The New York Football Giants lost their best offensive weapon, with Saquon Barkley moving on to rival NFC East squad, the Philadelphia Eagles. They replaced him with a new, better best weapon, with Malik Nabers instantly becoming the best receiver on their time, and by a wide margin. With question marks surrounding Daniel Jones’ health, it’s shocking that they didn’t get a quarterback in the draft, but they seem to be making one last go of it with Jones, giving him a new receiver, tight end, and running back. Let’s dive into those three, shall we?
FULL 2024 NEW YORK GIANTS DRAFT RESULTS
| Round | Pick | Player | Pos | College |
| 1 | 6 | Malik Nabers | WR | LSU |
| 2 | 47 | Tyler Nubin | S | Minnesota |
| 3 | 70 | Andru Phillips | CB | Kentucky |
| 4 | 107 | Theo Johnson | TE | Penn St |
| 5 | 166 | Tyrone Tracy, Jr. | RB | Purdue |
| 6 | 183 | Darius Muasau | LB | UCLA |
Round 1, Pick 6 Overall: Malik Nabers, Wide Receiver, LSU (6’0” 200 lbs)
[Note: The following is an excerpt from our Round One Instant Reaction piece.]
Talent:
Malik Nabers is everyone’s favorite college prospect at wide receiver not named Marvin Harrison Jr. but to be brutally honest… I’m not so sure I see it. Though, that having been said, he only drops to three for me behind Rome Odunze, who is already a rock-solid route runner and reliable receiver. He doesn’t do much to get open, mostly running digs, slants, crossers, and in routes that move across the face of a zone, though his ability to cut & go does get him nice separation in man on these routes, as well. Unfortunately, not much else about his game excited me. He seemed like his main trait was his athleticism, which he used inconsistently, though when harnessed, it was incredible. He didn’t want to fight for any sort of contested catch at all, though if he did have the ball in his hands, he was a slippery fish to bring down. That YAC ability will likely carry him a long way, though I believe he has a chance to struggle out of the gate his rookie year if he is forced to learn on the job. However, nothing seemed to be too big for him at LSU, and he’s as fast as anyone, which will help him turn small gains into huge ones.
A very funny trait that he has that I couldn’t quite fit anywhere is that on deep passes if he’s covered, he flails and sells DPI. It’s hilarious to see once you realize that it’s happening.
NFL Comparison: Upgraded Torrey Smith
2024 Opportunity:
Going into the draft, the Giants needed a wide receiver on offense. They also needed a quarterback, a running back, a tight end, and multiple offensive linemen. Well, at least they have a wide receiver now. All disrespect to the bevy of “just okay” receivers there, but Malik Nabers is immediately lapping every other receiver on this roster in terms of talent level. However, Daniel Jones hasn’t thrown the ball a ton in the last two seasons, averaging fewer than 30 pass attempts per game since Joe Daboll’s arrival. Granted, it took until year three with Daboll for Josh Allen to break out, thanks to better weapons around Allen. Daniels could be on the same path… Maybe. Maybe not. Probably not.
2024 Outlook:
I’m not as high on Malik Nabers as a lot of folks are, though they have nothing in the way of Nabers as their WR1 this season. He’s going to have all the opportunity to succeed, though I fear that he might struggle with his quarterbacking early in the season, but I don’t fear that he won’t succeed later. Luckily, while he figures it out, he will likely get the ball in a variety of ways to make the offense go, which will buoy his floor while he figures it out. Don’t think 2023 Jaxson Smith-Njigba, think more about 2022 Garrett Wilson. Through the first seven games of Wilson’s career, he averaged 4 catches for 45 yards on 7.5 targets per game. That didn’t have anything to do with Garrett Wilson’s talent level, it had more to do with the quarterbacks there. That’s the same fear I have for Malik Nabers in 2024.
That having been said, the upside and speed are too much to ignore. He should end his rookie year with about 110 targets, which will be enough to give him top-36 viability in all leagues.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
Round 4, Pick 107 Overall: Theo Johnson, Tight End, Penn St. (6’6” 259 lbs)
Talent:
Theo Johnson is primarily a blocking tight end, and anyone who says differently is just falling in love with his frame. He is a good blocker, don’t get me wrong, but there are people projecting Jimmy Graham onto him which is just… false. Johnson is a bad route runner, and he needs too many gather steps to change direction. He also isn’t a natural pass catcher, letting the ball come to him instead of attacking it. Oh, and he struggles to find holes in zones. He’s just a guy, and I have no idea why NFL.com has a third-round grade on him… probably his 10.0 RAS.
NFL Comparison: Josh Oliver
2024 Opportunity:
With Darren Waller flirting with retirement (check THfantaC for the most recent updates), Johnson’s opportunity is very up in the air. That being said, I don’t think that he’s the type of player that would force the issue on any sort of consistent basis, more than likely finishing with 25-30 targets as a red zone weapon, snagging a touchdown here and there. He’s well behind the remaining players on the roster, at least in target volume, in his rookie season. He’s a developmental offensive weapon, which means that he isn’t going to hit the ground running in his first campaign.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Theo Johnson is unlikely to find any sort of sustained production in what is set to be one of the worst offenses in the NFL.
TALENT:
2024 OPPORTUNITY:
2024 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK:
Round 5, Pick 166 Overall: Tyrone Tracy, Jr., Running Back, Purdue (5’11” 209 lbs)
Talent:
Tracy is a converted wide receiver, getting just 16 carries in his four years with Iowa before moving on to Purdue and getting 17 carries his first year as a Boilermaker, and 113 in his second year at Purdue. You counted right, this running back has six college seasons under his belt, and will turn 25 in his rookie season. The good news is that he doesn’t have a lot of tread on his tires. The bad news is that he’s converting to running back extremely late in his career cycle, and I doubt it ever works out for him.
As a running back, he is a shifty guy with the ball in his hands, but he’s ultimately still a converted receiver. He doesn’t have the instincts or the patience to be anything more than a change-of-pace guy and a scat back. He broke a ton of tackles in college, but I worry about what he will do in the pros, as he is getting a lot of the same publicity that Antonio Gibson had coming out, just without the high-level production, the draft capital, or the offense to make it work.
2024 Opportunity:
The Giants are likely set with Tracy as their RB2, though Devin Singletary is yet to wow anyone at the NFL level, making an opportunity for Tracy to get his foot in the door. Unfortunately, Tracy’s late-career conversion to running back limits his ability to be a down-to-down player in the NFL and is more likely to be the RB2 to whatever scrap heap running back they get if Singletary goes down than taking over the lead role. He, like Theo Johnson, is a project, and a project in an offense that is going to get a lot of fits and starts this season.
2024 Fantasy Football Outlook:
Tyrone Tracy is someone that I am going to keep on my Rolodex because he’s a team’s RB2 who can be had relatively cheaply. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this exact story before: he’s cheap now, but once fantasy Twitter fights over him for three months, he ends up as a single-digit round pick. No thanks to that, I’m out. But, if he stays a dart throw, I’ve seen worse options.
