New York Giants Fantasy Preview

2018 Stats (Rank)

Total Offense: 5,697 Yards (17th)
Offensive Touchdowns: 36 (21st)
Offensive Plays Per Game: 61.5 (25th)
Pass Attempts + Sacks: 630 (8th)
Rush Attempts: 354 (29th)
Run/Pass Split: Run – 36% | Pass – 64%
Unaccounted for Targets: 132
Unaccounted for Carries: 11

Projected Win Total

The Giants’ over/under currently sits at 6.0, after they went 5-11 last season. The team will look a bit different, as they will be without Odell Beckham Jr. and Landon Collins, but they did land Golden Tate and Antoine Bethea in free agency, as well as Jabrill Peppers from the Browns trade. Possibly the biggest reason for the anticipated improvement is health.

Strength of Schedule

SOS is measured by calculating the fantasy points allowed by each team’s opponents to determine who has the easiest and most difficult fantasy schedules (rank #1 has the easiest schedule).

QB: 26th
RB: 17th
WR: 17th
TE: 31st

Passing Game

QB: Eli Manning, Daniel Jones
WR: Sterling Shepard, Cody Latimer
WR: Golden Tate, Bennie Fowler
WR: Corey Coleman, Russell Shepard
TE: Evan Engram, Rhett Ellison

Obviously, the big news here is that Odell Beckham was traded away, freeing up 124 targets and the role as the favorite target of Eli. We will see Sterling Shepard play more on the outside, with Golden Tate coming in to fill the slot role. In a Pat Shurmur offense, short, safe throws are the staple, which is why Sam Bradford set the completion percentage record with the Vikings and Eli completed 66% of his passes last season. This means that Tate will be busy underneath and in the middle of the field, making him the most valuable receiving threat in PPR. However, he is being selected behind Shepard, with an ADP of WR41 to Shep’s WR38. Evan Engram is healthy and in his third year, hoping to get the bump in production we often see from third-year players in the passing game. He finished last season as TE13 in just 11 games played. His 11.3 ppg rank as TE7, which is close to his ADP of TE5.

Despite being pass-heavy (passed 64% of the time), Eli Manning isn’t very valuable in fantasy. He finished last season as QB17. He’s being selected as QB31, with the threat of rookie Daniel Jones, but Eli be the starter and he will finish as QB15-20, assuming he’s healthy for 16 games.

Running Game

RB: Saquon Barkley, Paul Perkins, Wayne Gallman, Rod Smith
2018 OL Run Rank: 29th

Saquon Barkley is the consensus top-ranked player for this fantasy season, after finishing as the top running back last season. There is no competition for backfield touches for Barkley. He played nearly 83 percent of the offensive snaps and controlled 73.7 percent of the rushing attempts. Since he’s effective in the passing game, running behind one of the worst run-blocking lines is less of an issue. Their struggles more so tells us that a Barkley handcuff won’t be too effective.