Luke McCaffrey start or sit: Week 4 fantasy football advice

The Washington Commanders head to Atlanta as 2.5-point underdogs to take on the Falcons. Injuries have hurt their offense significantly, as their two best players, Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin are out this week, while running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt is questionable and Noah Brown is out.

That means some backups will need to step up. Last week Luke McCaffrey was one of those backups to do so, as he caught all three of his targets for 54 yards and a touchdown from backup QB Marcus Mariota. Those two will get a chance to hook up again this week in Atlanta.

Below, we’ll go over Luke McCaffrey’s outlook in fantasy football for Week 4.

McCaffrey has yet to do much in his short career, as last week was his first career touchdown. With McClaurin out, McCaffrey likely won’t take his snaps, as McCaffrey is used more often in the slot. He ended up with 21 snaps and 11 routes run to get his three targets last week, while Chris Moore saw 33 snaps and Jaylin Lane had 11. Lane is the receiver most likely to see more snaps with McLaurin out, while Moore should continue to see a big snap count and Deebo Samuel will be up there as well. Samuel did see a decrease in work last week. His age and history of injuries appears to be slowing him down a bit and the team might want to limit his work when they can, but this week they may not be able to.

McCaffrey will likely see more snaps this week, but banking on a big target number against an improved Falcons defense is risky. Atlanta ranks fourth-best in EPA allowed per target and sixth-best in DVOA against the pass. Cornerback AJ Terrell will miss this week, which helps, but none of the Commanders backups are really set to take over the lead role. And with Mariota at the helm, we can’t predict him raising the fantasy prospects for the receivers.

Sit.

Sit.