The Giants are at Philadelphia tomorrow night, and I'm debating whether to use one or two of their wide receivers. In this playoff competition, you can use each player only once, so the goal is to have top-performing players from teams you think will lose. (Using ones from winning teams might leave you without starters in later rounds.)
The Eagles ranked 4th against the pass during the season, and allowed just 22 touchdown passes; only 10 teams allowed fewer. Early in the season, some will recall, they totally shut down Justin Jefferson. So a tough matchup. But looking at the season-long numbers, it's not quite as awful as I was expecting -- especially late in the year.
Opposing No. 1 wideouts did have success at times, and particularly in the second half of the season. Some of those players put up good yardage, and a lot of them got in the end zone. Indeed, despite allowing just 22 touchdown passes, 16 of them went to wide receivers. That was bel0w-average performance; only six teams allowed more than that to the position.
No. 1 wide receivers versus the Eagles are shown below. Things weren't so great the first half of the season, with Terry McLaurin about the only star performer. But in the final eight games, six different opposing No. 1s got in the end zone, and a lot of them were lesser guys. That includes Richie James from the Giants (Isaiah Hodgins, who I'm viewing as the No. 2, also scored in that blowout loss) and then Kenny Golladay in the finale, with New York holding out a lot of starters.
| NO. 1 WRS VERSUS PHILADELPHIA | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Yds | TD |
| St. Brown, Det. | 8 | 64 | 1 |
| Jefferson, Min. | 6 | 48 | 0 |
| McLaurin, Was. | 6 | 102 | 0 |
| Kirk, Jac. | 2 | 60 | 0 |
| Brown, Ari. | 8 | 78 | 1 |
| Lamb, Dal. | 5 | 68 | 0 |
| Johnson, Pit. | 5 | 35 | 0 |
| Moore, Hou. | 4 | 43 | 1 |
| McLaurin, Was. | 8 | 128 | 0 |
| Pittman, Ind. | 6 | 75 | 0 |
| Watson, G.B. | 4 | 110 | 1 |
| Burks, Ten. | 1 | 25 | 1 |
| James, NYG | 7 | 61 | 1 |
| Pringle, Chi. | 2 | 39 | 1 |
| Lamb, Dal. | 10 | 120 | 2 |
| Shaheed, N.O. | 6 | 79 | 0 |
| Golladay, NYG | 2 | 30 | 1 |
I won't be using both James and Hodgins, but I'll probably use one of them; James should catch more passes, Hodgins has been the better scorer. Win or lose, the Giants should have some viable wide receiver production in this game.
--Andy Richardson