Good for Saquon Barkley, but don't hate on Giants for decision, either
Giants head coach Brian Daboll (right) talks to the media before practice with general manager Joe Schoen during training camp at the Quest Diagnostics Training Center in East Rutherford, NJ, on Wednesday, Jul 27, 2022. Credit: Brad Penner
Don’t hate on Saquon Barkley.
As stomach-churning as those digitally manipulated photos of him wearing a green Eagles uniform may be, as unappetizing as seeing him hold up that jersey at a news conference sometime in the coming days will seem, there is no reason to blame him.
He gave the Giants just about everything they thought they were getting when they used the second overall pick in 2018 to select him.
He gave them his unyielding spirit and optimism.
He gave them his considerable physical efforts, both in health and through several serious injuries.
He gave them stability and identity and a cornerstone for their offensive game plans.
And he gave them ample opportunities to sign him to a long-term contract that made sense for him and would have kept him in blue for the foreseeable future.
The one thing he couldn’t deliver for the Giants, though, was a winner.
Just one of his six years with the team produced a record that was over .500 at any point in those seasons. There were only two playoff games during his Giants tenure. In the 76 regular-season and postseason games in which he appeared for the Giants, the team was 26-49-1.
Not all of that is Barkley’s fault, of course. The Giants failed him just as much — well, probably more — than he did them.
A running back can carry the ball, but he can’t singlehandedly carry a franchise. Not with the offensive lines the Giants put out in front of Barkley and the quarterbacks and receivers they had him playing with. Not with the rotation of coaches they brought in and sent off during his time here.
So now Barkley heads to a team that has a solid offensive front and other weaponry. He goes to a team that has a recent pedigree of success. And he’s found a team that thinks he is worth, in financial terms, a hell of a lot more than the Giants did.
That it happens to be a team with which he can prove his value to the Giants twice a season over the next few years? Consider that the signing bonus.
Good for him.
But don’t hate on the Giants, either. They’re finally on track with what seems to be a plan. They didn’t budge off what they wanted to pay a running back in today’s NFL, even if it is one who brings all the peripheral positives that Barkley offered. The moment they declined to use the franchise tag on him a second straight season last week was the moment they knew they probably would lose him. And they were OK with that.
So they brought in another running back, Devin Singletary, one familiar to general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll from their time together in Buffalo. One whom they were able to sign at about half the price Barkley cost the Eagles. Singletary isn’t the talent Barkley is, but he’s certainly more than 50% of what Barkley offers.
And it frees up money for the Giants to spend elsewhere, as they already seem to be doing, with agreements in place for guard Jon Runyan Jr. and tackle Jermaine Eluemunor along with a trade for Panthers edge rusher Brian Burns.
So whom should we hate? This is America in 2024. Somebody needs to be hated, right?
Well, if you must, hate the NFL and its salary cap-beholden, free agency-driven universe. It’s a world in which players change teams and fans are stuck with closets full of the poorly aging purchased jerseys. Barkley’s 26 now will have to hang next to Odell Beckham Jr.’s 13 and Landon Collins’ 21 and Xavier McKinney’s 29 and James Bradberry’s 24 and, if you were among the truly snookered, Kenny Golladay’s 19. (Save a hanger in there for your No. 8 jersey, too, if these recent moves are any indication of where the Giants are headed.)
Barkley and the Giants, they are just the latest participants in a merry-go-round league.
The good news is that one of them will be the clear winner. Over the course of the next few seasons, thanks to the head-to-head meetings guaranteed to take place, we will know whether Barkley and the Eagles were right in establishing the value of the player or if the Giants were correct in not budging from their budget and spending elsewhere.
Heck, in the short and long term, there’s even a chance that both can be right.
That won’t make it any easier to watch Barkley taking handoffs from Jalen Hurts and adding his sizable quad strength to the “Tush Pushes.” But as much as that will sting New Yorkers, remember, for those actually involved, it’s not personal.
They made their decisions.
It’s simply business in the NFL.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
