NFL Week 8 Fantasy Football Recap: Indianapolis Colts vs. Washington Commanders

• Antonio Gibson: 7 carries, 19 yards, 7 receptions, 58 receiving yards, 1 receiving touchdown

• Nyheim Hines: 5 carries, 20 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 receptions, 29 receiving yards

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DEN@JAX | CAR@ATL | CHI@DAL | MIA@DET | ARZ@MIN
LVR@NO | NE@NYJ | PIT@PHI | TEN@HOU | WSH@IND
SF@LAR | NYG@SEA | GB@BUF

The Commanders’ frustrating three-man committee: Washington’s three backs almost evenly split the workload.

• Antonio Gibson started the game after coming off the bench the past two weeks.
• Brian Robinson Jr., who started the previous two weeks, started playing on the second drive.
• The two players split carries and were equally ineffective.
• J.D. McKissic seemed to be losing some of his work on third downs to Gibson, but he took a strong hold on the clear receiving situations.
• McKissic can still be left on the waiver wire, as he’s rarely playing on early downs.
• This remains a situation to avoid. Different game scripts will favor different running backs, but there probably isn’t a specific script that makes someone worth starting.

Logan Thomas’ return: Thomas saw his first NFL action since Week 4 due to a calf injury.

• He was still limited in practice all week.
• Thomas split time with Armani Rogers, and the two were used interchangeably. Meanwhile, John Bates was consistently playing in two- or three-tight end sets.
• He was not targeted in this game.
• There is a chance Thomas can take most, if not all, of the snaps from Rogers and see playing time similar to 2021 at his peak.
• Thomas is a waiver wire target in deeper leagues, as the Commanders have the fourth-easiest remaining schedule for tight ends.

First look at Sam Ehlinger: The second-year quarterback was named the starter for the rest of the season.

• He focused his attention on outside wide receivers, with over half of his targets going to players lined up there.
• Ehlinger targeted players lined up in the backfield or as an inline tight end only twice each.
• This was good news for Michael Pittman Jr. and Alec Pierce, who finished first and second in targets, receptions and receiving yards.
• Pittman posted a 33.3% targets per route run rate. His season high prior to this week was 24.1%.
• Ehlinger ran the ball six times, with three coming from scrambles and three from designed runs.
• He is worth a waiver wire target in deeper leagues or superflex leagues, as the Colts will need to rely on him more in games where they don’t have a lead. His rushing production gives him a safer floor.

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.