Everyone knows Saquon Barkley would not have been a Most Valuable Player candidate, a record-breaking running back and a Super Bowl champion had he stayed with the Giants. That supposition was repeated so often the past few weeks — as Barkley and the Eagles advanced deeper and deeper into the playoffs — that it almost sounded as if the Giants were innocent bystanders in all this.
What became more evident as Barkley churned out yards and, at times, carried the Birds on his broad shoulders and tree-trunk thighs was that the Giants really screwed this one up. Sure, taking Barkley with the No. 2-overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft went against virtually every position-value chart and every draft analyst recommendation. You do not take a running back with a top-five pick. You can get them later, after the first round, and even on the third day (rounds 4-7) of the draft.
But if you do chart a different course, then you better make darn sure you build your team around that running back and not expect him to put on a cape and be a superhero.
The Giants — former general manager Dave Gettleman, specifically — went against that conventional wisdom because Gettleman viewed Barkley as a once-in-a-generation offensive weapon. Debate that all you want. Barkley showed more than a few bursts of greatness in his six seasons with the Giants, but he went down with routine ankle and knee injuries and also a torn ACL that limited him to two games in 2020. By the end of his run with the Giants, he failed to reach 1,000 rushing yards (962 in 14 games), averaged a paltry 3.9 yards per attempt and managed only one 100-yard game the entire 2023 season. He did not look like a spry 27-year old.
