Jacory Croskey-Merritt Fantasy 2026: Is the Commanders Second-Year RB a Sleeper?

Jacory Croskey-Merritt is the kind of late-round back who quietly scores touchdowns while everyone drafts the names ahead of him. He turned 175 carries into 805 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns across 17 games as a rookie, adding nine catches on 13 targets, all while playing just 39.5% of Washington's snaps. That is roughly 8.3 PPR points per game from a part-time role, and at an RB39 price around pick 117 overall he is close to free. For a position where touchdowns swing weekly scoring more than any other, a back who already finds the end zone is worth a hard look.

The buy case is efficiency and the end zone. Croskey-Merritt's eight rushing touchdowns were the second-most of any 2025 rookie running back, behind only TreVeyon Henderson, and he did it on fewer carries and fewer snaps than most of the backs around him on that list. He took 31 red-zone carries and 12 goal-line touches, so the scoring was not a fluke of long runs, it was real short-yardage trust from the staff. A back who earns goal-line work as a rookie is a back the coaches believe in.

The backfield got more crowded this offseason

Here is the bear case the price is pointing at. Washington did not hand Croskey-Merritt the job, it added competition. The Commanders brought in Rachaad White, a pass-catching back who posted 572 rushing yards and 40 catches for Tampa Bay in 2025, and they get a healthy Austin Ekeler back, a veteran whose entire value is third-down and passing-down work. Croskey-Merritt's receiving role was already light at 13 targets, so the obvious path for the newcomers is to take the passing-down snaps and leave him as the early-down and short-yardage back rather than a three-down workhorse. The 39.5% snap share is the tell: this is a committee, and the committee got deeper.

The touchdown math and the quarterback

The other question is whether the eight touchdowns repeat. Washington lost its 2025 lead back, Brian Robinson Jr., to Atlanta, which vacates carries and helps Croskey-Merritt, but quarterback Jayden Daniels is a runner who can steal goal-line work. In 2025 Daniels ran for 278 yards, though he took only two goal-line touches himself, so he is a smaller threat to the stripe than his legs suggest. The realistic read is that the early-down and goal-line carries are there for the taking, but the passing-down work is spoken for, which caps Croskey-Merritt's PPR ceiling even if the rushing scores hold.