A swift and brutal devastation burned through the Giants receiving corps last week, topped only by California’s wildfires. Brandon Marshall & Odell Beckham Jr. are out for the season, and Sterling Shepard is already ruled out for Sunday, leaving nobody of fantasy football value left standing among the receivers. It’s gotten to the point where fantasy prognosticators are recommending Roger Lewis with a straight face. Instead, look towards the only non-running back with more than 30 career targets that will be active Sunday. Look to him in a good matchup against the Denver Broncos. Look towards Evan Engram.
The Giants drafted Evan Engram and told the biggest lie ever told: they wanted him to block more than he did in college, and they didn’t think he would run many routes. Engram is built in the Jimmy Graham and Travis Kelce mold: he’s an agile, athletic massive mountain of a man who is just too big to be called a wide receiver, but he plays like one. He’s actually the Giants’ #2 most targeted player on the season, behind Odell Beckham, and he’ll likely be #1 by the time the season ends. The 34 targets through five games also rank him behind only Zach Ertz, Jason Witten, and Travis Kelce, and he did that with three healthy receivers ahead of him on the depth chart. Now he’ll be the only game in town this weekend, and should easily clear double-digit targets.
Those double-digit targets will come in a plus matchup this weekend, as the Denver Broncos allow the seventh-most fantasy points to tight ends so far this year, including touchdowns in two of their last three games (to Jason Witten and Charles Clay). If Jared Cook wasn’t so… Jared Cook, he would have pulled that off as well, but he hauled in only three of his eight targets. Only three tight ends this year have more than three targets against them, and both scored touchdowns. Clay was literally one yard shy of a double-digit fantasy game, and Witten had 15.7. If it was anyone but Jared Cook as the third, this stat would be a lot stronger…
Evan Engram gets the John Rico Runner-Up Award to Elijah McGuire this week, as he merely stood pat while everyone around him died, allowing his ascent up the ranks. He will get tons of targets against a Denver defense that can’t do diddly squat to stop quality tight ends. Fire him up anywhere you think you may need to start him. Don’t fire him up over the usual suspects… or Austin Seferian-Jenkins.
