For the first round of the playoffs, J.D. McKissic is one of the players who interests me. I think he’s going to outperform where he’s selected.
I don’t think Washington will win against Tampa Bay – or even be competitive. But that could play into McKissic having a decent game.
If and when the “Football Team” falls behind, I think they’ll be passing a lot, with McKissic grabbing a lot of dumpoff balls. If you’re using PPR scoring, a player catching 6-7 passes has considerable value.
Antonio Gibson starts at running back for Washington, and their preference is to feed him the ball and let him bang out 100 yards and a couple of touchdowns. But that kind of approach won’t be possible this week, with Tampa Bay having the league’s No. 1 run defense. They don’t let people gain much on the ground. So it should be a pass game, and that’s where McKissic moves into the spotlight.
Consider the game-by-game numbers. McKissic caught 2-3 passes in the three games against Cincinnati and Dallas, but those were weeks where they didn’t need him – they were able to get Gibson rolling.
But in McKissic’s last 10 other games, he’s caught 69 passes for 488 yards and 2 TDs. Not that McKissic is a big scoring threat, but when a player catches 7 passes for 49 yards, that’s 11.9 points in PPR scoring.
There’s not a lot of reliable producers at the running back position, so if you don’t have the luxury of being able to use somebody like Alvin Kamara or Derrick Henry, McKissic becomes a depth-type guy to consider.
Setting aside the three run-dominated games (which I’ve got tagged with black dots), in his last 10 games he’s averaged 22 rushing yards, 6.9 catches, and 49 receiving yards, with 3 TDs in those 10 games.
| J.D. McKISSIC RECEIVING PRODUCTION | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Result | Tgt | No | Yds | TD | Run-Yd-TD |
| Phil. | W 27-17 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3--2-0 |
| at Ariz. | L 15-30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8-53-0 |
| at Clev. | L 20-34 | 4 | 3 | 37 | 0 | 5-15-0 |
| Balt. | L 17-31 | 8 | 7 | 40 | 0 | 2-6-0 |
| LAR | L 10-30 | 8 | 6 | 46 | 0 | 1-3-0 |
| at NYG | L 19-20 | 6 | 6 | 43 | 0 | 8-41-0 |
| • Dall. | W 25-3 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 0 | 5-35-0 |
| NYG | L 20-23 | 14 | 9 | 65 | 0 | 3-17-0 |
| at Det. | L 27-30 | 15 | 7 | 43 | 0 | 8-6-1 |
| • Cin. | W 20-9 | 4 | 3 | 26 | 0 | 6-43-0 |
| • at Dall. | W 41-16 | 2 | 2 | 21 | 0 | 1-6-0 |
| at Pitt. | W 23-17 | 10 | 10 | 70 | 0 | 5-8-0 |
| at S.F. | W 23-15 | 4 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 11-68-0 |
| Sea. | L 15-20 | 10 | 9 | 56 | 1 | 13-51-0 |
| Car. | L 13-20 | 10 | 8 | 77 | 1 | 4-15-0 |
| at Phil. | W 20-14 | 8 | 5 | 30 | 0 | 2-0-0 |
—Ian Allan