The Fantasy Football Impact of Devin Singletary to the New York Giants
On Monday, March 11th, it was announced that Devin Singletary would be heading north to sign a three-year, $16.5 million contract with the New York Giants, a deal worth up to $19.5 million. The 26-year-old running back will look to fill the void left when Saquon Barkley landed with the division-rival Philadelphia Eagles, and as the current depth chart is set up, Singletary should have plenty of options to lock down the RB1 role.
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Devin Singletary Running Back Profile
Devin Singletary was able to wrest away the starting slot from incumbent sophomore Dameon Pierce by season’s end in 2023, but with such a nominal part in the passing game through the Houston Texans’ first half of the season, it’s likely he was waiver wire fodder up until Week 11-12. While he did accrue 100+ rushing yards on three occasions in the second half of the year, he failed to hit 50+ yards in just as many, and his 9.0 half-PPR points landed him as the overall RB39 in points per game.
| Year | Team | G | Att. | Rush Yards | Targets | Rec. | Rec Yards | Scores | Half-PPR FP/G | FP/G Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | BUF | 12 | 151 | 775 | 41 | 29 | 194 | 4 | 11.1 | RB25 |
| 2020 | BUF | 16 | 156 | 687 | 50 | 38 | 269 | 2 | 7.8 | RB45 |
| 2021 | BUF | 17 | 188 | 870 | 50 | 40 | 228 | 8 | 10.5 | RB30 |
| 2022 | BUF | 16 | 177 | 819 | 52 | 38 | 280 | 6 | 9.9 | RB31 |
| 2023 | HST | 17 | 216 | 898 | 38 | 30 | 193 | 4 | 9 | RB39 |
We saw trends not unlike his time in another high-powered offense: the Buffalo Bills. Despite his 5’7” frame, Singletary operates as a three-yard-and-a-cloud-of-dust much more often than you would imagine, and his 21% breakaway rate was even lower than in years past. That rate ended up ranking 38th/63 qualifying running backs, and without much of a presence around the goal line, the ways in which fantasy managers can score points with Singletary have been limited.
The former FAU Owl had nine attempts from within the opponent’s five-yard line in 2023 (28th) after handling just ten with the Bills in 2022 (22nd). Considering both the Texans in ‘23 (16th) and Bills in ‘22 (11th) were in the top half of the league in plays from within the red zone, we should expect teams —particularly dynamic offenses like the Texans and Bills— to feed their RB1 more often in these situations.
Without an incumbent to battle in New York and a lack of options elsewhere in the offense, maybe Singletary can carve out a slightly better showing in the receiving game while giving us our baseline 5-6 touchdowns in the process.
How Devin Singletary Fits in New York
Many teams lost a stalwart veteran presence in their running back room during this latest free agency cycle, but the Giants lost the face of their offense when Saquon Barkley signed on with the Eagles. Only three teams are missing a larger percentage of their running back targets (82.7%), and only two are missing a higher percentage of running back carries (89.1%).
Most of that is tied to Barkley's elite versatility, but the depth chart he leaves behind didn’t exactly push him for their own usage, either. Gary Brightwell, the team’s sixth-round selection in 2021, has 41 career carries and 14 targets, while 2023’s fifth-rounder, Eric Gray, accrued 17 and 7 in his rookie year, with 12 of those rushes coming in one game. Despite Barkley’s decreasing efficiency (3.9 yards per attempt), the Giants opted to lean heavily on the veteran, while the win-loss record clearly pointed toward a non-playoff finish.
Singletary has blemishes to his game, but the Giants’ bell-cow history and the contract they offered relative to the rest of the free-agent field (slightly less than Tony Pollard/Aaron Jones, more than Austin Ekeler, Zack Moss) should give a hint as to how he will be deployed if the team doesn’t further address the position in the NFL Draft.
Fantasy Outlook for the Giants’ Backfield
As a team, Giants running backs earned the second-lowest number of rushing yards per game (69.6) and the seventh-lowest receiving yards per game (26.4) despite earning a league-average 98 targets in 2023. At least some of this offensive ineptitude can be written off with Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito handling so much of the time behind center, but Daniel Jones was putting up career-worst numbers in basically every category before his neck and ACL injuries.
Outside of Drew Lock, who could very well battle Jones for a starting job at this point, we won’t know the quarterback situation in New York until after the NFL Draft, and even then, it will likely be months of speculation as to who will take the Week 1 snaps. What we can safely surmise is that this offense will very likely be a below-average squad, as we get one more year removed from a decent 2022 showing that feels like an outlier at this point.
Brightwell and Gray should be ignored for fantasy purposes, even though they are guaranteed to be more in the mix with Barkley out of town. As for Singletary, he lands in a great situation, but the odds that it leads to week-in, week-out fantasy success are low. The veteran has operated as a consistent RB3/4 on two of the best offenses in the league, and his environment has obviously been downgraded, to say the least.
Bottom Line
- Devin Singletary received a nice payday in a loaded free agent class, hinting towards a majority role inside the Giants backfield.
- Even with the possibility that Saquon Barkley is in the twilight of his storied career, Singletary offers less down-to-down upside to the team, in all facets of the game.
- Gary Brightwell and Eric Gray are no more than deep-league Dynasty holds, and the team could possibly take another swing at the position at the end of the NFL Draft.
- According to current Underdog ADP, Singletary is coming off draft boards around the 9th/10th Round turn, as the RB36, but valuations are likely to swing wildly from draft to draft. If he can be had that late, he’s a great option. His lack of weekly upside has to be considered, though, and drafters need to weigh that when deciding how he fits in a team build.
