In the most devastating of all injuries that occurred in Week 2, losing Giants RB Saquon Barkley for the year with a torn ACL is by far the worst. Typically going no later than No. 3 in drafts, fantasy owners spent a lot of capital on Saquon as their RB1 and now there is a giant hole to fill in their respective lineups. Similar to Mike Davis, nobody is going to replicate Barkley’s RB1 numbers, but it looks like third-down RB Dion Lewis will play a capable fantasy role for the remainder of the year, thus making him a Week 3 Waiver Wire target.
Barkley was only on the field for eight snaps before his season ended, which left plenty of time for Lewis and Elijhaa Penny to sort through the rest of the game.
Penny was a virtual non-factor, while Lewis played 57 snaps. Of those 57 snaps, he ran a route on 44 of those and carried the ball 10 times. The Giants overall rushing attack has been non-existent through two weeks, mostly due to the team falling behind in both contests.
A positive note for Lewis occurred when the Giants lined up in a power formation at the one-yard line and the little pipsqueak punched himself into the end zone. It was reminiscent of his days in New England, when he scored six rushing touchdowns in and racked up nearly 900 rushing yards in 2017.
What is the most intriguing about Lewis’ fantasy potential is his work in the receiving game. He had five targets against the Bears, which resulted in four grabs for 36 yards. Those five targets were tied for third on the team, behind only Evan Engram and Darius Slayton. The Giants are likely going to be chasing from behind, which will lead to pass-heavy game scripts throughout the year.
However, the ground game and lack of a decent offensive line is what’s most worrying. Even a healthy Saquon couldn’t get anything going early on, and now Lewis will likely have to share a backfield with god awful Wayne Gallman, Penny, and maybe even Devonta Freeman, who the team brought in for a visit on Monday morning.
While he had a solid 2017 with the Patriots, Dion has never really been a workhorse kind of guy and he’s specialized more as a change-of-pace or third-down back. If they sign Freeman, I’m not going anywhere near Lewis. But if it’s just Dion, Gallman, and Penny, I’d consider taking a flier on the little guy.
And don’t even consider using a waiver waiver pick on Wayne Gallman. How many times has he had lead back hype, only to go out the next game with a 15-34-0 stat line? Seems like at least once a year.
