DON’T PASS ON A QB
In today’s NFL, building winner requires a new-age approach
IWON’T say the Giants are crazy if they pick Saquon Barkley Thursday night, with the second pick of the NFL draft. I won’t accuse Dave Gettleman of malpractice if he takes the Penn State star with the slot the Giants earned on merit by being the second-most-unwatchable team in all of football last year.
Gettleman’s f irst order of business in Thursday’s draft — his only order of business — is to assemble as much talent as he possibly can. That means everywhere: offense, defense, the lines, the backfields. Saquon Barkley may be as talented a football player as there is on his draft board. Perhaps you can understand why he might ponder pulling the trigger on selecting the Penn State star. But he shouldn’t. Moreover: he can’t. It would be the wrong move. And the Giants, at this point in their history, can’t afford to be wrong: not when it comes to naming a coach (and it says here they picked a good one in Pat Shurmur), not when it comes to naming a GM (and, right now, Gettleman seems like a wise choice there), not when it comes to bolstering their roster (so far, so good, especially with the addition of Nate Solder).
And not when it comes to seizing upon the opportunity to pick second in the draft, especially at a time in franchise history when we are closing in on the denouement (if not the epilogue) of the Eli Manning Era, in a draft rich with quarterback talent, at a time when the NFL has become a place where the first three prerequisites for competing for a championship read thusly: 1. Draft an elite quarterback. 2. Play an elite quarterback. 3. Hand the keys over to an elite quarterback.
Barkley would be a wonderful human highlight film. Anyone who watched him fillet Big Ten defenses knows he is going to be one of those running backs whose skills turn balletic when slowed down by NFL Films, with some brass-heavy orchestration in the background. He will be fun to watch play.
Odell Beckham Jr. is fun to watch play, too.
And it remains a cogent point: the Giants have yet to win a playoff game with OBJ on the roster. And since the Giants are never at all ambiguous when it comes to the corporate mission — “We are in this to win Super Bowls,” co-owner John Mara said, as recently as last month — that seems an especially relevant thing.
Which isn’t a commentary on Beckham. At all. He could well be a fundamental part of the next Giants team to make that kind of deep playoff run. But at some point the Giants have to come to terms with the fact Manning will not, that his time was magical, it was forever, but it is almost over. He may have some special Sundays left in that arm; does anyone really believe he has another January in there?
The truth is, if Gettleman does his job properly, he can find a running back elsewhere in the draft that could be just as valuable to the Giants’ future as Barkley would be; with rare exception — read: Tom Brady, No. 199 — you aren’t going to find a franchise quarterback back there.
This isn’t just a new-age platitude, either. It’s fact. Since 2008, of the 20 teams that qualif ied for the Super Bowl not one of them had one of its two top rushers come from a top-10 overall pick they drafted, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Think about that for a second.
Think about this: Of the top seven rushers in the NFL last year only one — the Rams’ Todd Gurley — was a top-10 pick. No. 1 was Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt, and he was a third-rounder. So was the league’s best rookie, New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara. Not incidentally, both the Chiefs and Saints made the playoffs.
The leading rusher on your Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, LaGarrette Blount? He wasn’t drafted at all. The leading rusher on your Super Bowl runner-up New England Patriots, Dion Lewis? He was a fifth-rounder. On. And on. And on. So no: Barkley wouldn’t be a calamitous choice at all. He’ll electrify Sunday afternoons somewhere. He’ll be delightful to watch, especially if you have him on your fantasy team. But Dave Gettleman isn’t in a fantasy league. He’s in the real thing. And if he’s wrong, the consequences won’t just be the cost of a $100 entry fee.