New York Giants: Why Big Blue made the right choice with Saquon Barkley
The New York Giants selected Saquon Barkley with the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Many Giants fans are upset that they took Barkley over Sam Darnold, but the G-Men made the right decision.
The New York Giants finally decided to take a running back who can make a serious impact in Saquon Barkley. By now you have heard the stories that the Giants took Ereck Flowers a pick before Todd Gurley was taken, took Paul Perkins a pick before Jordan Howard, traded the pick where Le’Veon Bell was selected, and many other instances where they messed up. It finally appears as if they got it right.
The Giants could not have done any better with this pick. Sure they signed Jonathan Stewart to a two-year, $8.4 million deal but why would they start a running back who went for only 680 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns over a guy who is drawing comparisons to Le’Veon Bell?
Barkley rushed for 1,271 yards and 18 touchdowns last season at Penn State while leading the Nittany Lions to a Fiesta Bowl win over Washington. Barkley, like few other players in the draft, has the ability to impact the Giants immediately.
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Saquon Barkley is said to have the best draft profile we have seen for a running back in recent memory and it would have been idiotic for the Giants to take a quarterback instead of Barkley.
“The Giants should’ve taken Sam Darnold over Saquon Barkley!”
There are quite a few Giants fans who believe Sam Darnold would have been the more logical choice for Big Blue. But why? With Davis Webb behind Eli Manning, the Giants will be fine for the near future. Eli has 3-5 years left in him and after that, Webb will be ready to take over.
We have yet to see Webb get action in a regular season game so how could you say he won’t be good? During his senior year at Cal, Webb threw for 4,295 yards and 37 touchdowns to go with only 12 interceptions. Webb has serious potential and it would have been idiotic of the Giants to give up on him and take Darnold.
Let’s compare Davis Webb’s stats from his senior year to Sam Darnold’s:
Name Att./Comp. Pct. Yards Touchdowns Interceptions
Davis Webb 620/382 61.6 4,295 37 12
Sam Darnold 480/303 63.1 4,143 26 13
Next: Answering the Questions About the Saquon Barkley Pick
Pretty dang similar huh? Webb beats Darnold in everything except for completion percentage. So if they’re that much alike, why would the Giants give up on Webb to take Darnold and in doing so pass up on yet another future Pro Bowl running back?
Like it or not, the New York Giants made the right choice drafting Saquon Barkley.