NY Giants wisely signed Devin Singletary over the other top RBs on their board

With the long-awaited release of Hard Knocks, we finally got our inside look at what the NY Giants front office has been up to this offseason. Some of the topics discussed were expected, including the drama that surrounded running back Saquon Barkley.

During the first episode, the front office discussed which replacements could be targeted if No. 26 were to leave town. While current running back Devin Singletary was mentioned, there were seemingly four other candidates, all of which we're glad Joe Schoen stayed away from.

NY Giants wisely signed Devin Singletary over the other top RBs on their board

As mentioned, the Giants primarily mentioned four other running backs alongside Singletary in their review of the free agent class: Josh Jacobs, D'Andre Swift, Tony Pollard, and Zack Moss. All of these backs have their strengths and weaknesses. However, compared to Singletary, it certainly seemed like Schoen made the right move.

Jacobs is a great talent, leading the league in rushing just one season ago. However, last year was disastrous for the back, rushing the ball 233 times for 805 yards and six touchdowns through 13 games, averaging 3.5 yards per carry. Considering he missed time due to a quad injury, and is 26 years old, the Giants definitely made the right move to pass on him. Jacobs instead signed a four-year, $48 million contract, way more than what SIngletary got.

Swift was by far my favorite heading into this class, but he has his own issues that likely would have made Singletary the better fit over him in this offense. Most notably, Swift almost never runs downhill. He is almost always looking to bounce outside for a big-time play. While for a team like the Eagles, who boast probably the best offensive line in the league, this will work, it would not with the Giants.

New York made improvements to their offensive line, but likely not enough to make it worth paying Swift $8 million annually to potentially spend half of his time getting tackled in the backfield due to his playing style.

Moss is an interesting case - while he had a moderately successful season with the Colts last year, he hadn't proved he could be an RB1 in the previous three years he was in the league. While he could have been a very cheap, low-risk, high-reward type of bet, Singletary was by far the safer option of the former Bills RBs.

Finally, we have Pollard, who, as was mentioned in the show, was coming off of a down season with the Cowboys. To put it simply, Pollard failed to be a genuine RB1 with the Cowboys, a far better team than the Giants, so seeing him in New York could have been an ugly show.