Rashid Shaheed — Week 3: Three Targets, Five Returns
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Shaheed caught 2 of 3 targets for 14 yards and returned two kickoffs for 63 yards and three punts for 29. He was hurt on a 27-yard kickoff return with 4:34 left and was back two snaps later for a deep throw that an illegal formation on Seattle wiped out, and he drew a 15-yard roughness penalty on the drive that tied the game, in a 33–31 loss to the Commanders.
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27 to 24, Commanders, four 34 left in the fourth quarter, after Washington's go-ahead field goal. Rashid Shaheed took the kickoff at the Seattle three and brought it back 27 yards to the 30, and the play-by-play notes that he was injured on the play. On the next snap Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught a 26-yarder. On the snap after that, the play-by-play has Shaheed back in the game and Sam Darnold throwing deep right to him, incomplete, and an illegal formation on Seattle wiped the play out and moved the ball back five yards. Two snaps later Washington returned an interception for a touchdown.
The line: three targets, two catches, 14 yards, no first downs, −1.9 expected points on the targets — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. Nine yards on third and 14 on Seattle's first drive, short of the sticks; five yards on second and 10 in the third quarter; and an incompletion on third and nine from the Seattle 16 later in the third, followed by a punt. Two third-down targets, neither converted. Another throw his way, on second and five early in the fourth quarter, fell incomplete but drew a 15-yard roughness penalty on Washington, a first down on the drive that ended in Smith-Njigba's tying touchdown.
The returns: the opening kickoff, 36 yards to the Seattle 37; the late one, 27. Punts of six, 10 13 yards, the 13 to the Washington 41 with a minute 24 left in the half, which set up Jason Myers's 57-yard field goal. Three fair catches.
Three targets of Seattle's 46 throws put him behind Smith-Njigba's 14, AJ Barner's nine, and five each for George Holani and Cooper Kupp.
Back in June the preview made no call on Shaheed and framed him as one question with two answers on film: about 22 percent of the targets as the first option in New Orleans, about 10 and a half in Seattle after the November trade. 10 percent, it said, means the Seattle role is the real one; past 15 means the New Orleans one is back. Week 1 was three of 24. Week 2 was six of 26. Sunday, with Sam Darnold back and Seattle throwing 46 times, it was three. Through three games it is 12 of 96, about 13 percent, six catches for 53 yards, sitting between the two answers. The return work has been there every week. Three games settle little. Seattle is home to the Chargers on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
When Rashid Shaheed's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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