Jahan Dotson's Fantasy Draft Landing Spot, Value After Eagles-Commanders Trade

Fantasy managers keeping an eye on low-risk, high-reward options should take notice of Jahan Dotson joining the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Eagles announced on Thursday they acquired Dotson and a 2025 fifth-round draft pick from the Washington Commanders for three 2025 draft picks, including a third-round selection.

Dotson had clearly fallen out of favor with the new coaching staff in Washington. NFL Network's Gregg Rosenthal recently noted on X there were some indications the No. 16 pick in the 2022 draft might not make the Commanders' roster.

It probably speaks to how little the Commanders cared about losing Dotson that they traded him to a division rival.

For Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, this is exactly the type of move he loves to make. Dotson was a first-round draft pick not that long ago, showed promise as a rookie and is young enough to have a ceiling worth betting on.

Per Fantasy Pros, Dotson was the 68th receiver coming off the board with an average draft position of 175.3 in PPR leagues. There were 18 defense/special teams units being drafted ahead of him.

Expectations were low and, frankly, should remain that way for Dotson. The Eagles have a better offensive infrastructure than Washington, but he's still competing to be their fifth-most important skill player.

A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith are the top two receivers and have surpassed 1,000 yards in each of the past two seasons. Dallas Goedert has averaged 95 targets per 17 games played over the past three seasons since Jalen Hurts became the starting quarterback.

Saquon Barkley is the lead running back and had at least 57 targets in five of six seasons with the New York Giants. The only time he didn't hit that mark was in 2020 when he tore his ACL in Week 2.

Dotson will be vying for the No. 3 receiver job with players like Johnny Wilson, Parris Campbell and Britain Covey. If he can win that spot, there does become some intrigue about his ability to be a useful fantasy contributor.

The biggest wild cards in this whole equation are Hurts and new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore.

Hurts has been put in a position where the offense is catered more toward his skill set, rather than asking him to develop a full dropback passing game. He was also criticized last season for not throwing over the middle of the field, even though he did at basically the same rate as his MVP runner-up campaign in 2022.

The offense should have more variety in 2024 under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Perhaps the biggest change will be in the use of motion. The Eagles ranked last in the league in 2023 by using pre-snap motion just 26.4 percent of the time. By comparison, with Moore running the offense last season, the Los Angeles Chargers ranked sixth with a 59 percent motion rate.

Dotson was praised coming out of Penn State for his ability as a route-runner and ability to win at all three levels. He could find some big plays in the Eagles offense if he gets a high volume of snaps.

If you want to take a flier on Dotson with a late-round draft pick to see how he gets used early in the regular season, that might be worth it. Otherwise, you're probably better off waiting to get him on the waiver wire after the season begins if he has a decent game in the first few weeks.