In .5PPR scoring, the New York Giants are returning the WR46 Sterling Shepard, the WR55 Darius Slayton, and in free agency, they added misleading WR102 Kenny Golladay, and John Ross. All of this to say, it was surprising when they chose to take wide receiver Kadarius Toney out of the University of Florida with their first-round pick. While all eyes were on tight end teammate Kyle Pitts, Toney was able to put together the best season to end his collegiate career on a high note. In this 4-EYED ROOKIE SNAPSHOT, let’s see what Toney is bringing to the table and what kind of role he may bring to the G-Men.
Overshadowed Senior Year
A four-year player for the Gators, Toney was drafted off of his performance in his final year because he wasn’t ever able to do much in his first three seasons. Combined over his freshman through junior seasons, Toney had 50 receptions for 606 yards and two touchdowns. His senior season, he had 70 receptions, 984 yards, and 10 touchdowns easily surpassing the totals from the previous seasons. With the season that Pitts put together, it is easy to see how Toney flew under the radar, but if he can continue the hot streak he put together a the end there, he will be a sneaky asset for the Giants going forward.
Toney’s best game came against LSU in his second to last career game. Toney had nine receptions for 182 yards and a touchdown. He added three rushes for 56 yards which wasn’t a rare addition for his game. While not always used in the backfield, Toney was listed as a utility player his first three seasons at Florida and didn’t get officially designated as a wide receiver until his breakout senior year.
The Good
While having a smaller sample size to work with compared to other rookie wide receivers, Toney still excels in certain areas of his game. For me, the most impressive part of Toney’s game is his reliability. Toney only had two drops his senior season on the 76 targets that he had. Both of his drops came in the short-range (0-9 yards) which could be a concern, but he didn’t drop any passes that were catchable further out than 10 yards. According to PFF, for receivers with at least 75 targets last season, Toney was tied for the fourth-lowest drop percentage with 3.1%.
Toney is an interesting player because he has molded his game to excel in one area, but still, be reliable in others. For receivers with at least 20 targets in the intermediate range (10-19 yards), Toney had the 15th most receptions, third-best receiving percentage, and had the fifth-highest yards per route run, while also having the lowest average depth of target. Toney is a reliable target that has learned which area of the field he can be the most dangerous in and it’s interesting because a defense is going to be able to know where he is going to be, but Toney then uses his talent to still be an effective player and gets results.
The Best Role For Him
Toney’s best role will be being used as the slot receiver. This will complement well with the Giants other receivers as Golladay, Shepherd, and Slayton all are mainly used lining up on the outside. The Giants slot receiver last year, Golden Tate, is no longer on the team so the role is available. Daniel Jones still figures to be the team’s starting quarterback and this will be Jones’ best group of receivers he has played with so hopefully we see better numbers from him. Jones has an average depth of target on intermediate throws is 13.7 yards while Toney’s is 12.5 so Toney will be right around the range that Jones likes to sit in.
If you divide the field into three sections, Kadarius Toney does his best, most consistent work catching passes in the middle of the field between the numbers. Whether it be yardage totals, gradings, or overall efficiency he is at his best in the center of the field and his second most efficient area would be receptions on the left side of the field. For Daniel Jones? While not great numbers by any means, Jones has shown that his most efficient area of the field is to the center and then short and to the left. Toney’s game seems to match up pretty well with what we have seen out of Daniel Jones so even though Toney figures to be the third-best receiving option (behind Golladay and running back Saquon Barkley), he should still have a clearly defined and effective role for this offense.
Rookie Drafts
There aren’t many rookie position players that are landing in RB1 or WR1 spots on their rosters and Toney is no different. With other receivers like Ja’Marr Chase, Jaylen Waddle, and DeVonta Smith going before him in the actual NFL draft, the same should be expected to happen in your rookie drafts. As such, Toney can be expected to land in the early second round at best, but if you are in the middle of the pack, he should definitely be a target for you in the second round.
