Fantasy Football ‘24: New York Giants fantasy preview

July is turning to August, and NFL Training Camps are in full swing. I joined the writing team at Big Blue View one month ago, and now that I’ve completed my first set of Fantasy Football rankings, ters and player commentary for the site (you can find them here: Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, and Tight End), I thought it would be fun to do a special column: A New York Giants Fantasy Football Preview for 2024!

But will it actually be fun? Hmmm. I hate to say it, and I’ll put this as nicely as I can, but the New York Football Giants have probably been the least fantasy-relevant NFL team of this decade. And that was with Saquon Barkley. A reliable adage in fantasy football is that you want players on good offenses. Why? Because good offenses generally run a lot of plays, roll up a bunch of yards, and score plenty of points. The Giants have done none of those things in recent seasons. Would it be more fun to write a fantasy preview for an offensive juggernaut like the Dolphins, 49ers, or Lions? Absolutely. But this is Big Blue View, so Giants it is!

Would it shock you if I told you that in three of the last four seasons, the Giants were among the NFL’s worst offenses? Probably not. This might be painful, but let’s review some numbers. In 2020 the Giants and Jets both scored 25 offensive touchdowns, which tied for the lowest total in the NFL. Proving it was no fluke, the Giants scored the fewest offensive TDs again in 2021, with just 23. Head coach Brian Daboll arrived from Buffalo in 2022 and the team made big strides on offense, finishing middle of the pack in offensive TDs (38) and points scored. But things regressed in 2023, which was exacerbated by Daniel Jones tearing his ACL, followed by backup QB Tyrod Taylor also getting hurt. When all was said and done, only the QB-less Jets and train-wreck Panthers scored fewer than the 25 offensive TDs that the Giants managed in 2023.

To be fair to the Giants, the culprits aren’t just a below-average group of skill position players and a shaky offensive line. I can’t think of a team that’s had more injuries on offense, and especially to its top pass-catchers, over the past four or five seasons. When guys like Richie James and Isaiah Hodgins are suddenly your top two healthy wideouts, you know something has gone horribly wrong (no offense to them, and they both were big contributors to the Giants’ 2022 playoff run).

Want more evidence of the Giants’ lack of fantasy relevance this decade? Last season, the only Giants to finish inside the Top 25 scorers at their position on an average fantasy points per game (FPPG) basis were Barkley, at RB11, and Darren Waller, at TE14, but Waller only played in 11 games. Across the three seasons before that, the only Giants to finish inside the Top 20 scorers at their position on an FPPG basis were Jones (QB10 in 2022) and Barkley (RB5 in 2022). More bad news—the Giants haven’t had a wide receiver eclipse 800 yards in a season since 2018. I could go on, but I won’t. You get the picture. As of right now, only the Panthers and Patriots have as few players who are projected to go in the first 100 picks of fantasy drafts (roughly 8 rounds in a 12-team draft) as the Giants. The highest-ranked Giant you’ll find in current preseason fantasy rankings is rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers, with a current Expert Consensus Ranking (ECR) of 45 overall (WR24) and a current Average Draft Position (ADP) of 47 overall (which translates to the end of Round 4). After Nabers, it’s another 3-4 rounds before you get to running back Devin Singletary, with a current ADP (and ECR) of 95 overall.

It may sound like I’m here to trash the Giants, but I’m not. The point is that the recent history of the Giants’ offense is ugly, and it’s important to understand that when assessing the team from a fantasy perspective for the 2024 season. The Giants have been a decidedly BAD hunting ground for fantasy managers in the last handful of years. Might that change in 2024?

There are certainly reasons to be somewhat optimistic. Jones appear to be fully recovered, and the Giants made some free agent acquisitions that should help shore up their line. Oh, and in case you didn’t hear, they drafted the electric Nabers with the sixth overall pick (more on him later). And they have a head coach with an impressive offensive pedigree.

So let’s dive in. I’ll go position-by-position and break down what I see for the Giants in 2024, from a fantasy perspective. All ADPs, ECRs, rankings and results shown are for Half-point PPR. Note that it is still very early in draft season for redraft leagues, so ADP is likely to move a lot in the coming weeks.

