Was Wan'Dale Robinson's Performance Legit or a Fluke? Fantasy Football Outlook for Week 3 (2025)

John breaks down the fantasy football breakout performance of wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson. Should we buy or sell Wan'Dale Robinson heading into Week 3?

New York Giants wide receiver Wan'Dale Robinson has been one of the most surprising breakout players in all of fantasy football this season. He had a huge game in Week 2 after a solid performance in Week 1.

While Robinson is clearly not his team's WR1, there's a possibility that he could remain fantasy relevant all season. This year, the Giants have new quarterbacks, and it looks like those QBs could mean excellent fantasy value for their wideouts.

The Giants will take on the Kansas City Chiefs next week, though, and could face stiffer challenges against a tougher defense. So it's worth asking -- was Robinson's big game a fluke or was it legitimate? Can he keep having big games all season? Let's dive in.

Wan'Dale Robinson Fantasy Football Recap

After catching six of his eight targets for 55 yards in Week 1, Robinson exploded with eight catches for 142 yards and a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in a shootout loss. Robinson previously had just one 100-yard receiving game in his career, in his rookie season.

He had never topped 20.0 PPR fantasy points in a game up to that point, so the 28.1-point effort was easily the best he's ever had. His production was, no doubt, fueled by quarterback Russell Wilson's 450 passing yards and three touchdowns. That marked his highest passing total since Week 8 of 2017.

Wan'Dale Robinson had a career day with the New York Giants on Sunday vs. the Dallas Cowboys:

8 catches
142 yards (career-high)
1 touchdown pic.twitter.com/raPNYhENPa

— Cats Coverage (@Cats_Coverage) September 15, 2025

The film tells much of the story, as does digging into the details a bit. The Cowboys' defense, though it performed reasonably well in Week 1, absolutely collapsed in Week 2. They were blowing coverages left and right, and many of those blown coverages led to huge plays from Robinson.

Dallas' defense is reeling from the loss of linebacker Micah Parsons, one of the league's best pass-rushers. Parsons was traded to Green Bay just before the season. The splits of how the defense performed when Parsons was on and off the field are pretty wild.

Over the last four years, the Cowboys are the league's best defense with Micah Parsons on the field by EPA per play.

Across a 1,039-play sample, they're the league's second-worst defense over that same stretch by EPA per play when Parsons isn't on the field.

— Bill Barnwell (@billbarnwell) August 1, 2025

Without Parsons, the Cowboys have one of the league's worst defenses. Their successes in pass coverage were heavily dependent on Parsons getting consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks. It can't be understated how huge this loss is for Dallas.

The Cowboys pressured Russell Wilson just 22.2 percent of dropbacks in Week 2. Only five QBs were pressured less (min. 10 dropbacks)

Cowboys were busting coverages left and right. They were fortunate Wilson threw it straight to them to end the gamehttps://t.co/EWUtprz3Wn

Don't…

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) September 16, 2025

Wilson dealt with very little pressure on Sunday. The Cowboys' remaining pass-rushers haven't been able to get to opposing quarterbacks in the absence of Parsons. Wilson thus nearly tripled his passing totals from Week 1. It wasn't just the struggles in getting pressure that stunk, though.

The Cowboys defense just does not look comfortable in this Matt Eberflus scheme. A lot of looking around on these big pass plays.

— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) September 14, 2025

Robinson should continue to function as the team's WR2, and his target volume is solid on its own. Even with Wilson's abysmal performance in Week 1, Robinson managed 11.5 PPR fantasy points. His explosive day in Week 2 isn't likely to occur many more times this season.

But he should be rostered in all leagues, at least. Against softer defenses, he could have more big games.

Was Robinson's Performance Legit Or A Fluke?

It was likely a fluke, but not entirely. Based on how Dallas' defense performed, it's not a surprise the Giants carved them up. Matt Eberflus, the Cowboys' new defensive coordinator for 2025, runs a zone-heavy scheme. The Cowboys haven't done well playing zone in the past few years.

