Wan'Dale Robinson - Fantasy Points Outlook

What You Need to Know:

• Robinson hit college as a RB but transitioned to WR over 3 seasons.
• He claimed 32.7% of Nebraska’s catches and 30.3% of receiving yards in 2020 before transferring to Kentucky and faring even better. Robinson gobbled up 43% of receptions, 45.5% of yards and 29.2% of TDs in his lone season with the Wildcats.
• The OC that recruited him to Kentucky hailed from Sean McVay’s Rams offense and laid out a pretty attractive plan. “He literally pulled out the film of Cooper Kupp, and he was like, ‘These are the routes you’re gonna run and I promise we’ll be able to get you touches out in space,’” Robinson said of Liam Coen.
• Robinson ranked 5th in Pro Football Focus receiving grade last season among 251 WRs with 50+ targets. He also checked in 4th in that group with 3.56 yards per route run.
• Robinson played two-thirds of his 2021 snaps in the slot but actually put up more yards per route on the outside (3.82) than inside (3.45). It makes sense that an outside WR spot would be more conducive to greater yardage. But Robinson delivering on that shows more ability to play the outside than you might expect from the 5’8, 178-pounder.
• Robinson landed with the Giants in Round 2, as the 8th WR off the board – ahead of George Pickens, Alec Pierce and Skyy Moore, among others.
• He joins a WR corps that’s likely to sport Kadarius Toney and Kenny Golladay as the top 2. Golladay is strictly an outside WR. Toney played 60% of his pass snaps in the slot as a rookie. We’ll see how the new coaching staff positions Toney and Robinson.
• The Giants continue to employ WR Darius Slayton (another outside guy) as well. WR Sterling Shepard is still around as well but coming off a mid-December Achilles’ tear. TE Evan Engram is gone as well.
• Only 10 WRs at 5’8 or shorter have ever reached 90 targets in a season. There have been 6 player seasons of 100+ targets. Three of those – plus a 98-target campaign – have come from Cole Beasley.
• If we bump that threshold to 5’9, we add players such as Steve Smith Sr., Wes Welker and Brett Periman (plus their big seasons) to the pool.

Draft Sharks Bottom Line:

Robinson is an exciting player. He’d be a little easier to love if he were a little bigger, but that factor is also keeping his draft price down. We’ll see about the rookie’s exact fit in the offense once more WRs return to the field. But there’s room for Robinson to claim an immediate role, perhaps even among the top 3 wideouts. If he does that, he’ll jump into an offense that has changed a lot over the past 2 years. That means uncertain target distribution, and potentially open competition for roles. As long as Robinson’s ADP remains late, he’s a “why not” shot to take in an offense with nowhere to go but up.