QB Daniel Jones (ECR: QB26, ADP: QB31, My ranking: QB28)

This sure feels like a make-or-break year for Jones, and that’s pretty clear from what we’ve heard from the head coach and GM on Hard Knocks. The Giants explored trading up in the 2024 draft to take a quarterback and they can get out of Jones’s expensive contract with limited damage after this season. Given how the first five years of Jones’s career have gone, it only makes sense for the team to be making contingency plans and thinking ahead, while giving Jones one last chance. Jones is coming off a torn ACL suffered early last season, which was the second significant injury of his career. Whether he’ll run as much as he did in his 700-yard 2022 season is a big question. Jones’s fantasy value is dependent on him being a dual-threat QB, as he’s only thrown for more than 15 TDs once in his career (his rookie year). All of the known risks noted above make Jones a speculative pick as your QB2 in a Superflex league, although he does have upside to what we saw in 2022 and especially with the addition of Nabers. I think you’ve got better options for your QB2 in a Superflex league, but I do like him as a third QB in that format. He won’t get drafted in most 1-QB leagues but should be on your waiver-wire speed dial in case the 2022 Daniel Jones shows up. Backup Drew Lock could see action if Jones falters or gets hurt again, but he’s not someone you need to draft.

Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images

RB Devin Singletary (ECR: RB30, ADP: RB30, My ranking: RB25)

I’ve moved Singletary up two spots since I did my running back rankings 10 days ago, as I’m warming up to him more and more. It’s a bit surprising that Singletary is already on his third team in just five seasons, because he’s a good all-purpose back who’s been productive at both of his previous stops. Last season in Houston, he started the season in a timeshare with Dameon Pierce but emerged as the lead back and was a factor in fantasy down the stretch and into the fantasy playoffs. He rewarded his managers with an RB9 performance over the key stretch from Week 11 through Week 17. There aren’t that many active backs with a career rushing average that’s better than his 4.6 yards per carry, and he’s averaged 35 receptions per year for his career, in mostly shared duty. I think 50+ receptions is in range this season. His opportunity with the Giants is a good one, as the depth RBs behind him are very inexperienced. If you’ve been watching Hard Knocks, you know that the Giant’s brain trust of GM Joe Schoen and Daboll is high on “Motor”, dating back to their time together in Buffalo. He’s got a legitimate shot at 300 touches and even if the Giants continue to struggle on the offensive line, and are once again a lower-scoring team, I love the RB2 value you’re getting with Singletary in Round 8.

Other RBs:

The Giants’ backup RBs might have the least experience of any group in the NFL, which bodes well for Singletary’s workload. The team currently lists second-year man Eric Gray, rookie Tyrone Tracy, Jr., and Jashaun Corbin on the depth chart behind Singletary. Those three players have a combined 18 carries for 49 yards in the NFL. Of the three, Tracy, a fifth-round pick out of Purdue, has the most appeal. If you draft Singletary and have a deep bench, consider grabbing him, too.

WR Malik Nabers (ECR: WR24, ADP: WR24, My ranking: WR24)

If you’ve come this far in this article, it should be no surprise that adding an elite playmaker on offense was a high priority for the Giants in the 2024 draft. Luckily, the draft had three elite wide receiver prospects at the top, and two of them made it to pick six. The Giants selected the explosive Nabers, who topped 1,000 receiving yards in his sophomore season at LSU (2022) and then blew up in 2023, with 89 catches for 1,569 yards and 14 TDs. The last time the Giants took a wide receiver in Round 1 was a disaster (Kadarius Toney, 2021), but the time before that worked out quite well. That was Odell Beckham, Jr. who the Giants took with the 12th pick in the 2014 draft, also from LSU. We all remember Odell putting up monster numbers as a rookie (91-1,305-12). Since Beckham, LSU has also sent mega-stars Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase to the NFL. Nabers ran a 4.35 40-yard dash at LSU’s pro day, and his speed and overall athleticism have the Giants and their fans excited. How much production he’ll have right off the bat in this offense is hard to gauge, and if you want to draft him, the cost will likely be a fourth-round pick. At that value, you could be passing on safer wide receivers like George Pickens, Tee Higgins, and Amari Cooper. It’s risky, and especially when you consider that Nabers is just a rookie and Daniel Jones has never supported a WR1 for fantasy in his career. But he’s also never played with a talent like Nabers.

Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

WR: Wan’Dale Robinson (ECR: WR74, ADP: WR77, My ranking: WR71)

Robinson, a second-round pick out of Kentucky in 2022, has yet to make his mark in his two NFL seasons. Part of the reason for that is that he’s only played in 21 of a possible 34 games. If he can stay healthy, he should step into a larger and more diverse role. Robinson received nine carries last year on top of 78 targets (of which 60 were caught), and both of those numbers should go up and especially with Saquon Barkley and Darren Waller no longer on the team. Robinson is a playmaker with some upside and is one of a handful of receivers I’m targeting as a deep sleeper near the end of drafts. He’s basically free in drafts—Round 15 or later.

Other WRs: Jalin Hyatt and Darius Slayton

Hyatt, a third-round pick out of Tennessee a year ago, and Slayton both have very good deep speed, but aren’t likely to be particularly consistent as it’s not clear what kind of snap share and target volume they each might get. Both of them profile better in a best ball format as a result. There will be some spike weeks, but also some zeros. Both have ADPs just outside the Top 250, meaning they will likely go undrafted other than in deeper redraft leagues. Both will be worth keeping an eye on as potential waiver-wire adds. This is especially true of Hyatt, who could pop in his second season if the cards break right. Hyatt has 4.4 speed and scored 15 TDs in his final season at Tennessee (on just 67 catches).

TEs: Daniel Bellinger and Theo Johnson

The Giants don’t have a tight end ranked inside the Top 32 in either ECR or ADP. That means that in most leagues where you start one TE, neither presumptive starter Daniel Bellinger nor rookie Theo Johnson will be drafted and rostered. Bellinger should see plenty of opportunities this season, while Johnson, a fourth-round pick out of Penn State, figures to be less of a factor for fantasy in 2024, but his athleticism could eventually translate to productivity. Neither is likely to be worth rostering in fantasy out of the gate, other than in very deep leagues (and in dynasty leagues, Johnson is worth a spot). Keep them both on your waiver wire watch list, as it’s possible one or both could have streaming appeal later in the season.

PK Graham Gano

Gano is a good NFL kicker. The issue for him for fantasy is that he hasn’t been kicking for a good offense, as I’ve laid out earlier in this article. He also plays his home games in a stadium and geography that’s less favorable for kickers. In most fantasy leagues, only 12 kickers will be drafted, so Gano will be among the kickers that won’t be rostered right away. On the plus side, while the Giants have struggled to score TDs in the 2020s, they’ve attempted at least 30 field goals in four straight seasons. Gano finished as the PK9 in 2022, so if the Giants can improve to being at least a middle-of-the-pack offense, Gano has a shot at being fantasy-relevant. Keep him on your waiver wire/streaming speed dial.

Giants D/ST

Fun fact: From Week 7 on last season, the Giants had the No. 6 D/ST in fantasy, thanks in large part to a defense that was able to turn the ball over quite a bit. Right now they’re the D/ST 19 in ADP and I like them to beat that. The addition of Brian Burns to a defensive front that already included Dexter Lawrence and Kayvon Thibodeaux could give the Giants one of the most disruptive defensive fronts in the league, and pressures lead to sacks and turnovers. I don’t know how the new kickoff rule will impact D/ST scoring, so I’m not going to factor that in too much. I think the Giants D/ST is a solid sleeper, and a borderline starting unit in 12-Team leagues. At minimum, it should be a unit that’s at or near the top of your list for defenses to stream during the season.

OK Big Blue Viewers, that wasn’t too painful, was it? The bottom line is that the Giants don’t project to be a top offense nor do they have a lot of players who right now are “fantasy stars.” That said, there are players on the team that could be draft values who can help your fantasy team, and some reasons to be optimistic about the offense (as is the case with all NFL teams at this time of year). The biggest questions are whether the offense can look more like it did in 2022 than it did in 2023, and whether Jones and other key pieces can stay healthy.

Coming soon: Fantasy draft tips, players to target and avoid at ADP, and much more, so keep it here!