Monday Night Walkthrough Week 2: A Likely Story
Welcome to the Week 2 Monday Walkthrough.
In this article, I'll outline critical fantasy football context for the second glorious football Monday of 2026.
(The stats below are from PFF, NFLfastR, rbsdm.com, RotoViz, FantasyLabs, Fantasy Life, Fantasy Points, ESPN, FTN, and NFL Next Gen).
PROE data is available for subscribers at the bottom of the post.
Giants at Rams, 8:15 PM
Giants
Implied Team Total: 20.5
Against the Cowboys, Jaxson Dart was electric. He turned in 28.3 EPA and a 74% success rate. Both were the best marks of Week 1.
Dart was highly accurate, while also getting the ball out very quickly. But that didn't stop him from working on the move. The Giants deployed play action at the seventh-highest rate, and Dart accumulated rushing yards on both designed runs and on scrambles.
Overall, the Giants were actually pretty conservative, with a -4% PROE and a 50% pass rate. But I think this tells us more about how the Giants will look when closing out wins rather than signaling an overly conservative approach overall. At worst, the jury is out there. At best, their 4% PROE on 1st-and-10 signals that in more pass-heavy script, they'll be willing to get aggressive.
The Giants head to Los Angeles as 7.5-point underdogs. So their willingness to pass in negative game script is highly relevant. I'm hopeful.
The Rams defense also looks far less imposing than it was expected to be. Of course, losing Myles Garrett is a major blow. Although he played against the 49ers, Garrett wasn't himself. The Rams' pass rush was anemic. Garrett will now miss this game. The Rams do appear likely to have Aaron Donald, at least. Although it's quite possible he plays limited snaps in his return.
The Rams didn't blitz against the 49ers, assuming they could generate pressure with the front four. That didn't work, which may lead to a different approach here. However, Dart was effective against a high Dallas blitz rate. The Giants offensive line also held up well on Sunday night.
Dart was aided by the return of Malik Nabers. Nabers was genuinely on the fence about suiting up. But he gave it a go. And I'm sure Nabers isn't actually 100% yet, but the numbers reflect a star football player... playing like a star.
Nabers' return was extremely promising. And even with the Rams defense likely to play more effectively than they did in Australia, he's a high-end WR2.
Outside of Nabers, the Giants' WRs were pretty unimpressive. Darnell Mooney was the clear secondary receiver, with Malachi Fields as the No. 3. Mooney played more in the slot and had the shallower aDOT. So he looks like a safer bet for receptions this week. Malachi Fields' role as an outside field stretcher comes with more splash-play upside—assuming these roles are actually reflective of the Week 2 deployment. The good news is that both WRs are clearly ahead of Odell Beckham, who ran just six routes (18% route participation). But both Mooney and Fields are only relevant for Showdown.
Isaiah Likely... as it turns out... was not the worst pick in drafts this year. His role against the Cowboys was genuinely nuts. These are numbers I truly did not think were in his range of outcomes—except his 68% route participation; I would have believed that.
Moving forward, this is one where I have to throw up my hands. I didn't think that Likely would be treated as a true focal point of the offense. But that's exactly how he was treated, and the offense was awesome. Sure, the Cowboys defense played a role, as did Nabers working back to full health. And Likely was on the right side of variance; he's not going to score 12.7 fantasy points over expected very often. But even if we appropriately discount Likely's Week 1 result, going forward he still projects as the Giants' true No. 2 target this year, and he looks capable of producing efficiently on that volume. That's a great outcome for where he was going in drafts. In this matchup, Likely profiles as a low-end TE1.
In the backfield, Cam Skattebo also had an impressive debut in the new offense. He was highly consistent while also demonstrating burst, and he was key to the Giants salting away their first win.
I just really wish the Giants would realize that Skattebo is a good pass catcher. I was worried they had him pegged for a two-down role. After he wasn't even targeted against the Cowboys, that concern is growing.
Skattebo now gets a run defense that the 49ers were able to move the ball on very consistently. Unless the Giants start using him as a receiver again, his profile won't be as fantasy friendly as last year, but he's still a low-end RB2.
Devin Singletary served as Skattebo's backup against the Cowboys, with Tyrone Tracy seeing just two offensive snaps.
Singletary was quite inefficient as a runner, but saw the receiving work that I'm begging—please, Matt—Nagy to turn back over to Skattebo. He's an RB5.
