3 NFL Storylines to Watch in Week 8

Josh Doctson Is One of Many Mouths to Feed

After a lost rookie season, Josh Doctson is finally healthy and practicing to the point where the Washington Redskins coaching staff appears to have demoted their struggling free-agent signing Terrelle Pryor to see what the 2016 first-round pick can do.

Doctson is an older prospect after transferring schools and playing his final three years at TCU. At the NFL Scouting Combine, he was well above average in several areas of athletic testing. According to the Mockdraftable, Doctson measured in the 90th percentile or better in the 60-yard shuttle, broad jump, and vertical jump.

He was also extremely productive, catching 25 touchdowns in his final 23 collegiate games while posting a College Dominator rating in the 75th percentile, per PlayerProfiler.

Let's now fast-forward to today, where Doctson is coming off a season-high 84.38 percent snap share while the aforementioned Pryor saw the field just 46.88 percent of the time. However, it's very important to point out that Pryor was basically benched for nearly the entire first half while seeing about equal time to Doctson in the second half.

Even if Doctson has indeed moved ahead of Pryor as the top wide receiver, Kirk Cousins has spread the ball around a great deal, giving more than half of the targets to tight ends and running backs. In fact, Chris Thompson is leading the team in receiving yards while backup tight end Vernon Davis is currently second.

According to numberFire's metrics, the Dallas Cowboys rank 20th in pass defense. Despite a decent matchup, the slice of the passing-game pie that Doctson is now competing for might be much thinner than most realize.