Giants (

18.75) at
WFT (

22.25)

Published Oct 8, 2026 · 5:49 PM ET

MJBy MJohnsonBioHide

ABOUT THE WRITER

Mike Johnson has earned more than $500,000 in DFS profit across a wide range of tournament formats. He combines his background in coaching and finance with years of tournament experience to identify market inefficiencies in every matchup.

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GAME OVERVIEW ::

• Washington has yet to play a snap from a “positive” game script this season.
• The Giants lead the NFC East with a 3-1 record despite dealing with injuries and setbacks over the season’s first month.
• The Commanders defense has been a bit of a “pass funnel” unit so far this season, performing above average against the run while being susceptible to big plays through the air.
• Washington expects quarterback Jayden Daniels to return to the field after a 2.5 game absence.
• Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin is expected to miss this game with a hamstring injury.

HOW NEW YORK WILL TRY TO WIN::

The Giants lead the NFC East through four weeks despite having many obstacles to overcome along the way. Their last two victories have been less impressive, coming against the hapless Titans in poor weather and at home against the Cardinals. Nevertheless, wins are wins. The Giants get another solid matchup in Week 5 as they travel down the coast to face the Commanders, who are 1-3 and coming back from a trip to Europe.

New York wants to run the football first and foremost with coach John Harbaugh in charge and having lost Jaxson Dart for the season. However, they started to loosen the reins on Jameis Winston a bit in Week 4 as he had his best passing game to date. Winston looked awful in relief of Dart against the Rams, then had to play in awful weather against the Titans. The Week 4 performance for Winston should give some confidence for the Giants to let him throw the ball more going forward. When he does throw the ball, look for tight end Isaiah Likely to be his primary target in this matchup. The Commanders gave up big games to tight ends Dallas Goedert, Jake Ferguson, and AJ Barner to start the season. Likely ranks 2nd among ALL players in Target Share through four weeks, at 31.3%. Make no mistake about it, Likely is an integral part of this offense and the team is not afraid to use him in all areas of the field. The dynamics of Week 2 (Dart injury) and Week 3 (weather) made a lot of people forget about Likely’s dominant Week 1 performance, but he racked up 12 targets in Week 4 – something that happened somewhat quietly because it resulted in only a modest box score. After Likely, wide receiver Malik Nabers will also be very involved and is coming off his best game of the season. The Commanders defense is much more susceptible to the pass than the run, so we can expect another seven to 10 high value targets for Nabers this week.

New York’s preference would be to be run-heavy, but Washington is much stronger against the run than the pass and the Giants have a couple of strong receiving options in Nabers and Likely to turn to. Expect the nature of the matchup and return of Daniels to push the Giants to a balanced play calling approach, rather than a conservative one. Cam Skattebo will lead the Giants backfield again in this matchup, with a couple of other backs mixing in as well.

DFS+ Interpretations::

Added Oct 8, 2026 · 5:49 PM ET