I'm back with another Team Preview. This time I will be doing the 2021 Fantasy Football New York Giants Preview.
Last season was not a good one for the Giants. Superstar running back Saquon Barkley tore his ACL in the second game. Sterling Shepard missed time, Golden Tate was a huge disappointment. Evan Engram had a 9.2% drop rate, with 10 total drops. Second-most for tight ends according to FantasyData. All of this led to Daniel Jones having a terrible season.
This offseason they were busy improving many places of the team. For Fantasy purposes, the improvements made in the receiving corps are what we care about the most. The Giants signed Kenny Golladay, Kyle Rudolph and John Ross. They also drafted Kadarius Tooney to help out Daniel Jones.
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2021 Fantasy Football New York Giants Preview
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Quarterbacks
- Daniel Jones
- Mike Glennon
We all know this is Daniel Jones' team, the question is can Jones improve, at least enough to make his receivers consistent fantasy weapons.
After his 2019 Rookie season, there was some hope that he could after he threw for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns and ran for 279 and two more touchdowns. All that in just 12 (and a half) games.
Last year though he actually regressed and threw for 2,943 and 11 touchdowns in 13 (and a half) games.
Some of this is not his fault. The Giants rated as one of the worst offensive lines last season according to PFF. Unfortunately, this is an area they did not address much this offseason.
The only hope for Jones is he improves his accuracy and with the return of Saquon and the signings it makes him at least a streamable QB.
Running Backs
- Saquon Barkley
- Devonta Booker
- Elijah Penny
- Ryquell Armstead
This backfield, if healthy, will be dominated by Saquon Barkley. In 2018 and 2019 he saw snap share totals of 87 and 88 percent. Those are elite snap shares for a running back.
The only question is do the Giants hold him back a little, especially early on after tearing his ACL, MCL and meniscus last season. You can't forget he also dealt with a high ankle sprain in 2019 that cost him three games and clearly affected him otherwise.
The other question will be how much he is involved in the passing game. We know from his rookie season that he can be a huge threat catching passes with 91 receptions off 121 targets. in 2019 that dropped a bit, but he missed three games too.
The rest of the running backs are a non-factor in this offense unless Barkley gets hurt, so we can just move on. Booker is the handcuff if you are in deep leagues
Wide Receivers
- Kenny Golladay
- Sterling Shepard
- Darius Slayton
- Kadarius Tooney
- John Ross
- Dante Pettis
This is one loaded receiving corps. The addition of Golladay gives them the 1A receiver they have needed since Odell Beckham Jr. was traded. Golladay is a premier athlete and we've seen him perform at elite levels. In his second and third seasons in the NFL he went over 1,000 yards and in 2019 he caught 11 touchdowns.
One issue with him has been health. He has only played 16 games once and last season he missed 12 games with a hip flexor injury. Still, there is little question about his talent when he is on the field. No doubt he gets a bit of a downgrade going from Matthew Stafford to Daniel Jones, but it might not be as drastic as you think. Jones had the sixth-highest completion percentage on deep passes last season and that plays well for Golladay. In 2019 he had the sixth-highest yards per target and was on pace to finish the same last season.
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The rest of the receivers now get interesting. It will be hard to predict who the No. 2 will be for Jones each week. My guess is we see Shepard get peppered with targets in the slot, which will keep his PPR value up. Slayton will benefit as the other outside receiver, opposite Golladay, as he will see less of the team's No. 1 corner since they will be focused on Golladay.
Tooney could eventually take over for Shepard if he has a good start to the season. Also, we need to expect an injury from Slayton which could speed that takeover up.
Ross and Pettis are nothing more than depth pieces, nothing to see here.
Overall it is a good receiving corps and the top-3 all have a place on Fantasy teams.
Tight Ends
- Evan Engram
- Kyle Rudolph
As mentioned in the intro, Engram struggled last season with drops. Something he had not had a problem with since his rookie season. On the bright side, he did play all 16 games last season, something he has never done. If he can get the drops under control, Engram can be a great value in Fantasy leagues this season with an ADP of TE14.
Kyle Rudolph is a security blanket and nothing more at this point. He will likely be far behind in the pecking order for snaps and targets on this team. He will start to earn more attention if Engram struggles again with the drops, but even then Rudolph will be nothing more than the fifth target option for Jones at best. Even Engram will struggle some with target share given all the options on this team, but I believe Engram's athleticism and mismatch capability will have him see more at times than Rudolph ever could.
Final Verdict
When all is said and done this is a very talented offense at the skill positions. There are just a lot of questions, risks to the entire offense.
The biggest question mark is just how good is Daniel Jones. If he can take a step forward in year three, then this offense could be one of the best in the NFL.
A second question/risk is the injury history across the board for them. Saquon, Golladay, Shepard, Engram all has a lot of injury risk, which is no-doubt baked into their ADPs.
The last question/risk with them is there are a lot of mouths to feed, so can any of them really be a true No. 1 for their position in fantasy. I think Saquon can just based off usage, but we won't see the pass-catching we have seen in the past, so that caps him a little. For the WR, I think the answer is no, they can't. Sure we will see weeks where Golladay, Shepard or Slayton finish as WR1, but consistency might be an issue.
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