David Blough Could Boost Jayden Daniels' Fantasy Value by 2026

The Washington Commanders took a major step back in 2025 in part due to Jayden Daniels ' injury-marred sophomore season, but that wasn't the only issue with the offense. When healthy, Daniels held the ball longer on average and didn't see the field as well as he did in year one with Kliff Kingsbury. The offensive line played worse and while the run game maintained its moments, the pass game took a major step back. Washington has a plan to fix that in 2026 and it starts with a new play caller.

Dave Richard has ranked all 18 new play-callers from worst for Fantasy to best, and we're going team by team through his rankings to see how your perception of every key player should change before Fantasy football draft season. Up next at No. 10: David Blough and the Commanders.

Who's new?

Former journeyman QB David Blough has taken over as playcaller after two seasons as the Commanders' assistant quarterbacks coach. From college through the pros, he's been involved with many different playbooks but is expected to roll with an Air Raid/West Coast hybrid that utilizes up-tempo pace, formation variety and lots of motion. He has never called plays in an NFL game before.

What's expected this year?

It's been reported that the offense is "noticeably different" compared to last year. Jayden Daniels has already been part of the evolved offense in spring OTAs, working much more under center and using play-action to help create easy and/or explosive plays. There figures to be more route variety among the receivers and not just the spammed hitch routes that led Daniels' routes thrown each of the past two seasons. I wouldn't expect the Commanders' run game to change much. They've been more of a gap-scheme team under RB coach Anthony Lynn for the past two seasons and figure to stick with it even with the coordinator change.

Winners and losers for Fantasy

Reports from OTAs suggested that Daniels looked comfortable with the new adjustments in the Commanders' offense. That's not a surprise given how quickly he improved his game in college and then adjusted in the pros. Playing faster with a different-looking offense should help Daniels stay productive both through the air and on the ground. Everyone sort of ran with Blough's comment about giving Terry McLaurin 10 targets per game. That number seems unlikely, especially after McLaurin said he's excited to open up opportunities for his teammates. The real hope is that he lines up across the formation and is featured on a much wider variety of routes. McLaurin ran a hitch, go or crosser on 142 of his 262 routes last year -- more variety would go a long way in making him harder to cover (not to mention improving his after-catch numbers). It's extremely helpful that he's not holding out this offseason and that both he and Daniels are healthy for the preseason, but any addition the Commanders make to the receiving room would obviously hurt McLaurin's ceiling. The run scheme that Washington has been using should suit Rachaad White . He's done well the past two seasons in gap scheme (5.2 yards per carry, 10.2% explosive rush rate) compared to zone (3.4 and 2.3%); Jacory Croskey-Merritt thrived in zone (5.2 yards per carry and 8% explosive run rate) compared to gap (4.3 and 4.8%). Could make for some interesting running back splits during the year.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/news/washiongton-commanders-fantasy-football-outlook-david-blough-2026/)._