It’s been a disastrous season for the Washington Commanders — Austin Ekeler suffered a season-ending injury early in the year, Terry McLaurin has battled soft-tissue issues, and Jayden Daniels went down with an elbow injury of his own just last week. At 3-7, hope feels lost for the team’s playoff hopes. However, the fantasy football season treks onward and there’s talent to keep an eye on moving forward.
Now, halfback Chris Rodriguez is banged up ahead of Week 11’s game against the Miami Dolphins. While he’s expected to play, is the door open for Jacory Croskey-Merritt to see additional work and produce in fantasy?
Evaluating the Commanders backfield
Not all that much has changed in recent weeks as far as the backfield split goes in Washington. As much as fantasy managers may hate to hear it, this still remains something of a three-way split amongst Jacory Croskey-Merritt, Chris Rodriguez, and Jeremy McNichols.
The good news is that Croskey-Merritt still leads the way in snap share as he has since Week 5. The bad news is that he’s topped a 50% snap share just twice since then, and only once over the last four games. He’s been held to 46% and 44% of snaps in his last two contests, while Rodriguez played 34% and 33% with McNichols mixing in on 26% and 31%. The latter remains the clear passing-downs back due to his pass-protection ability and soft hands, but has only seen a high of five carries in a single game this year.
That leaves Croskey-Merritt and Rodriguez still fighting amongst themselves for the majority of the rushing work. The former has out-carried the latter in six of the last seven games, with Croskey-Merritt taking 11 rush attempts to Rodriguez’s six this past week. The one game in which the split was closest came in Week 9 as both backs handled 12 carries apiece.
However, neither produced at an efficient rate on the ground with those chances. Over the last four weeks, there’s only been one instance in which one of the pair eclipsed 40 rushing yards (Rodriguez tallied 65 in Week 9). That contest was also the only time one of these players reached double-digit fantasy points, and Rodriguez’s 12.5 PPR points were held up by a touchdown during that game as well. That short-yardage role is worth monitoring as Rodriguez handled three carries inside the five-yard line over that same span while Croskey-Merritt didn’t even see one goal-line opportunity. Granted, those high-value touches won’t occur as often with Marcus Mariota at quarterback for the Commanders. This offense will be tough to project as a high-scoring one without Jayden Daniels under center or Terry McLaurin healthy at wideout, so the touchdown upside remains limited for both players.
The reality of this backfield seems to be rather grim. With the Commanders’ attack struggling to put up points and a lack of pass-catching role for either of Croskey-Merritt or Rodriguez, neither are inspiring starting options for fantasy football. There’s just very little upside unless they hit a splash play, and with neither taking over 50% of the snaps, there’s not really enough volume to make up for the lack of touchdowns or catches (in PPR formats).
Both are best left on benches, but if you must start one in Week 11, Croskey-Merritt looks like the better bet. With Rodriguez nursing a minor shoulder injury, there’s a chance the workload distribution may shift a bit in JCM’s favor. Plus, the Dolphins rank 20th in defensive EPA/rush and have allowed the third-most rushing yards of any team, so the matchup does leave a hint of intrigue for a big fantasy outing.
