CFB Best Ball · Favorites
Malachi Toney, WR Miami
A third of Miami's catches and 126 receiving yards a game, with a touchdown in five of six. I took him fourth overall on two teams, and the one thing to check is what happens without the opener.
2026 So Far · 6 games
REC
50
8.3 per game
REC YDS
758
126.3 per game
REC TD
8
HALF-PPR
25.6
per game, WR2
What I Paid · Underdog
ADP
3.2
WR2, first round
MY PICKS
4, 4
both fourth overall
EXPOSURE
2 of 16
one in each contest
MY BOARD
4th
set Sept. 3
Malachi Toney has 153.8 half-PPR points in six games, 25.6 a game. Among the 148 receivers in Underdog's player pool who have played at least six games in our box-score data, that is second, behind only Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith at 28.2. Miami had a Week 6 bye, which is why the count is six.
He went at the price of the second receiver in the pool and has scored like the second receiver in the pool.
Where he went in drafts
His ADP was 3.2, the second receiver off the board behind Smith, and a top-four pick. My board had him 4th. I own him on two teams, both at pick 4: one in Best Bowl Mania and one in The Tailgate. Neither team has another Miami player.
Two of sixteen is 13%. At a price this high I was never going to own him everywhere.
Who he is
He was ESPN's first-ranked freshman in its list of the 25 best freshmen of the 2025 season (Billy Tucker, Jan. 7, 2026). In our 2025 box scores for Miami (16 games, which include the postseason) he has 109 catches for 1,211 yards and 10 touchdowns. ESPN's piece lists 94 catches, 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns, which is lower than our 16-game total. I have not reconciled the two.
The six games
Week 1, Stanford, a 45-6 win: 12 catches for 234 yards and three touchdowns. 47.4 points.
Week 2, Florida A&M, a 77-7 win: 4 catches for 96 yards and a touchdown. 17.6 points.
Week 3, at Wake Forest, a 33-20 win: 12 catches for 114 yards and a touchdown. 23.4 points.
Week 4, Central Michigan, a 52-3 win: 6 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. 21.0 points.
Week 5, at Clemson, a 41-13 win: 5 catches for 40 yards, plus a carry for 19. 8.4 points, his low.
Week 7, Florida State, a 43-35 double-overtime win on Oct. 17: 11 catches for 154 yards and two touchdowns, plus two carries for 31 yards. 36.0 points. Per the AP recap (Tim Reynolds, Oct. 18), his 3-yard touchdown in the second overtime was the go-ahead score, and he then threw the two-point pass to Cooper Barkate. "We overcame the adversity," Toney said. "That says a lot about our identity."
The number that matters: 32.3% of the catches
Toney has 50 of Miami's 155 catches, 32.3%, and 758 of the team's 1,998 receiving yards, 37.9%. Next on the team is Cooper Barkate with 21 catches.
How I count it: his catches divided by every catch Miami logged in the ESPN box scores. That is a share of receptions, not of targets, which our box scores do not carry.
The honest caveat: the opener
The Stanford game was 47.4 of his 153.8 points. Without it, the other five games average 21.3. That is still a strong number, but it is a different player from the 25.6.
Look at his three lowest-catch games: 4, 5 and 6 catches, in wins by 70, 28 and 49 points. They are the games where a blowout takes passing volume away.
Touchdowns are doing a lot: eight of them, and a score in five of six games. That rate is hard to hold, so I read the 8.3 catches a game as the safer part.
Playoff weeks
Best Ball Playoffs · Miami (bye Week 6)
WEEK 11
vs Duke
WEEK 12
vs Virginia Tech
WEEK 13
vs Boston College
Three home games. Week 8 is Pitt at home, and Week 10 is a road game at Notre Dame.
Verdict: nothing to change about a pick at four
These are Underdog best ball teams. Nothing gets traded or dropped, so the verdict is about what I do in my next drafts at this price.
A receiver who gets a third of his offense's catches is what a top-four pick is supposed to be. I would draft him at that price again, and I would not move him ahead of Smith, who still has the higher average.
What would change my mind
If his catches stay between 4 and 6 in the next few games, the 12-catch games were the exception and the 25.6 was carried by one night.
If the touchdowns stop while Miami keeps winning big, the average falls toward the low 20s very quickly.
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Exposure figures from my own Underdog draft exports. ADP from Underdog best ball rankings. Statistics and quotes from published reporting. Nothing here is betting advice, and I am telling you what I did, not what you should do.