Was this Commanders WR Jahan Dotson’s breakout game?

Sunday was Jahan Dotson’ long-anticipated breakout game for 2023.

Struggling in recent games with costly drops and a lack of targets, Jahan Dotson had his best game thus far in his two-year NFL career.

The former Penn State receiver and punt returner was targeted ten times Sunday by quarterback Sam Howell at FedEx Field against the Eagles. Dotson caught eight of the ten passes and did not have a drop.

His eight receptions were his career best. In his rookie season, Dotson had a six-catch day at San Francisco for 76 yards and a touchdown. Also, during his rookie season, his highest yardage day came the previous game when at the Giants, Dotson collected 105 receiving yards and one touchdown in only four receptions (26.25 YPR).

Consequently, Dotson’s 108 receiving yards Sunday against the Eagles was his career-high for a single game. Dotson had not been having the significant impact in terms of receiving yards, for which many of us had anticipated for 2023.

His receiving yards totals for the previous seven games were 40, 22, 21, 27, 30, 0 and 43. It was great to see Dotson with the breakout of the 108 yards Sunday.

Here are each of the ten targets and eight receptions for Dotson from Commanders quarterback Sam Howell in the Week 8 home 38-31 loss to the Eagles.

Dotson’s 2022 rookie season saw him finish having played in 12 games in which the Commanders were 5-6-1. He accumulated 35 receptions on 61 targets for 523 yards (14.24 YPR) and seven touchdowns.

Through eight games of this 2023 season, Dotson has been targeted 49 times (all by Howell) for 30 receptions. He has generated 291 receiving yards (9.7 YPR) and two receiving touchdowns.