Stefon Diggs Fantasy Football Value With Commanders: An Immediate WR2 For Washington
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Stefon Diggs Fantasy Football Value With Commanders: An Immediate WR2 For Washington

Stefon Diggs is heading to the Commanders to fill their WR2 hole. What does it mean for fantasy football?

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It just made sense.

After months of speculation, free agent wideout Stefon Diggs has found his new home. Per Jordan Schultz, the Washington Commanders are signing the four-time Pro Bowl receiver to a one-year, $12M deal. Washington was always the most logical and expected landing spot. The Commanders have a glaring hole at WR2 opposite Terry McLaurin, and did you know that Diggs went to college at Maryland?

Of course you did.

WAS_commanders-logo.svgStefon Diggs 2026 Fantasy Football Value After Signing With Commanders

In his lone year in New England last season, Diggs showed he still has plenty left in the tank, hauling in 85 passes for 1,013 yards and four touchdowns. And that was in much less than a full-time role, as the veteran was deployed as part of a receiver rotation. Diggs ran 71% of the routes, which ranked 63rd among all wideouts. His 25.8 routes per game ranked 64th at the position, though he made up for it by catching 83% of his passes, the highest rate among qualified receivers, while ranking 8th in yards per route run (2.42). 

With Mack Hollins and Kayshon Boutte handling most of the deep vertical routes, Diggs was used a lot more on shallow crossers. His 16.5% crossing route rate was his highest since TruMedia began tracking route frequency, nearly double his lone season with the Texans. That could once again be his role in Washington, especially with McLaurin still being one of the better deep threats in the league. Stylistically, he pairs pretty well with McLaurin, but the new offense will be more of a factor.

Over the past two seasons with Kliff Kingsbury calling plays, the Commanders have been a shotgun-heavy fast-paced offense. During that span, Washington easily leads the league in neutral script no-huddle rate (62.1%), while ranking 10th in average seconds per snap. Jayden Daniels, meanwhile, has seen 96% of his dropbacks come from the gun. New offensive coordinator David Blough is set to implement more under center looks this year, which likely means more play-action. And although McLaurin should remain the WR1, there are still plenty of targets available. 

Deebo Samuel and his 6.2 targets per game are gone, and as good as McLaurin is, we haven’t seen him truly dominate targets at any point of his career. In Daniels’ rookie year back in 2024, McLaurin caught 82 balls for 1,096 yards and 13 touchdowns, en route to a WR14 PPG finish (15.7). During that season, McLaurin ranked just 36th in target share (23%). And he’s only reached a 25% target share once in his career. 

The arrival of Diggs puts more of a target ceiling on McLaurin, while also likely making me a tad less excited about the prospects of Chig Okonkwo. The hope is that Okonkwo plays the same role that Zach Ertz is vacating, which is more than fantasy-friendly. This past season, Ertz, at 35 years old, was as involved as most tight ends in the league:

  • 79% routes (10th)
  • 20% TPRR (13th)
  • 21% target share (5th)
  • 24% EZ target share (7th)

And sure, McLaurin missed a ton of last season due to injury. But even if you go back to 2024, Ertz still played a huge role, logging 78% of the routes, while posting an 18% TPRR and 19% target share. The problem? Here were Washington’s wide receivers not named Terry McLaurin during that 2024 campaign:

Diggs was a pretty sharp fantasy selection all summer, knowing he’d not only sign with a team, but more than likely landing in a fantasy-friendly spot like Washington. The fantasy football ADP is now obviously set to climb, but He can be viewed as a high-end WR4/low-end WR3, McLaurin, meanwhile, remains a top-24 fantasy wideout in our fantasy football rankings.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Stefon Diggs
    StefonDiggs
    WRFAFA
    PPG
    9.1
    Proj
    144.5

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