How Giants Can Deploy Wan'Dale Robinson and Kadaraius Toney at the Same Time

Perhaps no one member of the New York Giants has drawn more mixed attention than second-year receiver Kadarius Toney this off-season.

From reports earlier this spring of the Giants being open to trading him to his absence from the start of the team's off-season program to the revelation of his having had an off-season procedure on his knee, Toney's second NFL campaign appears to have gotten off to just as rocky of a start as his rookie campaign.

So when on Day 2 of the 2022 NFL Draft, the Giants added receiver Wan'Dale Robinson, a player with nearly identical skills as Toney, to the mix, that did little to quell questions about Toney's future with the Giants.

There are now questions about how the Giants might be looking to deploy two receivers with nearly identical skillsets in their offense. Will it be a matter of playing one ahead of the other in certain packages? Do they have a plan to get both on the field simultaneously? Or is Robinson the insurance in case the Giants receive an offer they can't refuse for Toney?

The answer is behind Door No. 2, which is that the Giants are likely planning to get both on the field simultaneously. Head coach Brian Daboll, who spent 2018-2021 as the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, has shown that he is willing to be creative with where he lines players up and that he will do what it takes to maximize the potential of his players.

Here are a few ideas on how Daboll can simultaneously optimize both players' talents based on his prior history running the Bills' offense.

Wan'Dale Robinson

New York Giants wide receiver Kadarius Toney, running back Saquon Barkley and wide receiver Sterling Shepard

Alignment Versatility

In looking at the deployment of both Toney and Robinson, one thing comes to mind: versatility. Both players can align in the slot, out wide, or the backfield.

In 2021, Toney was deployed on 179 snaps from the slot, 116 snaps out wide, and five snaps in the backfield (whether at running back or quarterback). When Toney was at Florida in 2020, he played 506 snaps in the slot, 80 snaps out wide, and 23 snaps in the backfield (all as a running back).

Wan’Dale Robinson was a productive player in college for three seasons, having been deployed on 941 snaps from the slot, 322 snaps out wide, and 302 snaps at running back.

Both Toney and Robinson are most experienced when working out of the slot, so a double slot look is certainly a possibility, especially if Sterling Shepard, the senior member of the Giants' receivers, isn't physically ready to start the season.

But just because Toney and Robinson are primarily slot receivers doesn't mean that there can't nor won't be formations in which one guy is lined up in the backfield, one is in the slot, or one is in the slot while the other is split out wide.

Daboll has undoubtedly shown a willingness to put receivers in the backfield. Last season alone, the Bills had five receivers take snaps out of the backfield.

Toney and Robinson could be a big reason why the Giants didn't prioritize adding a young running back to the mix this year in the draft. Both have the speed, vision, and elusiveness to rotate into the backfield.

With that said, both don't have the size to regularly play a large number of snaps. Still, as an occasional change of pace, the thought of a linebacker trying to catch up with one of these speedsters certainly has its appeal.

Passing Game

The most difficult question for Daboll to figure out involving Toney and Robinson isn’t where to line them up but rather how to build the offense around them on any given play or situation.

As far as the passing game is considered, Toney and Robinson have skillsets that many consider too similar in terms of which routes they run and where they find success.

But just how accurate is that statement? Toney has found his most success when he was asked to run towards the flat, whether it was a flat route, a quick out, or a whip/pivot route. That bodes well for Toney to fit seamlessly into Daboll's offense because it was a similar concept the Bills ran under Daboll when they had Cole Beasley on the roster.

As for Robinson, he excelled when asked to run digs, comebacks, and corner routes. That’s not typical of a player that measured in at the NFL Combine at just 5-foot-8 and 178 pounds. (Then again, most teams don't exactly go out of their way to find 5-foot-8, 178-pound players for their roster.)

The Bills, under Daboll, used the corner route as a staple of their offense, with Stefon Diggs finding success running them consistently.

Given the sizes of Toney (6-foot, 193 pounds) and Robinson, they tend to work out of the slot at the next level and underneath over the middle of the field. And both players won more often than not when they ran dig and slant routes.

Based on the Bills' 2021 play-calling, Daboll targeted the middle of the field underneath more than anywhere else (21.3 percent of all passes thrown 0-10 yards downfield in between the numbers). The next most targeted area was 0-10 yards outside the numbers, which also bodes well from Toney specifically, running those pivot or whip routes.

The overlap between Daboll’s play-calling and Daniel Jones's tendencies line up perfectly, as Jones has thrown a great deal toward the middle of the field in that 0-10 yard range. In 2019, 29.2 percent of Jones’ passes went in that area; that number increased to 31 percent in 2020 but fell to 24.7 percent in 2021 (no doubt a result of him missing six games due to a neck injury).

Running Game

While it might be unorthodox to talk about how the Giants can use their second-year wide receiver and rookie wide receiver in the running game, remember that they did draft two unorthodox receivers. These players can be labeled as “human joysticks,” where one marvels over how they move.

We talked about how both of these receivers could line up out wide, in the slot, or even in the backfield. The San Francisco 49ers have successfully used receiver Deebo Samuel in the backfield in what has been dubbed the “wide back” role.

NFL teams are becoming increasingly more willing to use receivers in the backfield. Daboll has done it with Isaiah McKenzie, and other players have taken on similar roles like the Cardinals’ Rondale Moore, Jaguars’ Laviska Shenault Jr., and the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb.

The film of Toney and Robinson with the ball in their hands further pushes the point that they can play this role. Both players operated as “wide backs” or “offensive weapons” throughout their careers and have shown that they could contribute as rushers--and not just on end-around, jet sweeps, and reverses on the outside.

The positional versatility of both Toney and Robinson allows the Giants to come out with no true running back on the field as they could always quickly shift one of Robinson or Toney into the backfield and run the ball in an attempt to catch the defense off guard.

Final Thoughts

Toney and Robinson still need to prove themselves at the NFL level. Still, there is no question that both of these players are talented and can bring a new dimension to the Giants' offense that modernizes the attack.

Given those skillsets and the history behind the men designing the new offensive system, such creativity, if deployed, will undoubtedly be a welcomed addition to a Giants offense that is beyond stale.

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