4 Big Questions Facing the Giants at the Start of 2024 Season

4. How is the running game going to look without Saquon Barkley?

If there is any position on the Giants roster that will look different this season, it’s the running backs group now that Saquon Barkley is no longer with the franchise. 

For the past six seasons, Barkley has controlled the position as the Giants' lead hog and central weapon of the offense. Despite injuries taking their toll on him, the former No. 2 overall pick carried the team with three separate 1,000+ yard campaigns, including his career-high 1,312-yard and 10 touchdown season in 2022 when the Giants made the playoffs. He was also a dual threat with his receiving abilities in the flat, putting another 2,100 yards and 12 scores to his pro resume. 

With the rest of the offense not as strong as it could be now, Barkley was the centerpiece that the Giants relied on for 20-30 carries per game and often came at a detriment to their success.

Opposing defenses were keying in on the running back heavy and stuffing the gaps, preventing him from impacting the game and leaving New York with a dismal offense that struggled to reach the endzone and put points up on the board. 

While the hope was to bring Barkley back to play alongside an improved offense with playmakers out wide to complement him, Schoen decided he wasn’t going to engage in the bidding wars for a player he didn’t select and didn’t value as high as other positions on the roster.

Barkley went to the divisional rival Philadelphia Eagles and now the Giants are going with a running backs group whose identity needs to be determined in the regular season. 

The Giants signed Devin Singletary, another player with ties to Schoen and Daboll from Buffalo, to serve as the new headliner of the position after a high-production year for the Houston Texans. In 17 games last fall, Singletary had his career-high 216 carries for 898 yards and four touchdowns, averaging about 12-13 handoffs per contest.

Behind him will be rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr, whom the Giants like for his physical running and dual-threat abilities coming from his prior wide receiver background, and Eric Gray, who is seeking a bigger role with Barkley out of the picture. The team may use a committee approach to their three backs, but focus the majority of the reps, at a lesser level than before, for Singletary. 

Given how they’ve upgraded the wide receiver position to play a more aggressive style of offense this year, it’s doubtful that the Giants hand the ball off to Singletary 30 times a game like they did with Barkley and hope he breaks a few in the process.

Singletary will get a good workload on early downs and red zone packages, but expect some late down snaps or zone looks to go towards Tracy Jr. with his outside-the-tackle speed and passing concepts. 

Either way, the Giants must at least maintain the semblance of average running they had last season if they want to have a fully competitive offense. The Giants were ranked 16th in attempts (454) and yards (1,874) last season while averaging the 18th most yards per carry (4.1).

Scoring was an issue though, and when it wasn’t coming from the air, New York was left fighting for every possession on the other side to sneak out of football games. 

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