Their previous defenses revolved around playing man coverage and relying on the pressure on opposing quarterbacks to speed up the clock on passing plays. Man coverage only works as long as cornerbacks, safeties, and linebackers keep up with opposing pass-catchers.

Here’s a look at the difference in situational awareness between Vic Fangio and Matt Eberflus.

Fangio made the Cowboys get a bucket. Eberflus left an open lane to the hoop. https://t.co/urLnG2DJTQ pic.twitter.com/hc5o1PhDRx

— Tyler DeSena (@desena_tyler) September 5, 2025

Eberflus' defense has been highly ineffective so far. That's not to say Robinson can't have a good season. He was targeted 140 times last season, and it looks like he'll continue to earn a high rate of targets, just like he did last season. When QB Daniel Jones was healthy, Robinson had six out of 10 games with 10 or more PPR fantasy points.

However, games like Week 1 are much more likely than those of Week 2, though it's good to see Robinson have a bit of a higher ceiling. We don't yet know if Wilson will start all season, either, as his Week 1 performance was pretty abysmal, and if there are more games like that, the Giants might be forced to start QB Jaxson Dart.

Rookie quarterbacks don't have a great track record of supporting fantasy-relevant wide receivers. Last year's QB class featured a ton of talent, but that's the exception rather than the rule. The alternative probably isn't much worse than what we have now, though -- Wilson has been very inconsistent in recent seasons.

Wan'Dale Robinson Fantasy Football Outlook

I don't think this is the beginning of some dominant, top-8 run for Robinson. However, it's reasonable to think he could have a slightly better run than he did in the games with Jones last season. Robinson is 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds. He's not exactly a red zone threat or end zone target monster.

WanDale Robinson was targeted heavily last season too. He's just not a red zone threat. Stretches like these (Week 1-6) of 2024 are probably more reasonable long term projections for Robinson's fantasy output. The Cowboys were busting coverages everywhere. pic.twitter.com/BdEEDhqIvb

— JohnJohn Analysis (@JohnJohnalytics) September 16, 2025

Still, he has a very safe floor. His ceiling is additionally capped by poor quarterback play, though -- Wilson played against a real defense in Week 1, and it wasn't pretty. Expecting both of the top two receivers on a poor offense to have huge games every other week is probably not reasonable.

With Jones playing well in Indianapolis, it's worth questioning just how much of an upgrade Wilson is. He was let go by two teams in consecutive seasons. He appears to be at least capable of putting up big numbers against bad defenses when he gets the opportunity.

Top 4 leaders in passing yards, just like everyone expected

Russell Wilson
Daniel Jones
Jared Goff
Dak Prescott pic.twitter.com/kisgcCZ2Pk

— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) September 15, 2025

Wilson has put up major stats so far, but he had big games last season as well, like his 414-yard, three-touchdown effort in Week 13 of 2024. He followed that up with two straight games under 200 passing yards and didn't pass for more than 217 yards in a game for the rest of the season.

It seems more likely that, rather than the 36-year-old Wilson suddenly having a massive career resurgence and the Giants' offense becoming one of the best in the NFL, the Cowboys simply had a horrific defensive performance. Robinson and Giants WR1 Malik Nabers obviously benefited massively from that.

The Giants face the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers next. Those will be much tougher defensive tests. I imagine Robinson will fall back to earth in those games. Perhaps in Week 5, against the lowly New Orleans Saints, he can have another huge game.

First play of the game

Eagles come out in pistol with 2 TEs. Calcaterra whiffs on his block. Granson can’t get over in time. Jalen Hurts is running for his life & the play is over before it starts.

AJ Brown was running free at the bottom of the screen.pic.twitter.com/Q7vZHX9FUm

— Pierre (@PierreB3_) September 15, 2025

I don't recommend buying Robinson right now, with his value inflated so much. I'd be selling him in a package to try to get someone like Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown. The big games for Brown are coming. He had an elite route-running performance against the Chiefs in Week 2, but he just didn't get the targets, and the Eagles' passing offense was out of sync.

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