskins have a few decent dynasty stash plays, but none are redraft-relevant. Most notably, they have an exciting young trio of receivers in Gandy-Golden, Steven Sims, and Kelvin Harmon. They selected Gandy-Golden in the fourth round of this year’s draft, Harmon in the sixth round of last year’s, and signed Sims as an undrafted free agent in 2019. They also signed undrafted free agent tight end Thaddeus Moss this year. None of these players are worth drafting, but there’s always the possibility someone breaks out. I think it’s more of a 2021 play, though.
Thanks for reading this article. You can find me on Twitter at @DFF_Karp. I love to interact with anyone in the community, so reach out at any time! I take fantasy questions and help with all formats, so keep sending those questions my way.
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