These 9 players have been NY Giants’ biggest disappointments of 2021 season
NY Giants Disappointment #2: RB Saquon Barkley
Saquon Barkley is the most disappointing player on this 2021 roster.
It seems like this has been Barkley’s reputation ever since 2019 after his sparkling rookie season.
Barkley has not had one complete season since his 2018 year-one campaign. Barkley has missed extended time in every season since, missing 3 games in 2019, 14.5 games last year, and another 4 missed games this year (and counting). Saquon has been an abject disaster draft pick for a team who selected him to fix the broken 2018 offense.
Through three-plus seasons, absolutely nothing’s changed with Barkley, his impact on the team, and the team’s failure to build around and make him the all-purpose threat he should be.
The NY Giants’ offensive line has been completely inept at run blocking, Barkley’s offensive coordinators haven’t done enough to put him in easy positions to succeed, and quite frankly, Saquon tries to do far too much way too often.
It’s a frustrating trait Barkley possesses, where he refuses to take some easy and much-needed ‘dirty’ runs that go for 4-6 yards inside the interior of the line. Barkley isn’t a great pass blocker, and he struggles to find the open hole or use patience and combine it with his vision to make a greater habit of springing big plays.
Barkley’s career highlight reel is often defined by game-breaking 40, 50, 70 yard plays.
But, what you don’t see often enough or isn’t talked about enough, is the 13-15 plays in between every Barkley big play that will go for either one measly yard, or worse: Saquon has an exponential amount of plays ending in negative or no yards at all. Too often, he not only doesn’t help the offense, but his usage actually hurts the overall team.
Barkley has again missed half the season in 2021, this time with a peculiar low-ankle injury that’s kept him out for four weeks now.
Even before his injury, Barkley was near useless his first two games before heating up vs Atlanta and in New Orleans. He’s now played five games, missed four games, and been completely ineffective in two of the games played. Barkley’s positive impact on the team doesn’t happen nearly enough and his injured status makes it even worse.
Saquon plays at the most devalued, lowly-paid, and least important individual skill position in football. That’s simply the reality of the NFL in 2021. Teams are much, much better suited going with a strong committee of 2-3 solid to average running backs who are dynamic and complement each other by being good at different things. Running with one lone soldier is almost never going to work. It has caused Barkley’s body to break down now three seasons in a row. Why should he be trusted again for the future?
The once-tantalizing talent Saquon possessed is no longer magic.
Defenses have made a living making him look mortal despite the athletic and physical gifts he clearly possesses. The NY Giants haven’t had a good enough replacement plan in place in his absence. Devontae Booker has been a tough, admirable replacement, but where is the speed and explosiveness in the backfield?
The NY Giants rolled with just Booker and Eli Penny at running back the last two weeks and Penny is a glorified fullback.
The Giants have an extremely odd, weird way of handling running backs. They value the position strong enough to use the team’s biggest draft asset since Lawrence Taylor in 1981 on running back but will also deploy no-names like Jon Hilliman, Penny, and Gary Brightwell and instead focus on washed-up veterans like Jonathan Stewart and Booker.
This team has sorely missed a dynamic option in the backfield for years to make more plays and move the chains a la Ahmad Bradshaw. Saquon can’t do it all on his own and the NY Giants have seen in every Super Bowl run just how effective a running game with depth has been.
In 1986, Joe Morris helped pave the way to the Rose Bowl, OJ Anderson and Rodney Hampton carried the Giants to Tampa Bay with the help of Dave Meggett, even Tiki Barber and Ron Dayne were a strong pairing in the 2000 Super Bowl loss, and Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs pushed the heavy sledding in 2007 and 2011.
Barkley was the NY Giants’ biggest draft mistake maybe in the last 25 years.
His selection has not helped the team, Barkley has only regressed and gotten injury-prone, and his performance has decreased each season as time has gone on. Barkley is eligible for an extension after the season. After seeing what has happened to Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey, and Nick Chubb this season with injuries, is it really smart for the NY Giants to invest in a running back and likely continue to not win?
Only time will tell.