Throughout the preseason, we heavily emphasize identifying potential impact players throughout the season that others may not recognize as they aren't necessarily "stars". In our 'Preseason Players to Watch' series, we highlight potentially noteworthy players in each night's game(s) that may be impactful for fantasy football, both in the 2024 season and beyond.
Here are our top players to watch for in tonight's preseason action:
Malik Nabers (WR - New York Giants) - vs DET, 7:00 PM
It (likely) will be the NFL debut for the 6th overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft tonight. He's been nothing short of exceptional thus far throughout camp and especially within the team-on-team practices this week, making highlight reel catches like they were nothing.
I'm really excited to see him potentially get some reps tonight, but ultimately wouldn't be surprised to see the Giants keep him confined to the sidelines, especially seeing as he is their only notable weapon on offense this season.
Theo Johnson (TE - New York Giants) - vs DET, 7:00 PM
Underutilized at Penn State, Theo Johnson has a very realistic shot at earning the starting TE role even to start the season with Darren Waller retired and the competition now down to him, Daniel Bellinger, and Lawrence Cager.
Those aren't exactly stars that he's competing with for work. Seeing as he's already been rotating in with the starters throughout camp, it's safe to say if he doesn't earn the Week 1 starting gig (which is still possible), he likely will be the lead TE by midseason.
I'm really interested to see how much (if any) work he gets with the starters tonight as he could very easily be a sneaky deeper league sleeper or a potential midseason waiver wire target given the fact that through Week 5 (when Daniel Jones got injured), the Giants were 10th in the NFL in targets (38) and 9th in target share (24.2%) while Darren Waller was 4th among TEs in targets and 9th in fantasy points.
Ja'Lynn Polk (WR - New England Patriots) - vs CAR, 7:00 PM on NFL Network
Another rookie with a standout camp, Polk has very quickly emerged as a potential starter in the Patriots offense, vying for one of the three starting roles in a very deep, but not overly intimidating, receiving corps of DeMario Douglas, Kendrick Bourne, K.J. Osborn, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Tyquan Thorton, and Jalen Reagor.
That's a lot of bodies but not much in terms of WR1 or WR2-level talent, so the opportunity is there to immediately take a starting role.
It'll really be worthwhile to see if Polk runs with the starters, how many WRs get to run with the starters, and if there is a definitive split in WR action with the starters vs with the backups. This should really give us an idea if Polk is just another training camp hero or if he has a legitimate shot at making an early-season impact.