Golden Tate and Jon Hilliman Fantasy Value Only Week 6 Bright Spots in Injury-Riddled Giants Offense

The list of New York Giants players ruled out for their Week 6 "Thursday Night Football" game with the New England Patriots is a long one, including the team's top two running backs in Saquon Barkley and Wayne Gallman, their No. 1 wide receiver in Sterling Shepard and breakout tight end, Evan Engram.

Those four have combined to account for more than 60 percent of the Giants' receptions in 2019, and adding in a brutal matchup against the New England Patriots' defense, Daniel Jones' fantasy value is essentially zero on Thursday.

However, there are a couple of Giants' players that could be worth a look, as Jon Hilliman and Golden Tate could be in for some serious volume.

Despite regularly playing from behind (as they will likely do tonight, as 16.5-point underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook), the Giants have averaged 22.6 rush attempts per game. Even with Barkley out, Gallman got 18 carries in Week 4. And they aren't shy about throwing to any of their backs either, as the Giants' starting back (Barkley then Gallman) saw at least five targets in each of the team's first four games this season. Gallman got injured early in New York's Week 5 loss to the Vikings, so that's the outlier here.

Hilliman won't be the only running back getting run on Thursday night, as Elijhaa Penny could get some reps as well. But Hilliman had a 11-to-4 edge in opportunities over Penny in Week 5, after Gallman's aforementioned departure. Don't expect much efficiency out of the rookie back, but the potential for 15 to 20 opportunities puts him firmly in play in fantasy, especially if you're hurting at RB this week.

In the same vein, Tate's value also comes entirely from his potential for volume. As mentioned above, the four missing players have accounted for greater than 60 percent of the team's receptions in 2019, and that share falls only slightly to 58.1 percent, if we look at targets.

Tate saw six targets in his Week 5 debut for the G-Men and he could very well be a featured piece against a Patriots defense, which leads the NFL with 24 sacks, since he often works out of the slot. Little touchdown or big-play upside hurts in standard scoring, but Tate could finish with a huge reception total, creating nice value in PPR formats.

Neither Hilliman nor Tate are exciting plays, but with four teams on bye, you may not have the luxury of being too picky with your starters this week. With the Giants rolling out an incredibly thin roster of skill-position players tonight, those two should both handle significant workloads, making them viable fantasy options in Week 6.

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Jason Schandl is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Jason Schandl also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username Jaymun. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.