100 Questions: Fantasy Football 2024 (New York Giants)

As we head toward the start of the 2024 NFL and fantasy football season, FTN Fantasy editor-in-chief Daniel Kelley is asking (and attempting to answer) the 100 most pressing questions in fantasy football. This is 100 Questions. Today: The New York Giants.

Eli Manning was at least a borderline Hall of Fame player. He was boosted by playing for a New York team, sure, but he did still gather up a lot of quantity over his 16 years and notched a pair of Super Bowl titles, winning the Super Bowl MVP and ousting the historic Patriots both times.

(Would I vote for Eli? No, but that’s not the point.)

One of the marks against Manning was that yes, he did win two Super Bowls in 16 years. And outside of those runs, he won exactly zero career playoff games. The Giants made the playoffs six times with Eli Manning — two Super Bowl titles and four one-game ousters. So it was a bunch of disappointment dotted with the occasional wild success.

When the Giants drafted Daniel Jones, there were plenty of jokes about how he somewhat-but-not-quite resembled Eli Manning. And that has carried over to results. Because in 2019, the Giants went 9-7-1, made the playoffs and won a Wild Card game. That’s a good year! And outside of that year, the Giants have gone 20-46 in four other years, never doing better than 6-10.

Eli Manning had big success surrounded by a bunch of mediocrity. His replacement, who kind of looked like a poor man’s version of him, has had mild success surrounded by a bunch of relative failure. Daniel Jones has been like the sad second hill of a roller coaster for the Giants.

The Questions

74. Is Daniel Jones Still Interesting for Fantasy?
75. What Is Malik Nabers’ Rookie Ceiling?
76. Can Any Other NYG Third-Tier Options Become Even Second-Tier?

100 Questions for 2024: New York Giants

Is Daniel Jones Still Interesting for Fantasy?

Nobody has ever accused Daniel Jones of being an excellent real-life quarterback. Even after his best season in 2022, the popular sentiment was against giving him an extension and instead asking him to prove it again on the franchise tag. (The Giants didn’t listen, and probably regret that now.) But — particularly but not exclusively in 2022 — Jones had a fantasy virtue as a good runner, using his 703 yards and 7 touchdowns in 2022 to finish as the QB9 in fantasy. Jones isn’t Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen, but he is a quality runner, with a PFF rushing grade of 78.8 or higher in three of the last four years.

Jones is returning from a torn ACL, so that’s going to be something to monitor — if he returns but can’t run, his fantasy value is basically entirely “Please be good, Malik Nabers.” But assuming Jones is back to normal — and he didn’t land on PUP or anything that would signify significant concern — Jones should be good for a large handful of rushing fantasy points (our FTN Fantasy projections have him slated for 407.1 rushing yards and 2.8 rushing touchdowns). That’s why our FTN Fantasy rankings have him at QB25 — a back-end QB2 and relevant in superflex leagues. Compared that to Jones’ ADP, currently QB31. In normal leagues, you aren’t touching Jones of course, but in deeper or two-QB leagues, he’s actually a small bargain at cost.

What Is Malik Nabers’ Rookie Ceiling?

I wanted to open the Giants’ questions with Nabers, because he’s the only player here who is actually likely to be super relevant in fantasy, but the quarterback question just had to come first. So here we are, putting the No. 6 overall draft pick behind a retread quarterback.

Nabers put up 1,569 yards and 14 touchdowns last year for LSU, shooting into the very top of the first round, with some hyping him over Marvin Harrison Jr. in this year’s draft. Despite their closeness (one went 1.04, one 1.06), the drafting community is far apart on the two, with Harrison the WR9 in current ADP and Nabers WR24.

So what’s the difference between the two? Well, they each scored 14 touchdowns last year. They had elite PFF receiving grades (Nabers 93.5, Harrison 89.6) and similar yards per route run (Nabers 3.81, Harrison 3.44). Nabers had 1,569 yards to Harrison’s 1,211, but then Nabers had the second overall pick as his quarterback, while Harrison had 2024 Syracuse starter Kyle McCord. Both are the clear No. 1 receivers in their respective offenses. In Trey McBride, Harrison has a better No. 2 than anyone Nabers has, which might hurt him, but then in Kyler Murray, he has a better quarterback than Nabers.

I am perfectly fine dinging Nabers for the likelihood that the Giants are one of the lesser offenses in football and thus unlikely to produce as many touchdowns. But it’s not like the Cardinals are going to be the Greatest Show on Turf Rams or anything. Translation: I love Marvin Harrison Jr. in 2024, but he’s likely going a bit overrated (only a bit!), and Nabers should be going much closer to him in drafts.

Can Any Other NYG Third-Tier Options Become Even Second-Tier?

It’s really hard to find a Giant not named Malik to be excited about, but it’s also very easy to be mildly interested in a lot of these guys.

Devin Singletary has beaten his ADP in three straight and four of five years and hasn’t missed a game since 2019, with 969-959-1,098-1,099-1,091 scrimmage yards in his career. He’s the most reliable back in the game, which is both a compliment and an insult.

Tyrone Tracy Jr. is a fifth-round rookie who was a very popular sleeper pick, especially given Singletary’s general unexcitingness (I do not believe that is a word) before a scary injury in practice Tuesday. He escaped a severe issue and is listed as week-to-week, and a fifth-round rookie who has only been a running back for two years and turns 25 in November already being week-to-week is a very bad start.

Wan’Dale Robinson is a certified Itty-Bitty® who only has only 838 scrimmage yards and 3 touchdowns through two NFL seasons with a torn ACL in the middle. He averaged 4.0 receptions and 5.2 targets per game last year despite a disastrous QB situation, and he has some appeal as a PPR option, catching a bunch of short passes.

Jalin Hyatt was a third-round rookie last year and played all 17 games, but that turned into only 373 yards and exactly 0 touchdowns. But he’s drawing rave reviews in camp so far.

Darius Slayton has been on the Giants for five years and been rumored to be a cut or trade candidate for almost as long, but he’s topped 700 yards in four of his five years and led the team in receiving yards all four times. He’s battling for the WR4 job in New York right now, but he’s also unkillable.

With Darren Waller retiring this offseason, the team has 2022 fourth-rounder Daniel Bellinger and rookie fourth-rounder Theo Johnson at tight end. Bellinger had his moments during Waller’s tenure, and Johnson is an exciting project, but as long as they (and Lawrence Cager) are there together, it’s hard to imagine any one guy pops at this position.

Am I excited about any non-Nabers Giants? Nope. Am I investing in any of them? Well, let’s go:

• Singletary: Yep. On the rosters where I go high-variance at running back early, I am very happy to get the reliable Singletary as my flex option or first bench back. He’ll be a top-30 back, but he won’t be a top-20 one.
• Tracy: Nope. I wasn’t all the way in on the sleeper talk before the injury, and now that he’s missing some development time, he’s just a monitor guy for later in the season.
• Robinson: Not really, but near the end of a PPR draft, I might take a flyer.
• Hyatt: No, but I’m very open to being wrong about this and being sad when I miss out on him in waivers. Would require Jones to be good, which … feels unlikely.
• Slayton: No, and he’ll somehow make us all look dumb yet again.

Bellinger and Johnson: Thanos-Snap one of them out of existence, and I would be mildly intrigued in the survivor as a depth play. But with them both there, sorry, no.