New York Giants Fantasy Football Preview

By Craig Forrestal

The Giants usher in a new era with Joe Judge as the Head Coach. Judge holds basically all his coaching experience in special teams roles, but his pedigree includes Nick Saban and Bill Belichick. What is to be expected from Judge is unknown but he there is a lot to like including the fact that he is not 40 years old yet. His youthfulness means he can be with Daniel Jones and the rest of the young nucleus far into the future and possibly creating a 2 decade relationship and emulating the Patriots dynasty. I’m not sure how likely that is but the Giants fan base needs to lean on a little bit more hope than the legs of Saquon Barkley.

Schedule:

• Week 1: Steelers
• Week 2: @ Bears
• Week 3: 49ers
• Week 4: @ Rams
• Week 5: @ Cowboys
• Week 6: Washington
• Week 7 : @ Eagles
• Week 8: Buccaneers
• Week 9: @ Washington
• Week 10: Eagles
• Week 11: Bye
• Week 12: @ Bengals
• Week 13: @ Seahawks
• Week 14: Cardinals
• Week 15: Browns
• Week 16: @ Ravens
• Week 17: Cowboys

Players To Know:

• Daniel Jones-QB: Jones totaled 18 fumbles and 12 INTs as a rookie in 13 games and that must improve in year 2. Jones should be excited about the addition of Jason Garrett because Dak Prescott has been very successful in his offense. While Garrett has cycled through his fair share of offensive coordinators Garrett has always made sure to keep his hands on the overall philosophy and scheme. Garrett showed variance in his play-calling where he leaned on the run more so than others. Jones has an improving O-line and if his weapons can stay healthy he should be able to cut down those turnovers this season. Jones was the ultimate boom or bust option last season. He had two top-10 single performances by a quarterback overall in 2019 and those came with came without having Saquon Barkley, Evan Engram, Sterling Shepard, Golden Tate, and Darius Slayton all healthy at the same time. 
• Saquon Barkley-RB: It is the belief that the new staff is building the offense around Barkley and that was shown by improving the offensive line in the offseason. In two seasons, Barkley has 1 fumble on 478 attempts. He has totaled more than 3400 yards rushing and receiving in those two seasons while averaging 4.8 YPC. If Jones can take a step forward this season combined with the TE/WR options the running lanes should be there for Barkley to compete for a league rushing crown. He showed tremendous explosion as a rookie with a bunch of long runs and Barkley seems to be heading back into a position where he will be delivering more explosive plays this season. Barkley will be a Top 3 or so pick and you know what to expect. As far as targets go I would expect those to drop off. Hopefully, Barkley learned from injury last season and doesn’t try to rush back should anything happen. And in that case, I guess Javon Leake or Wayne Gallman would be the featured back; I lean Leake.
• Golden Tate-WR: Tate is setting in on the end of his career as age 32 is right around the corner. Tate has taken a pounding over his career and is now competing with a slew of younger playmakers in the passing game for targets. It has been a great run for Tate and he still has a couple of fantasy performances left in the tank, but it will not be consistent enough to warrant weekly lineup consideration.
• Darius Slayton-WR: This is my pick for the Giants player to potentially breakout. Slayton was solid with Jones late in the season. While there is some concern because of the number of options on the roster, Slayton is in good positioning to take a leap forward. Tate is coming to the end of his career. The health of Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram is always a question, so for those reasons, I feel Slayton could end up as the statistical leader of the WR group this season. Now, I am not saying spend an early pick on Slayton, but come the latter part of the draft if he is still hanging around grab him.
• Sterling Shepard-WR: He is a WR3 to me all day. And that isn’t a knock on him. He is solid when healthy. He should be due for 100+ targets this season. His upside has to be tamed due to the number of mouths to feed in this system. An additional plus for Slayton is the new staff doesn’t seem to be married to Evan Engram as he was rumored to be available for trade during the draft.
• Evan Engram-TE: Evan Engram is hurt by his own success. He came into a situation where injuries piled up and he became the primary pass-catcher a few seasons back and that was the expectation for him moving forward. However, that hasn’t been the case as he has not consistently lived up to that season a few years back and now people are growing frustrated with that inconsistency. He was rumored to be on the trade market during the draft so who knows what his future holds. All I know is drafting Engram somewhere around Round 6 is way too rich for my blood, so I will be passing on Engram. And Engram might be the fifth option moving forward behind Barkley and a host of WR. I know it’s hard to believe.

Defense:

The defense is a work in progress. There were high hopes for Deandre Baker as a rookie but he did not play up to the expectations and he is not the only one. We can look at the unit as whole as see it struggled as they were near the bottom in all categories. The defense also didn’t create much in terms of turnovers either. Just avoid them altogether. They need a lot of work in order to be average defensively.

Potential Breakout Player

• Darius Slayton-WR

Rookie To Know:

• No Impact Rookies To Know