Newsflash: the Giants are in the middle of yet another lost season.
Forget about the team’s faint playoff hopes and don’t bother discussing how bad the teams in the NFC wild card hunt are, the 2021 season for the New York Football Giants is donezo.
For any reasonable Giants fan, this has been the reality for quite a while now.
The Giants are a broken football team, especially on offense, but watching them in person on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, I decided to ask a few of my buddies a simple question: “What’s the biggest strength of your football team?”
When all three say without hesitation it’s the placekicker, that’s when you know your football team has major, major problems.
On Sunday the Giants started a backup quarterback in Mike Glennon, and it was pretty painful to watch.
Glennon is immobile and was lucky he wasn’t picked off at least three or four times. That’s not surprising.
The bigger mystery for the Giants is trying to figure out why Saquon Barkley continues to be an absolute non-factor on offense.
With a backup quarterback under center, it should have been the perfect time for the second-overall pick in the 2018 draft to have a big game.
Instead, Barkley put together a pedestrian stat line of 11 carries for 55 yards with a few dropped passes mixed in.
But take the statistics out of the equation for a second, and put the eye test to work. Where were the big plays from Saquon? Where was the game-breaking, game-changing ability that I saw from Barkley at Penn State?
For whatever the reason, Barkley has not been that player with the New York Giants.
Saquon’s running style is frustrating, his durability is a problem, and he hasn’t been the consistent game-changing running back the Giants thought they were drafting.
That said, Barkley is a likable guy and very easy to root for, but it doesn’t excuse the fact the Giants made a monumental mistake selecting him that high in the 2018 draft.
The Giants are going to have a lot of questions this offseason. Along with Saquon Barkley, the front office, head coach and quarterback are all on notice.
I wonder if it would serve Saquon Barkley best to sign a contract elsewhere after his rookie deal expires?
Because it would be another huge Giants mistake to give Saquon Barkley big money from what we’ve seen over the last three seasons.
You can listen to my podcast “New York, New York” on The Ringer Podcast Network every Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday Night on Spotify & Apple Podcasts
