You know things are going well with a team’s roster construction when everybody, and I mean, everybody talks about only one player on the roster. It’s the New York Malik Nabers, and we are just living in their world. To whit: I pulled ADP for this process way back on June 2. I updated it as I wrote this (August 10th), and Malik Nabers has moved from WR34 to WR24. No other Giant has even budged. And why should they? It’s the messiest position group this side of the New England Patriots. But, let’s dive into their fantasy football options for the 2024 season with an undervalued, overvalued, and sleeper player!
Undervalued: Malik Nabers, Wide Receiver (WR24, Pick 44 Overall)
Yes, I penciled him in for this spot when he was WR34. No, the meteoric ADP rise doesn’t concern me. Nabers was my WR3 in this draft, behind Marvin Harrison and Rome Odunze. But, from a landing spot and ADP perspective, he is currently my favorite of the Big Three at the position this draft season. He’s a very athletic receiver who has shown out in camp with a lot of nice contested catches. He’s not a super-refined route runner, but neither was Odell Beckham, Jr. in his rookie year with the Giants. I bring up OBJ because both have the “just get the ball in my hands” skill set where they can take a slant to the house.
Malik Nabers also has something major in his favor when you consider him in your 2024 fantasy football drafts: the rest of the depth chart. While we all got worked up about Wan’Dale Robinson (and I think he still has some juice left in him), the rest of the depth chart is bleak. It’s chock full of has-beens, especially when you consider that both Darren Waller & Saquon Barkley are no longer Giants. There’s simply no reason to throw the ball anywhere else; I have him down for 150 targets.
Overvalued: Tyrone Tracy, Running Back (RB59, Pick 181 Overall)
Look, the Giants are bad, and everybody knows that they are bad. Nabers is the only player going in the top 100, and pick 103 is Devin Singletary, who is looking to heft the load for the G Men this season. It’s hard to get mad at a starting running back at pick 103. It’s harder to get mad at a backup running back at pick 181, but this is just pushing back against the Tyrone Tracy: Sleeper articles and tweets starting to promulgate the space. They’re hyping Tyrone Tracy simply for a lack of other options; they cursorily glanced at the depth charts and found that the converted wide receiver might have some juice.
Don’t draft Tyrone Tracy. The Giants are a bad offense, and there isn’t really anything that Tracy does better than starter Devin Singletary. He’s a work in progress, and the starter, Devin Singletary, has caught 30 balls in each season that he’s been in the league (mostly while sharing time, too). Singletary has also led his team in rushing each year that he’s been in the league. If you draft Tyrone Tracy, you’re just drafting him to wait and see if Devin Singletary gets hurt. That’s fine, you can do that, I won’t stop you. But, there isn’t a major path forward to him being anything more than a bye week flex without that injury.
Sleeper: Wan’Dale Robinson, Wide Receiver (WR74, Pick 174 Overall)
Wan’Dale Robinson wasn’t bad for a #2 receiver on a normal passing attack. He had an 18.6% target share, which was above Jordan Addison (18.1%), Rashee Rice (17.9%), and Tee Higgins (17.9%). Unfortunately, the Giants didn’t pass that much throwing the ball only 30 times per game last year (the fourth-lowest) and gaining yards at the sixth-lowest rate in the league (6.5 yards per attempt). This all added up to a passing game that was the second-worst in the league, ahead of just the woeful Carolina Panthers.
Add Malik Nabers to the Giants should open up this offense a ton, which will keep the chains moving enough to keep the offense on the field to open up more passing opportunities to open out the passing count. If the Giants move to merely league average in pass attempts with Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson leading the way in targets, he would end up at 107 targets with the same target share. That’s nice work for WR74.
