Reports from East Rutherford have been hinting at a return for running back Saquon Barkley this Sunday against the Denver Broncos. The Giants last season took months to develop any type of rhythm on offense. There was a valid excuse then because they lost their best player and team captain in just week 2. Now the Giants head into their opener with Barkley back and one year of experience in the Joe Judge era. Here I will try to explain the workload that we should expect from the Giants centerpiece on offense. Even though Jason Garrett somehow was able to get a job interview last offseason, in no way did he do enough for last year’s Giants offense. This offense was ranked 31st in the league in both points scored and yards gained, this was never a problem even with an old Eli Manning in the Pat Shurmur and Ben McAdoo years. The bottom line is the pressure is mounting fast on Jason Garrett to keep his job. He is going to need Saquon Barkley back at full workload in order to drastically improve this offense.
There are still a lot of moving pieces on this Giants offense being that all new additions have yet to actually take a snap together during a game. In one way this could benefit a Giants offense who has high expectations coming into the year and have yet to be seen by any team or coach in the league. But, at the end of the day, the Giants do not have a Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, or even Baker Mayfield for that matter. They have a young inexperienced quarterback who tends to turn the ball over and has trouble seeing what is coming at him. Daniel Jones has yet to beat one team with a winning record in his time with the Giants. If that doesn’t change he will be in trade talks by Thanksgiving, and Giants scouts will be flying to North Carolina and Oklahoma checking out Sam Howell and Spencer Rattler in order to save their franchise.
When looking at this Giants schedule it is hard to imagine that Barkley gets more than 15 touches against defenses as physical as Denver and Washington, especially with a five-day turnaround into the Thursday night trip to FedEx Field. Andrew Thomas and the rest of the offensive line continued to be bashed by the media this preseason. If the trio of tackles in Thomas, Matt Peart, and Nate Solder can’t find some type of chemistry, the staff may be even timider to rely heavily on Barkley in the first half of this season. After the Giants first two games they get a 3 game slate versus manageable defenses that may give them the opportunity to fully unleash Saquon. They will host Atlanta at home then make a short road trip to New Orleans then Dallas. These three games will be the Giants' chance to take that next step and start the comeback story of one of the greatest college running backs of all time.
If you are a Barkley fantasy owner thinking about benching him until he gets his full workload it’s a bad idea, no matter who the Giants are playing. All summer the Giants and Barkley himself have been very hush-hush when it came to talking about this injury and when he would be one hundred percent. The fact that he will be most likely suiting up for this game is an overall good sign. Considering just weeks ago it was looking like a stretch that he would be able to play in the opener. Another note is that first-round pick Kadarius Toney and new big-time free-agent signee Kenny Golladay have both been hurt all of camp. These two players need to become contributors on offense to help Daniel Jones and more importantly take eyes and stacked boxes off Saquon. If Barkley feels good after taking some hits from the likes of Von Miller, Bradley Chubb, Chase Young, and Montez Sweat in the first two weeks Expect the Giants to ramp it up by week 3 especially if they were to start 0-2. This is the biggest year of Barkley’s career so far, and if he returns to full strength and leads this team to a playoff berth for the first time in 5 years, he will save a lot of jobs for both his teammates and coaches.
Writer
-By: Sam Kirk