What a Thursday Night Football game! The Chicago Bears got into the win column for the first time since October 2022 in style, dominating the Washington Commanders en route to a 40-20 victory. It was domination from the word go, as Justin Fields and D.J. Moore connected on the first drive, and the Bears never really stopped. The Commanders’ offensive line was somehow overwhelmed by the big burly Bears up front, as Sam Howell finished with five sacks taken, and Brian Robinson averaged 1.7 yards per carry. It was a rough night for Commanders fans and an even worse night for Bears fans who want to #CrashForCaleb, as the Bears dropped to second place in the race for the #1 overall pick to… the Chicago Bears (via Carolina).
But, this is about the fantasy football prospects of the players in this game, so let’s dive into some folks worth worrying about, shall we?
Did Justin Fields Unlock D.J. Moore?
D.J. Moore certainly had himself a game on Thursday Night Football. He posted 8 catches for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns on ten targets, including the game-sealing catch-and-run touchdown thanks to Kendall Fuller gambling and losing on the final real drive of the game. Moore had 49 PPR points in the game, making him the highest-scoring WR this season, and the second-highest-scoring player this season this side of De’Von Achane. Was this because Justin Fields and the Bears’ passing game leveled up, or did it have more to do with the Commanders’ offense?
Well, it was a little bit of both. First, let’s start with the Commanders’ defense. They’ve been a sieve this season, allowing the fourth-most total points and the eleventh-most yards on the season. They’ve also gotten torched by big plays, as 7.1% of pass attempts against them go for at least 20 yards, which is the seventh-highest rate in the NFL. But, Justin Fields still had to get D.J. Moore the ball, and D.J. Moore still had to do work with it. And, despite the lack of success had by the Bears so far this season, the D.J. Moore-Justin Fields connect results in the fifth-highest QB rating per target, according to PlayerProfiler.com.
Is Logan Thomas a Must-Add Tight End?
Prior to the game, Logan Thomas was on just 15% of rosters, a number that was low enough to qualify for my weekly sleepers article (and, in fact, he was the face of it last week). But, given that I write that article on Fridays… he wasn’t going to make it. Thomas finished the game leading Washington in targets (11), receptions (9), and yards (77). He kicked in a touchdown and a fumble lost to really fill out that box score. The Commanders made him a key part of their game, which isn’t nothing new. Thomas missed week three with a concussion, but prior to that, he finished as TE11 and TE12 on the week. Given that 9/77/1 is worthy of a top-ten finish in literally any given week, I am going to predict the future here and say that Thomas finishes inside the top-ten again this week.
Given the state of the position, and Logan Thomas’ rock-solid role in the offense that gives him a nice 3-4 catch and 40-50 yard floor that we crave, Logan Thomas is a tight end who has firmly entered The Blob, and unless you have Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Sam LaPorta, T.J. Hockenson, Dallas Goedert, George Kittle, or Evan Engram, you can’t really afford to keep him off of your roster at this point.
Is Jahan Dotson Ever Going to Break Out?
We all got hot and bothered about Eric Bieniemy coming to Washington, as we had visions of him running the temu.com variant of the Kansas City Chiefs offense. While that offense features a ton of passes to tight ends (check) and a multiple-back rotation (check), it also featured something we didn’t really consider: a mess at wide receiver. Think about the Chiefs’ under Bieniemy whenever Tyreek Hill wasn’t on the field for his squads in KC. It was a mess of trying to guess who to start every week at wide receiver. Eventually, you had to throw in the towel and decide that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, no matter the talent.
That is, unfortunately, where we sit with Jahan Dotson. Through five games, Dotson has been extremely consistent… consistently unusable. He scored a touchdown last week, which vaulted him all the way up to… WR28, his highest finish of the season by 18 spots. Dotson finished this game with 3 catches for 30 yards, on 5 targets. That brings him up to 17 catches, 202 yards, and one touchdown on 30 targets (or 3.4 catches for 40.4 yards on 6 targets per game). There just isn’t much there with Dotson anymore, as he doesn’t get enough opportunity to matter for fantasy football purposes, despite being a very talented real-life NFL receiver. You can go ahead and move on from him in most leagues.
