New York Giants: Is Saquon Barkley Doomed To Become The Next Barry Sanders?
The New York Giants have one of the best running backs in the NFL and the good part is, he hasn’t hit his prime, yet. In 2018, the Giants selected Saquon Barkley out of Penn State University in hopes he could revive a ground game and a franchise looking to get back to the playoffs.
While Barkley proved his worth, the Giants’ season left many unanswered questions. The main one that comes to mind is, how much more will Barkley have to do in order for the Giants to achieve success? The individual accolades are there, however, winning in the NFL, any sport, is still defined by team success.
No matter the amount of yards Barkley gains, he may be on track to have a career in which only Barry Sanders can fully understand.
For starters, Sanders is arguably the best RB to ever play in the NFL. While he and Barkley share some similarities, it’s one that will define those traits. Will the Giants become the next Detroit Lions and continue to fall short? Over the course of his career, Sanders gained 15,269 yards and 99 touchdowns on 3062 carries in 10 seasons. He was a beast with a ball in his hands. But he wanted more.
Now, in all fairness, Barkley has just began his quest, but Sanders was in a class by himself.
Today’s NFL is set up to extend a RB’s career with teams imploring either a two or three back set. For the majority of his career, Sanders was the lone back in the backfield. Defenses knew he was getting the ball but was still unable to stop him. But for Barry, it was never about the yards or records, it was winning.
During his career, the Lions made the playoffs just five times and never reached a single NFC Championship Game. To add more injury to insult is that Sanders, for as great as he was, was not able to duplicate regular season success in the playoffs.
In 10 seasons, he has never rushed for under 1000 yards. However, he’s had playoff games in which he’s netted -1 yard and two more under 70 yards. But still, Barry Sanders wanted to win, deserved to win but couldn’t get over that hump.
This is the main area where Saquon Barkley must be better than Sanders.
The New York Giants are entering a stage where they’re looking to rebuild but not in the same way the Cleveland Browns have gone. They still have Eli Manning but 2019 appears to be his final season. Their receiving core took a hit with the trade of Odell Beckham and to replace him, the Giants signed Golden Tate. Barkley will have no real reliable help from the passing game which will put extra pressure on him to outperform his rookie season.
Rushing titles are good. But leading your team to a Super Bowl is even better. Sanders was not done with the NFL when he abruptly walked away. He was tired of the losing and walked away from the Lions. What happens if Barkley is put in the same situation? He can rush for 2000 yards a season for the rest of his career but if the Giants are not able to match his success record-wise, was it all worth it?
Not saying that Barkley will be better than Sanders but the one thing that Barkley does have over the great RB is his ability to catch the ball. In his rookie year, Barkley caught 91 passes for 721 yards. In 10 seasons, Sanders registered 352 receptions for 2921 yards. That was just not a part of Sanders’ repertoire.
Both players are explosive downhill runners with great vision to cut back and reverse field. Both also have the ability to hit the corners, break tackles and take it the distance. But what will separate the two will not be personal success. It will come down to what the New York Giants can do as a unit.
Any RB entering the NFL would love to have the stats in which has made Barry Sanders one of the best to ever do it. When all Sanders wanted was a ring. Will Barkley be able to do what the great Sanders could not?
Mark has been covering Sports and Entertainment for the past six years. His work has been featured on Bleacher Report, ESPN, Fox Sports, Teen Vogue, and many other websites.
