It has been a long time since the Super Bowl, and remembering exactly how things left off last year can be a challenge. So, I’ll be writing up a fantasy preview for each NFL team to give us a quick refresher on what happened last year, and what changes took place in the offseason. All fantasy stats will be in ESPN scoring format unless otherwise noted.
If I missed any change or left out any big notes, throw them down in the comments for me!
What Did They Do Last Year
The New York Giants managed to be real bad in the worst division in football in 2020. Saquon Barkley was lost for the season in Week 2, tearing his ACL. They ranked as the 26th offense by PFF grade and were 31st in points scored. The Giants had 12 passing touchdowns last year… 12.
Quarterback
| OVR Rank | Player | G | COMP | ATT | YDS | TD | INT | ATT | YDS | TD | FFP | FFP/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Daniel Jones | 14 | 280 | 448 | 2,943 | 11 | 10 | 65 | 423 | 1 | 180 | 12.9 |
| 52 | Colt McCoy | 4 | 40 | 66 | 375 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 12 | 0 | 16.2 | 4.1 |
Daniel Jones, Jason Garrett, mediocre offensive line. There is no need to draft Daniel Jones in 1-QB formats. Taking a shot on Jones as a QB2/3 in your 2-QB formats as the 26-30th QB off the board, I also don’t recommend.
Wide Receivers
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 | 52 | Sterling Shepard | 12 | 90 | 66 | 656 | 3 | 94.5 | 7.9 | 160.5 | 13.38 |
| 53 | 55 | Darius Slayton | 16 | 97 | 50 | 751 | 3 | 91 | 5.7 | 141 | 8.81 |
| 90 | 93 | Golden Tate | 12 | 52 | 35 | 388 | 2 | 50.8 | 4.2 | 85.8 | 7.15 |
| 158 | 162 | C.J. Board | 9 | 16 | 11 | 101 | 0 | 10.4 | 1.2 | 21.4 | 2.38 |
| 164 | 165 | Austin Mack | 5 | 11 | 7 | 91 | 0 | 9.1 | 1.8 | 16.1 | 3.22 |
| 176 | 177 | Damion Ratley | 5 | 10 | 4 | 63 | 0 | 6.3 | 1.3 | 10.3 | 2.06 |
Golden Tate has moved on and Kenny Golladay has come to town. Golladay’s arrival allows a re-configuring of a pretty-dang good receiver corps, moving Sterling Shapard and Darius Slayton to their more natural positions.
Shepard moves to the slot, Slayton remains a burner downfield threat but is now the Y drawing the opposing team’s second/third-best corners. The addition of Kadarius Toney may have been a curious move in the first round of the draft, but it is another in the long line of signals that the Giants are putting an effort in to getting weapons around Daniel Jones.
Related: Worst Rookie Landing Spots for 2021 Fantasy Football
If you squint real hard and forget the Giants threw for 12 TDs in a year where they lost Saquon Barkley, you could get excited about the Giants passing game.
Running Backs
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | ATT | YDS | TD | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | 29 | Wayne Gallman | 14 | 147 | 682 | 6 | 27 | 21 | 114 | 0 | 115.6 | 8.3 | 136.6 | 9.76 |
| 72 | 77 | Dion Lewis | 16 | 29 | 115 | 2 | 30 | 19 | 127 | 1 | 38.2 | 2.4 | 57.2 | 3.58 |
| 83 | 78 | Alfred Morris | 9 | 55 | 238 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 19 | 1 | 37.7 | 4.2 | 40.7 | 4.52 |
| 88 | 85 | Devonta Freeman | 5 | 54 | 172 | 1 | 10 | 7 | 58 | 0 | 29 | 5.8 | 36 | 7.2 |
| 121 | 120 | Saquon Barkley | 2 | 19 | 34 | 0 | 9 | 6 | 60 | 0 | 9.4 | 4.7 | 15.4 | 7.7 |
| 139 | 138 | Elijhaa Penny | 6 | 6 | 15 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 0 | 3.5 | 0.6 | 5.5 | 0.92 |
In a study published in the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine in 2019, researchers compared two sets of players entering the NFL draft: One group who’d suffered a previous ACL tear (100 players for this study), and a ‘control group’ of 200 players who had not previously torn an ACL.
The study found a 25% of ‘previously torn ACL’ players suffered a recurrent ACL tear, or a tear to their other ACL. Nine percent of the 200 players in the control group suffered an ACL tear in the NFL. While this is only one of many studies on the topic, the results point clearly towards a higher risk of another ACL tear after a player’s first tear.
The long-term outlook for Saquon Barkley is a little murky with his short but significant injury history. The short term outlook for Barkley is as bleak as a Cormac McCarthy novel with offensive coordinator Jason Garrett calling plays, a struggling offensive line, and Daniel Jones still birdbox-ing his way through games.
All these concerns push Barkley ‘all the way’ down to about the RB6/7 in my re-draft ranks.
Tight End
| PPR Rank | STD Rank | Player | G | TGT | REC | YDS | TD | STD PTS | STD PTS/G | PPR PTS | PPR PTS/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 18 | Evan Engram | 16 | 109 | 63 | 654 | 1 | 78 | 4.9 | 141 | 8.81 |
| 65 | 74 | Kaden Smith | 13 | 21 | 18 | 112 | 0 | 11.2 | 0.9 | 29.2 | 2.25 |
| 89 | 90 | Levine Toilolo | 5 | 6 | 5 | 46 | 0 | 4.6 | 0.9 | 9.6 | 1.92 |
Evan Engram’s potential warrants including a tight end segment for the Giants preview. Unfortunately Engram, for now, is nothing but another talented guy held back by a poor supporting cast (see: Garrett, Jason).
2021 Draft
While the Toney pick was an odd one, the Giants picked up some promising defenders later in the draft.
The Schedule
The in-division schedule is shaping up to be a bit trickier than it was in 2019 where the Giants picked off two games against the Washington Footballists and split against the QB-less Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys.
Drawing the NFC South (Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Tompa Bay Buccaneers, New Orleans Saints) and the AFC West (Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Chargers, Denver Broncos) is a tough break for the hapless Giants. Picking up a ninth road game plus the Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins is again, sub optimal. At least they get to play the Chicago Bears.
Additional Notes
The Giants finished dead last in pass blocking by PFF grade. And while I don’t think PFF grades are the be-all end-all of evaluations, there is no way to color finishing dead last as anything other than a serious concern.
What Does It All Mean?!?! (AKA – Bold predictions)
On the optimistic side, if Kenny Golladay can stay healthy, his taking over the X-receiver role should make things easier for the rest of the rather talented weapons on the Giants roster. Sterling Shepard should slide in to the slot with Darius Slayton moving to the Y-receiver, still an excellent field-stretching threat. I wouldn’t bother drafting Toney in all but the deepest re-draft leagues.
Evan Engram can no longer be the focus of the opposing defense, leaving him presumably primed for a hum-dinger of a year. This leaves him as one of about a dozen TEs we’ll talk ourselves in to if we miss on Travis Kelce or Darren Waller.
More pragmatically, this bad team didn’t do much to address its biggest issues, offensive line and coaching. The addition of Golladay and return of Saquon should bolster the offense at least a little, but the arrow is still pointing convincingly down for the Giants.
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Thanks to FFToday.com for hosting such great stats info!
Thanks to TheHuddle.com for their great Coaching Change Tracker