Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images After a busy day, the Giants emerged as a different team — Joe Schoen’s team Many New York Giants fans were disappointed on Monday when Saquon Barkley left the team via free agency. They were even more disappointed that Barkley chose to join the hated NFC East rival Philadelphia Eagles. Understandable. Judging by my social media timeline and some of the comments here at Big Blue View, though, a small minority of Giants fans is angry with Barkley. Irrationally angry. Maybe Barkley is dead to you, like he is to Tiki Barber. There is no reason for that sort of vitriol. Barkley did what every American would do, whether he loved his or her job and his or her employer or not. He assessed the situation, saw that he could make a higher wage and have a chance to accomplish things he likely couldn’t in his current job with a supporting cast that is currently better than the one he just left, and he jumped at the chance. He bettered himself. He bettered his situation. He gave himself a better chance to win, and to continue to be great. He did, honestly, the right thing. The thing we would all likely do given the opportunity. Truthfully, there is also no reason to be mad at Giants’ GM Joe Schoen. He was hired to do a job, to make the best decisions he could for the Giants franchise and to try to help the Giants dig out from a decade of despair. He wasn’t hired to be emotional. He wasn’t hired to put every decision to a vote of the fan base. In the Giants’ free agency primer I posted on Sunday, part of the headline read ‘A franchise-shaping stretch could be commencing.’ Monday was certainly a franchise-shaping, franchise-altering day. In my view, it was a day that should be applauded. The Giants as we knew them were fundamentally altered on Monday. The team that the Giants ended the day with was vastly different, in both personnel and philosophy. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RiqL_t39KVI?rel=0
Something occurred to me while Tony DelGenio and I were recording a Day 1 reaction podcast Monday evening, which you can listen to above. This is now completely Schoen’s build. We can no longer look at the roster that is being constructed, and think ‘well, Schoen was handicapped by Dave Gettleman’s salary cap management or his draft picks.’ For better or worse, this is now Schoen’s show. Yes, there is a long-term quarterback decision to still be made. Yes, it was Gettleman who drafted Jones No. 6 overall in 2019. