New York Giants: Does The Offense "Need" Saquon Barkley

The New York Giants are currently in a contract negotiation stage with star running back Saquon Barkley. Whether or not a deal is close is a different story but it makes you wonder. Can the Giants be as successful on offense without their star running back? Will they be able to do what other teams do and load up on a “running back by committee” approach and save a few million bucks? There’s no guarantee that it will be a strategy that will pay off so the ball is in New York’s court.

The Giants are a run-first team. Whether it’s by design or due to the fact they’ve constantly put wide receivers in the IR, New York lives to run the football. Saquon has been the heart of that run game since he entered the league despite racking up yards in the passing game. If the Giants were to move on, it would take a big move to replace him. That or a bunch of small ones that may or may not pay off. Consider this, the second leading rusher on the New York Giants was Daniel Jones. Jones had 708 rushing yards (according to ESPN). Who was the next closest running back? Matt Brieda with 220.

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But that’s not the concerning part of the Giants’ struggles. If you look at their passing game last year, the leading receiver was Darius Slayton with 724 receiving yards. To put that in perspective. Daniel Jones as a quarterback had almost as many rushing yards, as the New York Giants’ leading WR had receiving yards. That’s a rare feat in a pass-happy league these days. Brian Daboll had the offense looking like it was ready to compete but there’s more work to do in the passing game.

That’s why a deal with Barkley is key. You can afford to lose your leading rusher if you have a backup plan. You can also afford to lose your leading rusher if you have one of the top passing offenses in the league. There’s no way you can afford to lose your most productive player when you’re not firing on all cylinders. That’s not to say someone in the offense wouldn’t step up but that’s also not to say that the plays Daniel Jones extended with his legs would continue to work out either.

It’s easy for a quarterback to be given a lot of room to run when the defense has to account for a running back who can make them pay in one-on-one matchups. When a defense has to shift focus to the one side of the football that Saquon is on, it leaves a pretty large gap for the QB to take off. Misdirects are the key to their offense and you’re not going to get as many with an unproven back or committee of backs. Barkley’s explosiveness keeps defenses honest and the Giants need to account for that.

Losing Saquon Barkley might not doom the New York Giants, but they sure better have a damn good backup plan in place.