Malachi Fields — Week 1: A Nineteen-Yard Catch, Two Deep Misses
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Fields was targeted four times in his first NFL game and caught two for 25 yards; the 19-yard catch on second and seven with 3:01 left in the half, tied 7–7, was worth plus 7.4 points of win probability, fourth among Giants plays. Both deep throws to him fell incomplete, in a 28–20 win over the Cowboys.
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Seven to seven, three oh one left in the second quarter, second and seven at the Dallas 47. Jaxson Dart threw short left to Malachi Fields, who was pushed out of bounds at the 28. 19 yards, +1.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 7.4 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the fourth-largest gain on any Giants play of the night. The possession never had another first down and ended two snaps later with Tyrone Tracy's fumble.
The line: four targets, two catches, 25 yards, one first down, +0.5 expected points on the targets, and a longest of 19. Three targets before halftime for two catches and 25 yards; one after, an incompletion. The other catch was six yards short left on second and 10 with 45 seconds left in the half, on the touchdown drive. The two incompletions were both deep: a deep left on second and 10 with four 19 left in the half, with Donovan Ezeiruaku credited with the pressure, and a deep right on first and 10 with 12 10 left in the game. Nothing on third down, nothing inside the 20. The throws to him traveled 71 yards in the air; 15 of his 25 came after the catch.
Four targets were tied for third on the team. Dart threw nine times to Malik Nabers, eight to Isaiah Likely, four each to Fields and Devin Singletary, two to Darnell Mooney, one each to Patrick Ricard and Theo Johnson; no throw was without a receiver. Among the receivers it was Nabers nine, six, 69; Fields four, two, 25; Mooney two, two, 27. 14 percent of the throws went to Fields, per the weekly stat file. 17 pass plays before halftime and 14 after, and three of his four targets came in the last four and a half minutes of the first half.
Back in June the preview made no call on Fields — a day-two trade-up priced at two 10 as the 80-first receiver, with the honest line that a minicamp catch does not convert to a September stat line — and named whether he was running with the first unit as the thing to watch, because by then it is a role, not a rep. Sunday answered that: four targets in his first game, two of them deep shots, with Nabers healthy on the other side. The catches were the short ones and the deep ones missed, which is a rookie's first night, not a verdict. One game establishes that he is in the rotation. The Giants are at the Rams on Monday night the 20-first.
_Data via nflverse._
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