Learning experience
Saquon Barkley and Wayne Gallman have relished getting to pick the brain of veteran running back Jonathan Stewart, but the young Giants aren’t the only ones who are gaining knowledge from the experience.
“If you’re not learning every day, then you’re getting dumber,” Stewart said Saturday before the Giants’ first padded practice of training camp. “Just because I’m older and I’m a vet doesn’t mean I know everything.”
Stewart is the elder statesman of the group, at the age of 31 and with 10 seasons in the NFL under his belt. He welcomes questions from his younger teammates such as Barkley and Gallman, and though the former Panther said being with them “has definitely made me more youthful,” he considers them peers.
“At the end of the day, we’re a team and there’s no hierarchy,” Stewart said. “Yeah, you have to do your job and you have to help the team win, but the moment you start thinking of yourself as something bigger than the team, that’s when everything can go downhill.”
It hardly seems a coincidence now that the Giants signed Stewart to a two-year, $6.8 million contract in March, a month before they drafted Barkley with the No. 2-overall pick. Barkley has praised Stewart every chance he gets for being a leader and someone who will answer his endless questions about the game.
The constant communication between everyone at the position has made for an at-ease running backs room. They all have the same ultimate goal of being great and winning, which is shown in their self-imposed policy of fines for things like dropped balls and fumbles in practice.
“We’re all a family in there, man,” the second-year Gall- man said. “We laugh every day, laughing at [running backs coach Craig Johnson]. It’s a real family in there and when we get out on the field, we’re all eager to make sure we’re all 100 percent on every play.”
Gallman is the only run- ning back who was on the roster last year, so he may be able to appreciate the offensive line’s improvement more than the others as the unit tries to get the Giants’ rushing attack back on track.
“I’ve seen a big change in the mentality,” Gallman said. “Last year was such a bad year that you could sense that a lot of people really just wanted the season to end. … Now, I see the want-to, I see the study habits and everyone just wanting to be great. I’m happy that everything’s going better.”