The Fantasy Football Impact of Saquon Barkley's Injury

You want to talk about bittersweet?

In Week 3, Giants fans got to see their first-round quarterback shine bright in a game in which their first-round running back went down with a high ankle sprain.

Daniel Jones brought New York all the way back from down 18, while compiling 336 passing yards, 28 rushing yards, and 4 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Adam Schefter reported that Saquon Barkley could be out through the Giants’ bye in Week 11.

Generally, when a star gets hurt, we can do a simple linear analysis of what the fantasy effect will be. However, in this case, we have multiple variables. While Barkley’s injury is undoubtedly a big blow to the Giants, the emergence of Danny Dimes could have a more significant impact on the fantasy prospects of the rest of the team.

Here’s a look at how those factors impact every position group on the Giants.

Quarterback

Losing Barkley will certainly hurt Mr. Dimes in real-life football, though it could boost his value in fantasy.

If you were asleep for the first three weeks of the season, you might have missed the fact that the Giants defense is…umm…bad. In fact, our power rankings have them as the third-worst defense in the league.

What that means is that the team is going to have to score… a lot. Without Barkley to lean on, head coach Pat Shurmur will have to count on Jones to make plays with his arm as well as his legs.

Granted, it was against the Bucs, but Jones did showcase his upside by finishing as the second-highest scoring quarterback on FanDuel this week. Unless Wayne Gallman turns into Bruce Wayne, that upside is not about to go away.

At the very least, Jones will be a high-end streamer on quite a few occasions.

Running Back

If Jones’ performance was the good, and Barkley’s injury was the bad, then having to start Wayne Gallman has to be the ugly.

Gallman replaced Barkley in the second half to the tune of 5 carries for 13 yards. What’s more concerning is that he did not register a single catch in a game where the Giants were down by three scores.

In 2017, Gallman garnered 13-plus touches in six games. In half-PPR formats, he never scored fewer than 8.9 or more than 13.4 points in those games.

That could indicate that Gallman is going to be a solid flex play, if not for the fact that 53.3 percent of his production came through the air. His workload on the ground will inevitably increase, but if Jones doesn’t target Gallman out of the backfield, he’s going to have a tough time returning value.

Wide Receiver and Tight End

Sterling Shepard and Evan Engram are two players who will likely see their value skyrocket because of Jones and the injury to Barkley. Shepard received 9 targets and 2 carries in Week 3 and turned it into 121 yards and a score. Engram was targeted 8 times for 113 yards and a touchdown.

Golden Tate is another guy who stands to benefit from all the change in New York. He’s just a week away from returning, so if he was dropped in your league, be sure to scoop him up.