2020 Fantasy Outlook: Giants
There’s a new regime in place for the New York Football Giants and we’re here to breakdown each position for fantasy purposes. Let’s get to it!
Offseason additions: RB Dion Lewis, TE Levine Toilolo, QB Colt McCoy, TE Eric Tomlinson
Offseason subtractions: QB Eli Manning,
TE Rhett Ellison, WR Cody Latimer
Quarterback: Last season’s 6th overall draft pick Daniel Jones performed fairly well in 13 games and 12 starts. Looking at the bright side, Jones threw for 3,027 yards, 24 touchdowns and a solid completion percentage of 61.9% in his rookie campaign. He also showed he can acquire some fantasy points on the ground too with 45 rushing attempts for 279 yards and 2 TDs. The downside was that Jones threw 12 picks and fumbled the ball 18 times which was the fifth highest total in NFL history. The last player to fumble that many times was former Vikings QB Daunte Culpepper back in 2002 with a total of 23. It's a very concerning problem especially when you think about the fact that he averaged one fumble for every 45.3 snaps he played. Jones was very fortunate he only lost 11 of them and is working diligently with his trainer and former head coach from Duke to fix the ball security problem. With an ADP of #114 Jones is a perfect breakout candidate for 2020. Fantasy owners would be very wise to snatch him up in the later rounds even if you draft your QBs high Jones could be great trade bait or just a nice streaming option. He hit the “boom” mark which was 26 points in 30.8 percent of his games which was good for 3rd among QBs in 2019. Keep in mind that he accomplished that while never having Barkley, Engram, Shepard, Tate and Slayton on the field at the same time. There’s tremendous upside here and the risk is fairly low.
Running Back: Finishing as the RB #1 in your rookie year is quite a way to assert yourself in the fantasy world. Many fantasy drafts saw Superstar RB Saquon Barkley fly off the board 1st overall last season but his sophomore season missed the mark due to him sitting out 3 games with a high ankle sprain which nagged him for the majority of the season. He still finished as the RB #10 averaging a healthy 4.6 YPC which wae very impressive considering how terrible that Giants line was. With a much improved offensive line Jones should be more consistent in his second season and Barkley could benefit greatly. With an ADP of #2 you are relying on him to carry your fantasy team and so far in his young career he’s showed that he’s up to the task. Wayne Gallman, Elijhaa Penny and newcomer Dion Lewis will jockey for position behind Barkley.
Wide Receiver: Sterling Shepard had another injury riddled season which is cause for concern. In the two seasons where he played in every game he failed to hit the 900 yard mark and didn’t get over 66 receptions. There’s some nice upside here but don’t take Shepard as anything more than a WR #3. Veteran WR Golden Tate will be 32 years old this season and shouldn’t be more than a depth player on your fantasy team. With an ADP of #148 he could end up being a great value pick and could be useful in PPR leagues, there’s just not much upside for the former Lion. Darius Slayton burst onto the scene as a rookie last season with a stat line of 48/740/8 on 84 targets. Slayton is being touted as a sleeper but his current ADP of #109 is the highest of this group. That’s odd for someone who most likely be the 3rd WR and the 5th target. This is a weird situation for the Giants WRs because they all had similar seasons and all have similar ADPs. It’s gonna be tough for any of them to be overly successful or consistent unless someone goes down. They definitely have potential but Barkley and Engram cap their ceilings. Former first round pick Corey Coleman rounds out the more notable receivers.
Tight End: The Giants picked up Evan Engram’s fifth year option after rumors of the new regime attempting to trade the talented Tight End. He’s been very productive when on the field he just hasn’t been on the field enough. He finished as the TE #18 even though he only played in 8 games. The Giants don’t have a prototypical
WR #1 who will take a huge amount of targets and a good amount of red zone work. Engram fills that role when healthy thus firmly putting him as a TE #1. With a pricey ADP of #71 I’d look elsewhere but for the right price Engram could be a very solid performer for your fantasy team. With the retirement of Rhett Ellison there’s not a whole lot of talent behind Engram, veteran newcomer Levine Toilolo and sophomore 6th round pick Kaden Smith who actually performed well in his rookie season with 31/268/3 on 42 targets round out the TE room.
Defense: This squad was the 26th D/ST in 2019 averaging only 5.2 points per game. If that doesn’t scare you off, this unit got some big time upgrades this offseason. Cornerback James Bradberry, linebacker Blake Martinez and former 6th overall pick Leonard Williams headline the new additions making this D/ST a streaming possibility.
It should be business as usual for Saquon Barkley under the new regime. There’s plenty of upside for Jones and his receivers but a “too many mouths to feed” situation looks to be the case for big blue.