Welcome to fantasy football land: Where running backs matter

I have been on the record from day one that Barkley was not the best pick for the NY Giants when they selected him 2nd overall in the 2018 NFL Draft.

Some NY Giants fans still do not understand.

That take had very little to do with the player and more to do with the value of running backs in todays NFL coupled with the fact that the Giants roster at that time was not a Saquon Barkley and Nate Solder away from being a contender in 2018.

Barkley as player is a dream talent. He truly is match-up nightmare if deployed correctly by the offense (I’m looking at you Jason Garrett).

The concerns I have for Barkley heading into this season?

1. When will he play? We know he will be eased in, but what does that look like? If he misses the start of the season does the “easing in” continue into October?
2. Will the Giants deploy more of a committee approach in Barkley’s return? We know for sure this will happen early on, but what if Barkley is delayed and isn’t ready for week 1 or week 2? What if Booker plays well early on? Does that impact Barkley’s touches all season long?
3. And would that be a smart play by the Giants considering most players take a full year of playing the game again to really fully recover from the type of injury Barkley sustained. Most of the players coming back from these type of injuries state they feel a lot more like themselves in year two of their comebacks.

All valid questions.

But none of these questions scare me off of Barkley if I am sitting at 5 overall or later in Fantasy drafts this season. Picks one through four? I can see going another direction if the questions above concern you, but unless you are at pick 1.01 (CMac all day), Barkley is and should be in the conversation for every other 1st round pick.

2021 Fantasy Outlook via ESPN:

"“Barkley returns to the New York backfield in search of a bounce back campaign following a 2020 season in which a knee injury limited him to 64 snaps. Barkley was the feature back, as expected, out of the gate, handling 15 carries and nine targets while playing 88% of the snaps in Week 1. That aligned with his usage during his first two NFL seasons. Barkley paced all RBs in yardage and fantasy points as a rookie in 2018 and ranked third in yardage and fourth in fantasy points during his 12 full games in 2019. There are suddenly a lot of mouths to feed in New York, but Barkley is one of the few backs in the league who will push for 25 touches every week. The 24-year-old remains an elite RB1.”"

Word to Wise:

The offensive line and Daniel Jones can end up holding back Barkley in a big way. If the Giants young QB takes the Josh Allen type leap many think he can, and the young Oline  comes together, Big Blue sky is the limit for not only Barkley, but the entire Giants offense.