Fantasy Football Update: Is Giants receiver Reuben Randle worthy?
by Adam Nardelli| Contributor
Yes, I know most Giants fans don’t have the highest admiration for wide receiver Rueben Randle as he has mostly under-achieved in his three-year career with Big Blue. In terms of fantasy football…Randle can actually be a decent option in your starting lineup.
Randle is best started in a PPR league (point per reception) as his targets depict. According to Bleacher Report and Fantasy Pros, Randle was targeted 128 times in 2014 slotting him as the 19th most-targeted receiver for the season. His 71 receptions and 938 receiving yards from last season, although he clearly should have had more receptions with his 128 targets, make him a solid choice in PPR.
With Victor Cruz out of the lineup once again, Randle very well could continue what he started at the end of 2014. He really started to come into his own in the month of December totaling his career-high for receiving yards in each of the last two games. Of course having Odell Beckham Jr. on the other side helped Randle last season, but that’s obviously no knock on him as Beckham will be lined up on the other side Sunday as well.
The match-up for the Giants receiving corps is another positive for starting Randle. The secondary will have to try to persevere from the loss of starting cornerback Orlando Scandrick who tore his ACL during training camp.
As a result of the loss to Scandrick, the two starting corner backs for Dallas will be Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne with Carr most likely tasked with covering Beckham and Claiborne on Randle.
Regarding Carr, he has underwhelmed in Dallas since the team gave him a hefty contract, and has been more nationally known for being on the wrong end of Odell Beckham Jr.’s epic catch. Although he’ll want to redeem himself from giving up that catch, Beckham’s talent could be too much for Carr and it’s hard to imagine the Cowboys not having a safety over the top of OBJ for at least some of Sunday night’s game. As a result, Randle should be facing single coverage in just about all man situations.
Claiborne, who it looks like will be following around Randle, has also had his share of struggles in his three-year career. He was benched last season after three games for Orlando Scandrick, and one game later tore his patellar tendon, the same injury that Victor Cruz is trying to come back from.
A cornerback returning from such a devastating injury who was also benched just three games into last season isn’t exactly a guy you look at as a shutdown defender.
Even more, Offensive Coordinator Ben McAdoo’s offense is surrounded around getting the ball out quick, as most Giants fans know. Randle just has to get slight separation from Claiborne early in the route which should allow Eli to find him in short and intermediate passing plays. This of course could allow Randle to augment his catch total for the night, an obvious advantage in a PPR league.
While there are multiple reasons to be optimistic about starting Randle on Sunday, a negative is his touchdown total, or lack thereof. Randle had just three touchdowns last season and has just 12 total in his career. In any fantasy football league touchdowns are of course valued, but in a standard scoring league (no point for each reception) touchdowns are even more important for receivers.
His lack of production in the end zone makes him slightly more of a risky start in a standard-scoring league, but if you’re team starts three receivers and you are forced to go a bit deeper at the position, Randle is without question a quality WR3 in such a league with the favorable match-up.