Colt McCoy's Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 8

These are strange fantasy football times indeed—the parting shot from a memorable Week 8 salvo was Washington quarterback Colt McCoy standing triumphant in his Texas stomping grounds after a Monday Night Football win. 

The third-string quarterback had himself quite a fantasy performance too, finishing among the top 15-highest scorers at the position.

In McCoy's second taste of major action in as many weeks in relief of the injured Robert Griffin III and the ineffective Kirk Cousins, he broke through to the realm of double digits against the Dallas Cowboys:

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	Fantasy Pts.
C. McCoy	25/30	299	10.0	0	1	16

A large chunk of McCoy's fantasy production came on the ground thanks to a rushing touchdown, an element of the Washington offense that he is able to utilize because of his athleticism.

The credit mostly goes to coach Jay Gruden, who knows a thing or two about squeezing the absolute most out of limited signal-callers.

Still, McCoy did the dirty work with the ball in his hands to great effect, as ESPN Stats & Info explains through a series of notes:

McCoy is often criticized for only relying on those short passes, but even he admits it is an area he continues to improve upon as he spends more time under center, as captured by Chris Russell of ESPN 980:

All things considered, that's not bad for a guy who entered Monday with 20 interceptions, 12 fumbles and 55 sacks in 21 career starts.

Thanks to the offense around him, not only with smart calls from Gruden, but with explosive players such as DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon, McCoy is not a horrible investment to have stashed on benches in deeper leagues. 

Just know that the shelf life on McCoy's usefulness is only as long as it takes RGIII to get back on the field. That said, his effective play Monday may encourage the staff to bring back the starter at an even slower clip.

Be careful to monitor McCoy in the coming weeks, but in a year that has seen a number of bye-week heroes, fantasy owners could do much worse than McCoy, as strange as that sounds.

All scoring info courtesy of ESPN standard leagues, as is points-against info and ownership stats. Statistics courtesy of ESPN.