Remember the 2018 NFL Draft being so critical for the NY Giants after their injury plagued 2017 season? The season where then coach Ben Macadoo benched Eli Manning ending his record of consecutive starts (210) and Giants fans went and bought a billboard saying “Big Blue Shame On You” because they were so annoyed that John Mara let Macadoo place Geno Smith over Manning. Oh but Manning did get his spot back and nothing changed. Giants went 3-13, the first time since 1983 where Giants finished with three wins or less.
The only light in that gloomy 2017 season was receiving the second overall pick. Yet, Giants had to ask themselves: Sam Darnold or Saquon Barkley? Get a young mobile quarterback to work with the offensive line, get the ball down field & replace Manning or grab a dominant running back who can help Manning and work around the line? The debates were never-ending but they went with Saquon Barkley from Penn State. Was it the right decision?
Giants general manager Dave Gettleman said it was the right pick back in April. “I haven’t seen a guy like this in a long time, and I’ve been running around doing this for 30-plus years. He is the unanimous best player in the draft.”
If you take a look at the top rookie quarterbacks from that draft (we won’t include Baker Mayfield since it was confirmed he was going to the Cleveland Browns), Giants did in fact made the right decision.
Josh Allen has started in nine games for the Buffalo Bills and has five touchdowns and nine interception. Sam Darnold, the one Giants fans wanted the most, started in one more game than Allen. Darnold has 12 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. Josh Rosen, who you don’t hear about much, started in 11 games and has 10 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Overall, Bills are 4-9, Jets are 4-9 and the Cardinals are 3-10. Yes, you can argue Giants have a losing record too sitting at 5-9, but they’ve improved from last season, they still have a chance to make playoffs (very small chance but it’s there), they signed one of the best wide receivers to a long-term deal and they have the best running back in the NFL.
Former Giants receiver Victor Cruz, currently an ESPN analyst, said he’s better than Cowboys Ezekiel Elliot and LA Rams’ Todd Gurley. Well lets take a look at the stats.
Per the NFL, as of Week 14:
- Elliott has 1,262 rushing yards, 502 receiving yards, 9 touchdowns (3 receiving), 4 fumbles
- Gurley has 1,203 rushing yards, 504 receiving yards, 19 touchdowns (4 receiving), 1 fumble
- Barkley has 1,124 rushing yards, 629 receiving yards, 13 touchdowns (4 receiving), 0 fumble
Now lets look at the run blocking for each team. Per FootballOutsider, the LA Rams are ranked number one and the Dallas Cowboys are ranked 9th. The NY Giants: 24th. This means the offensive line barely opens the lane for Barkley. This is mind-blowing when Barkley has six games with over 100 rushing yards and is currently second in total yards from scrimmage (1,753). Manning is on the decline and Barkley still manages to catch for 629 yards, the third highest receiving yards on the Giants (Odell Beckham 1052, Sterling Shepard 655). This is why some say he is the best running back. He’s outrunning players, breaking linebackers ankles with juke moves, bunny hopping over the secondary and all this with a bottom ranked offensive line. He’s not receiving the same luxury Gurley and Elliott are with their linemen. Just imagine putting Barkley in with Jared Goff and that offense.
Former NYJ coach Rex Ryan is a fan of Barkley and says the kid is the new face of the Giants franchise. “The best player is Saquon Barkley, give him the ball at least 30 time a game. It’s not that hard.”
After his big performance against the Washington Redskins (170 rushing yards, 27 receiving yards, 1 touchdown) last Sunday, Max Kellerman said on Twitter, “Saquon Barkley was the greatest RB prospect of all time, and is already the best RB in the NFL.”
If anything, we can all agree he is Rookie of the Year and he’s proven all the doubters wrong.
Flip to see what else former Giants Victor Cruz had to say about Barkley and the other running backs in the league.