When the clock ticks round to the New York Giants’ second overall selection in this week’s NFL Draft, they may or may not get their hands on a once-in-a-generation talent.
Cleveland have the top (and the fourth) pick but are expected to snatch up one of the strong class of quarterbacks to finally solve their perennial problem under center. That would see running back Saquon Barkley of Penn State, who starred at the NFL Combine in February, fall into the Giants’ lap.
At this time of year, you can never believe a word coming out of any team’s camp – no-one wants to tip their hand. Franchises are more than happy to talk up a player to encourage another team to part with a king’s ransom to move ahead of that team to get the player they covet.
So no-one knows which way the Giants are leaning. Their two Super Bowl-winning quarterback Eli Manning is 37-years-old and coming off a season in which he was unceremoniously benched, ending his ironman streak of 210 straight starts since 2004. It’s worth noting, however, that the coach (Ben McAdoo) and general manager (Jerry Reese) that botched that benching were summarily dismissed at the end of the season.
The new regime of head coach Pat Shurmur and GM Dave Gettleman are projecting publicly that Manning is their, well, man. What then, do they do with their second overall pick? For the last few months, Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen was expected to come in and learn at the feet of their experienced quarterback before eventually replacing him.
But, cutting through all the smokescreens and rumours, sense seems to be prevailing and the name of Barkley sits next to Big Blue in the latest expert mock drafts.
Barkley, whose uncle Iran was a three-weight boxing world champion, would be box office in the Big Apple. The 6ft 233-pounder made an immediate impact in college – setting a Penn State freshman rushing record with 1,076 yards and seven touchdowns, despite only starting six games of 11 he played in and missing two more through injury.
Two more impressive seasons saw him become the only player in Nittany Lions history to gain 3,000 rushing and 1,000 receiving yards in a career and the eyes of NFL scouts turned to Pennsylvania.
What they saw drew comparisons to 2012 NFL MVP Adrian Peterson, the seventh overall pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2007. Powerful and elusive, Barkley gets stronger as the game goes on and is a better catcher of the ball than Peterson, who was just nine yards shy of breaking the single-season rushing record in 2012. No team has picked a running back as high as No2 since New Orleans snapped up Reggie Bush in 2006, however.
The Giants could yet surprise and take pass-rusher Bradley Chubb to replace Jason Pierre-Paul, who they traded to Tampa Bay in March, or cash in by swapping their prime spot for extra picks to a team desperate to grab Barkley or their beloved quarterback.
But should the Giants plump for Barkley, they’ll be teaming him with Manning, the incandescent Odell Beckham Jr, up-and-coming receiver Sterling Shepard, promising young tight end Evan Engram and the NFL’s best-paid offensive lineman Nate Solder, to form a potentially explosive offense.
And if the Giants decide to go in a different direction, they only have to wait two years until Saquon’s little brother Ali will be graduating – and he looks to have inherited the Barkley genes too.
