5 options for the NY Giants to replace the injured Saquon Barkley

3. Isaiah Crowell

Despite being considered by draft experts as a potential mid-round selection, Isaiah Crowell ended up going undrafted in the 2014 NFL Draft and quickly signed on with the Cleveland Browns as a priority UDFA signing.

Crowell made the most of that oppurtunity as he impressed in camp and was featured in the offense right out of the gates, and his hardn-nosed running style led to him having a very successfull rookie campaign. Crowell ended 2014 with 607 yards on a 4.1 yards-per-carry average while posting an impressive 8 rushing TD’s.

The former Alabama State star wound up starting four games as a rookie and headed into the 2015 season as the team’s projected starter. While he did end up starting nine games in his sophomore season, his rushing average dipped to 3.8.

Crowell had a huge bounce back effort during the 2016 campaign with Cleveland as he started all 16 games while setting career highs in rushing yards (952), yards-per-carry (4.8), receptions (40), and recieving yards (319). The young runningback also continued to show that he was a legit red-zone option as he added another 9 TD’s on the ground.

Although he put together another solid season in 2017 with the Browns while starting all 16 games again, the team chose not to re-sign him in free agency as he inked a three-year, $12M contract with the New York Jets.

Starting six games for his new team, Crowell was very effective as he one again posted a 4.8 rushing average while setting the Jet’s single-game rushing record with 219 yards against the Broncos in Week 5.

His efforts weren’t enough for the Jets to retain him for year two of that deal as the franchise went out and signed superstar Le’Veon Bell, making Crowell a cap casualty in the process.

That’s where things started to go downhill for him, as he took a big paycut when he signed on with the Oakland Raiders (one-year, $1M) before tearing his Achilles early on during team workouts. The Raiders immediately put him on injured reserve and he missed the entire 2019 season as a result.

Even though torn Achilles’ have proven to be a nasty injury, the incident occured all the way back in April of 2019 so Crowell should have healed up by now.

Standing 5’11” tall and weighing in at 225 pounds, Crowell could be exactly what the NY Giants need as they would have a ‘thunder and lightning’ duo of sorts with him and Dion Lewis.

While he’s no Saquon Barkley (who is?), he should do a decent job fillig in for him should he be brought in.

He shouldn’t fetch more than the veteran’s minimum and is still just 27-years-old, so there really wouldn’t be much risk in bringing him aboard.