The Saquon Barkley conundrum for the New York Giants

On Monday, word leaked out drip by drip of running back Saquon Barkley’s injury at New York Giants practice.

Surely the team’s faithful were chanting: “Say it ain’t so.” Unfortunately for the New York Giants and their fans, it was true. Barkley had tweaked his hamstring stretching to make a catch along the left sidelines during practice.

Word of the malady trickled out via social media bit by bit, like a faucet dripping in the dead of the night. We heard: “Barkley caught the ball, but he’s limping back to the sidelines.” The former Penn State star was then seen with an ice pack on his upper leg, being treated by the trainer. Beat writers flooded Twitter with minute details, and the national media ran with the story.

Since I watched the end of the New York Mets – New York Yankees tussle in the Bronx, I figured I would grab a few seconds of ESPN’s Sports Center. The lead story was: “New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley injured at practice.”

New York Giants

Watching John Anderson quiz Jordan Raanan about the Barkley situation reminded me of the O.J. Simpson chase. The white Ford Bronco made a left turn, and now it’s getting on the freeway. The Bronco is now getting off the freeway….

You get the picture.

Don’t get the idea of making fun of Raanan, he’s one of the best beat reporters out there. He’s simply giving the people what they want. The entire situation makes me wonder if the entire nation has gone OCD, ADD or ADHD, or some combination thereof.

So now I get to throw the dead cat on the table. By drafting Barkley No. 2 overall, has Big Blue created a monster?

Stuff the genie back into the bottle?

First of all, before some fanatic accuses me of calling Barkley a monster, I am not. I am merely pointing out the difficulty the New York Giants are going to have controlling the Barkley narrative.  When your general manager says a player is “touched by the hand of God”, more than a few folks are going to take that commentary seriously.

From Dave Gettleman’s standpoint, I get it. In the league’s biggest media market, he defended the selection of a running back over a quarterback. But at some point, he may regret his choice of words.

From all accounts, Barkley appears to be the real deal, an immense talent, who appears to be focused on the task at hand. But as Monday afternoon reminded us, he’s also human.

For one minute, do you think the injury bug that bit the Washington Redskins running back Derrius Guice cared that he was a second-round draft pick? Was his injury more or less likely if he was on the second team?

The bottom line remains that injuries are random. The last time the New York Giants drafted a running back in the first-round was 2012. His name was David Wilson – do you remember him? Wilson’s NFL career was cut short five games into his second season with the club due to a neck injury. Certainly, it could have happened to any player at any position, but also don’t discount that running backs are in harm’s way more often that any other players on the field.

The other fact to consider is that the New York Giants are calling Barkley’s injury minor. Minor should mean he misses a practice or two. Let’s see if Barkley plays on Friday.

Barkley Rules

In the 1990s, the Detroit Pistons developed the “Jordan Rules” which were a specific strategy to defend Michael Jordan on the basketball court. Right now, head coach Pat Shurmur may have to implement the “Barkley Rules”, a set of standards just to handle the expectations on the Penn State rookie.

According to the team’s official website, there was some banter about Barkley’s injury at Tuesday’s press availability.

Per Giants.com:

"“Q: When he tweaks it yesterday and it’s somewhat minor, obviously you’d be cautious with a preseason game coming up Friday. What’s the head coach thinking?A: I think it’s day to day. Certainly, player safety is right on the front burner for all of us all the time, so if he’s able to go, he’ll play; if he’s not, then he won’t be out there.”"

The code word these day is safe. The Giants are playing it “safe” with Barkley. Therefore, don’t expect to see No. 26 compete against the Detroit Lions this week. Perhaps we can put Barkley in bubble wrap until the season opener against Jacksonville. Until then Shurmur will have to shuck and jive his way through these questions.

Four years ago, then-head coach Tom Coughlin complained that rookie Odell Beckham wasn’t on the field as he readied his team for the NFL regular season. Today, no one wants Barkley near the field until he is 150 percent healthy.

Truthfully, there’s a compromise between Coughlin’s old school position and the new paradigm under Barkley. With the expectations that have been heaped on the rookie running back, the Giants risk creating a parallel training camp. By all means the team should handle Barkley cautiously, but the kid gloves treatment doesn’t help Barkley or team one iota.