Philly Front Office

Do you know any Giants fans? They were down so bad by the time the Super Bowl came around that they convinced themselves that they were happy that the absolutely despised Eagles won because of Saquon Barkley. These were the same fans that burned his jersey and screamed how awful a deal it was just a few months earlier. Imagine your worst enemy knocking you out, stealing your girl/man, and taking your job every week for 5 months. That was Giants fans by the end. They just had nothing left.

Going into the 2018 off season the Giants were coming off just a god-awful year, worse than normal. They had to fire their coach, Ben McAdoo, before the end of the season because of how badly he botched the Eli Manning situation, unnecessarily ending his iron man streak to start Geno Smith. Oh, and he was a total dufus. The team went 3-13 and owned the 2nd pick in the draft.

Now when a team goes 3-13, a lot has to go wrong. This isn’t a wall patch or even a bathroom renovation, this necessitates a full scale rebuild. Naturally, any team this bad needs a QB, lineman, or elite defender to build around. You either start with a leader or you start with a foundation. You do not start with fancy appliances.

Quenton Nelson was considered the best and most sure thing prospect in the draft. Guards don’t usually go #2 overall though and Nelson went 6th, since making 6 All-Pro teams and 8 pro bowls. Yup, he was a sure thing. Josh Allen went 7th overall. He was considered the most talented passer, but coming from Wyoming, he was a wildcard. He has been Top-5 MVP 4 times, winning last year. If they wanted a different kind of leader, Roquan Smith was available and has been a 5-time All-Pro at LB. They could have even traded down to get a slew of picks like the Colts did with the Jets at #3. Instead, the Giants drafted a running back.

Granted, this is Saquon Barkley we are talking about. He is a generational running back in the Barry Sanders, Adrian Peterson mold and everyone knew it. But still, the Giants had absolutely no infrastructure for him to run behind. No QB, no linemen, no chance. They bought the appliances despite not having a house. The last real draft pick they had used on an offensive lineman was in 2015 with Erick Flowers. Statistically, Flowers was the worst tackle in the league in 2017 and he was released early in the 2018 season. Nothing in 2016. Nothing in 2017. They did draft Will Hernandez after Barkley in 2018. Nothing again in 2019. In case you were wondering, that whole time the Eagles had Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Brandon Brooks, and Jason Kelce and STILL drafted 5 offensive linemen. Needless to say, Barkley was set up to fail.

Despite the team around him, Barkley was electric his first year as a Giant winning ROY, rushing for 1300 yards, and catching 91 passes! The Giants rewarded him by drafting Daniel Jones over…well…it was an awful draft for linemen. Still, they could have drafted Jonah Williams from Alabama who went 11th or any number of defensive guys like Josh Hines-Allen or Brian Burns (LOL). Jones was considered an overdraft immediately and only ever looked worse from there. The Giants missed out on several notable offensive linemen in later rounds including Jawaan Taylor, Elgton Jenkins, Cody Ford and Eric McCoy. The Giants did manage to forfeit their 3rd round pick that year for taking Sam Beal in the supplemental draft the year before. Beal played in 9 games in 3 seasons for the Giants and is now out of the league after mixing a cocktail of ineffectiveness, bad attitude, and weapon/drug charges.

For the next 5 years, Barkley battled injuries and poor coaching with no line and no QB. The Giants toiled in mediocrity or worse while watching their worst enemy win a Super Bowl, go to another, and turn nobodies into near thousand-yard running backs at will.

Everyone from those old great Eagles lines are gone except for Lane Johnson. Still, the Eagles managed to draft and develop an all new All-Pro level unit with Jordan Mailata, Cam Jurgens, and Landon Dickerson. Mailata is considered the best lineman in football and Dickerson was the highest paid guard until last week. Lane Johnson is still dominating on the way to his eventual enshrinement in Canton. Along with Mekhi Becton this season, it was the biggest offensive line ever assembled.

The Giants decided to give Daniel Jones a 4/$160m extension and franchise tag Saquon. The next year, they made almost no effort to resign him at all, comically broadcasting their brain trust to the world. In all candidness, this wasn’t a bad move by the Giants in theory. They were damned if they again signed a running back with no infrastructure and damned if they didn’t resign easily their best offensive player. What they couldn’t have is Barkley going to the Eagles. That’s like betting on black AND red in roulette and having it come up green. Wouldn’t you know it, double green zero for the Giants.

Surely the Eagles overpaid Barkley, a running back, with his 3/$37.75m deal. HE IS WASHED! The Eagles, known to be one of the better and smarter organizations in the league, just screwed up. Except, obviously, they didn’t. One of the first things I wrote on this website was that Barkley’s contract, compared to all of those replaceable WR3s out there was a steal. I received so many “well actually”s from Giants fans after the signing when I tried to explain how good the deal was, they didn’t want to hear it. They couldn’t. This was their worst possible reality, and they knew it. Then the season started.

Saquon just had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history. Full stop. 2000+ yards, most yards ever in a full season, seven 60+ yard TDs (and it felt like more), 3rd in MVP voting, a Super Bowl, and some of the most memorable and ridiculous plays you’ve ever seen (serious question, which Saquon run are you going to remember more: the reverse hurdle, the banger in the snow, or the leadoff home run against Washington?). He made a lot out of nothing sometimes, but most runs he isn’t even touched until he bounces off a linebacker or DB. ProFootballReference has a stat called Success Rate which is measured as 40% needed for a first down on first down, 60% on second down, and 100% on 3rd or 4th down. Barkley was successful 52.5% of the time.

Instead of settling for the contract he already signed and outperformed, the Eagles rewarded him with the title of highest paid running back in league history. His 2/$41m extension wasn’t necessary but it was deserved (also, it’s a good deal). This was just 2 years after he was given the franchise tag and basically declared a second-class citizen behind Daniel Jones. The Eagles respect him.

Saquon Barkley is going to go down as one of the greatest players of all time. He is a superhero in football clothes. Already an all-time Eagle, he will eventually go into the Hall of Fame in midnight green.

Thank you to http://www.profootballreference.com for every single stat in the world.