Jahan Dotson - WR38, 73.7 (6-7 Turn)
Dotson struggled with injuries in his rookie year, but was still productive even with a shell of Carson Wentz and Taylor Heinicke leading the way as the primary starters. He was able to put up seven touchdowns in twelve starts, which was tied for the fifth most in the league among all receivers, while also putting up 14.9 yards per reception, which was tied for 11th-best in the NFL.
That explosiveness helped him to put up two top-12 finished in the last four weeks of the year - something that not a lot of people realize he did. He has extremely solid hands and is as reliable a WR2 as you’ll find in the NFL, and it will help this season just as it did last season to have Terry McLaurin drawing the top defender away from his side.
Antonio Gibson - RB31, 98.4 (9th Round)
A lot of the excitement that I have for Gibson in 2023 stems from the Commanders bringing in Eric Bienemy, who ran an offense that featured a similar backfield duo in Kansas City. In this case, it’s Gibson that’s going to play the Jerick McKinnon to Brain Robinson’s Isiah Pacheco, and that’s exactly what I’m anticipating that’s going to allow Gibson to break out in a big way.
Gibson finished last year as PFF’s third-highest graded receiving back among players with 35 or more targets, trailing just Christian McCaffrey and Austin Ekeler. Down the stretch in 2022, it was Isiah Pacheco who had the solid fantasy floor in the early down role, but it was McKinnon who had the week-winning upside. And using Fantasy Life’s data profiles, we also see that Gibson was one of the most targeted running backs on a per route basis in 2022, seeing a target on 24% of his routes run – tied with Alvin Kamara for 7th most among all running backs.
So we see he has the chops in the receiving game, and Sam Howell is young. I think Bienemy will encourage Howell to lean on the checkdowns and outlets to help him stay in a rhythm, and those are the routes Gibson is going to be specializing in. Gibson can be a week winner in a big way if he can earn the targets – and he’s shown us that he is perfectly capable of doing that.