J.D. McKissic Fantasy Outlook Tied to Receiving Ability Behind Ty Johnson on Lions Depth Chart

It's no secret that Ty Johnson is the fantasy football player to own in the Detroit Lions' backfield now that Kerryon Johnson is on injured reserve.

J.D. McKissic quietly offers some intriguing value as well, with the potential to serve as the team's primary receiving back moving forward.

A former wide receiver, McKissic has six more carries (65) than targets (59) in his NFL career. Since joining the Lions in 2019, he has notched at least two targets in four of six games, despite only playing double-digit snaps three times.

Detroit already looked like they were trying to get him more involved before Kerryon went down too, as McKissic outsnapped Ty Johnson in two of Detroit's last three games.

The Lions have struggled to a 2-3-1 record to start the year, suggesting that they're probably going to continue playing from behind fairly often, putting them in the kind of pass-heavy game flows that can benefit McKissic.

This receiving work makes McKissic worth a speculative add in fantasy football leagues. Ty Johnson is the only Lions running back that sits in the top-36 at RB in our Week 8 PPR fantasy football rankings, but if the backfield shakes out with a relatively even split this week, then McKissic will be a potential RB2 or FLEX play moving forward.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.