The Washington Commanders and Kansas City Chiefs will close out Week 8 of the 2025 campaign when the two teams square off on Monday night.
The Commanders have been absolutely riddled with injuries at the wide receiver position this season, with Terry McLaurin, Deebo Samuel and Noah Brown all missing time.
While Samuel and McLaurin will make their return to the field in Week 8, the Commanders won’t have quarterback Jayden Daniels due to a knee injury.
Let’s dive into more information on Samuel and McLaurin specifically.
Is Terry McLaurin playing tonight?
McLaurin (quadriceps) will be on the field in Week 8 after a four-game absence. The veteran wideout practiced in full all week and was removed from the injury report on Saturday, so he shouldn’t have any limitations.
Is Deebo Samuel playing tonight?
Like McLaurin, Samuel (heel) turned in all full practices in the week leading up to the Chiefs game and is off the injury report and good to go for Week 8.
Terry McLaurin start or sit advice
This is a tough one because McLaurin is usually as close to a lineup lock as you can get outside of the traditionally elite wide receivers, but there are a few big concerns this week.
For starters, McLaurin ranked as WR56 overall in the three games he played this season, and two of those games were with Daniels under center. This week, it’s Marcus Mariota starting for the injured Daniels.
Mariota and McLaurin played together in Week 3 and the latter had his best game of the campaign with three catches for 74 yards. In 2024, McLaurin posted 8/62/1 and 6/98/0 in the two games Mariota saw significant snaps in.
Another concern we have is the fact that the Chiefs are ceding the third-fewest fantasy points per game to wide receivers this season.
But that is offset by the fact that the Commanders’ defense has not been good this season, and with the Chiefs heating up on offense, this game may become a high-scoring affair, or at the very least, the Commanders could be chasing points, something that will present a positive game script for the passing attack.
There’s enough of a history there between McLaurin and Mariota and a potentially positive game script to consider McLaurin a starting option this week, although we’d call him more of a flex option than the WR2 he normally is with Daniels under center.
Verdict: Start
Deebo Samuel start or sit advice
Samuel ranked as WR8 over the first six weeks of the season, so he is by default a weekly starting option in all formats.
But Samuel has had very mixed results with Mariota under center this season, as he tallied 2/11/0 in Week 3 and 6/72/1 in Week 4. McLaurin was on the field for the former game but not for the latter.
Add in the fact that the Chiefs are one of the stingiest teams in the league when it comes to giving up fantasy points to wide receivers and it makes for a very shaky situation.
The only plus here is that the Commanders might be chasing points and could be throwing the ball a ton. That, along with how well Samuel played over the first six weeks, keeps him on the flex radar for Monday.
Verdict: Start
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