4 reasons to keep Saquon Barkley with Carmen Bricillo as new Giants OL coach

One of the first moves made this offseason for the NY Giants was making a drastic move for the offensive line and who watches over them. The Giants dismissed Bobby Johnson and hired Las Vegas Raiders offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo to be his replacement. Bricillo is tasked with turning around a unit that was ranked 30th by Pro Football Focus for three consecutive seasons.

Bicillo’s unit with the Raiders was near the top of the league in 2023, as they were 10th best. The Raiders offensive line did not include top of the league performers, which bodes well for a Giants OL that desperately needs better coaching for the linemen up front.

The arrival of Bricillo should also be good news for Saquon Barkley, especially if he decides to remain with the Giants with his upcoming free agency. Barkley is coming off a season where he rushed for 962 yards and six touchdowns in 14 games. Barkley posted 1,242 total yards and 10 total touchdowns for the Giants and was really their one lone bright spot on offense in a dismal offense in 2023.

However, with a new voice coaching the offensive line for the Giants, here is why the Giants should hang onto Barkley for 2024 and potentially beyond:

4. Saquon Barkley is still the best skill player on the offense

The Giants had several players on offense that had the potential for big seasons in 2023. Many thought Daniel Jones would be primed for a bigger 2023 campaign after getting a $160 million contract following the 2022 season that saw him lead the Giants to the postseason and win a playoff game with a 300-yard performance. He ended up struggling and was out for the year by November with a torn ACL.

Many also thought Darren Waller and Jalin Hyatt would give the Giants new elements in the passing game. While they showed flashes, Waller ended up hurt and missed five games with a hamstring issue. He ended up as the second leading pass-catcher as a result. Hyatt, like Waller, showed flashes with his speed. But there were too many games in which Hyatt was a disappearing act and didn’t post a single catch.

The one constant remains Barkley, who despite missing three games due to an ankle sprain, was the Giants best skill player with an almost 1,000-yard season on the ground. Barkley still finished with 10 total touchdowns, which shows he is still a threat in the ground game as well as the passing game.

Some have claimed that Barkley has lost a step and isn’t the same player he once was. Granted, he has gotten older, but the production is still there. Opposing teams still try to game plan for No. 26 each week. Even with the changes on the Giants, Barkley is still their best player on offense and that would remain the same if he does return.

3. Josh Jacobs' success behind Carmen Bricillo’s OL bodes well for Saquon Barkley

If you go back and look at the 2022 season for the Raiders, Josh Jacobs had a ton of success running the ball in front of Bricillo’s unit, which finished 10th overall. Jacobs led the league with 1,653 rushing yards and had 2,053 all-purpose yards. In 2023, Jacobs took a step back and also dealt with the injury bug as well, which led to him only rushing for 805 yards and six touchdowns.

Jacobs is almost two years younger and yet, even with an immensely better offensive line, had less production in 2023 than Barkley did with the inferior offensive line. Barkley outproduced him by over 100 yards total, as Jacobs had 1,101 total yards.

It goes to show that even though Jacobs is a younger back, Barkley is still a special talent who has shown that he can produce behind some very poorly played lines put in front of him. Just imagine what Barkley can put up with an improved unit? That's where Bricillo can come in for Saquon and the rest of the offense.

2. The Giants unknown quarterback situation

Who the starting quarterback will be for the Giants in 2024 is one of the biggest unknowns and biggest questions heading into the offseason. Will it be Daniel Jones? Will they draft a quarterback in April? Will Tyrod Taylor come back? Will the Giants sign a short-term option if Jones isn’t healthy? Some of these questions are the ones that Joe Schoen is asking himself over and over again.

If it is Jones, he’s an injury-prone and rather unlucky quarterback who suffered a second neck injury and is recovering from ACL surgery - these injuries limited him to just six games in 2023. If Jones gets the starting nod for Week 1, or at any point in 2024, he will desperately need for the offensive line to improve, especially since he was sacked 30 times in six games and his play didn’t exactly improve after he got his pay raise.

Or, if it is a rookie quarterback, they are going to want a decent enough offensive line to hold them up and not have what happened with Tommy DeVito, who was sacked 37 times in the six starts he made and nine total games he appeared in.

With the uncertainty the Giants have at quarterback, and the offensive line, bringing back the one certainty the Giants have had in Barkley to be back with the offense would be ideal, especially over trying to start fresh with a running back who doesn’t have the same abilities as Barkley. Schoen needs to find a way to get something done with him.

1. Zero guarantee the offensive line gets better

The Giants have had a bit of a revolving door when it comes to who has coached the offensive line group. Going back to the Tom Coughlin era, he had Pat Flaherty, who was regarded as one of the better coaches they had for the unit. Mike Solari was then the offensive line coach under Ben McAdoo and for Steve Spagnuolo’s interim term. Then there was Hal Hunter for Pat Shurmur’s two-year stint.

Marc Colombo was briefly the offensive line coach during the 2020 season until he had an issue with Joe Judge and was fired midseason. Dave DeGugliemo was brought in to finish the season before he departed for his next venture. Rob Sale was the final line coach under Judge before he left and Judge was dismissed.

That leaves Johnson, who coached the unit for the last two years and the line was ranked near the bottom of the league before Bricillo was hired. The Giants offensive line has seen a lot of coaches come and go to coach the OL. Over the last 10 years, the one unfortunate constant has been low rankings for the units.

The highest ranked unit over the last 10 years was in 2019 when they were 17th best. The rest of the units were in the mid-to-low 20s or in the 30s. With Barkley on board, he’s had poorly played units in front of him, yet, he’s still produced tremendous results that have made many consider him to be a top-tier back in the league.

Even with the arrival of Bricillo, there is no guarantee of an improved line. Would the Giants want to risk not having their best skill player back again with no guarantee of improvement for the OL? There’s no guarantee any running back can step in and do what Barkley has done since his debut. Even when the Giants were without Barkley for the three weeks in 2023, the running game was almost non-existent.

Matt Breida wasn’t good enough, nor was Gary Brightwell. Eric Gray, the Giants fifth-round pick from the 2023 NFL Draft, looked like he needed much more work. For the “running backs are a dime a dozen” crowd, they really aren’t. Having Saquon makes the Giants a better team and he gives them a better chance to win. He’s the one constant and guarantee on a team that hasn’t had many of them on offense.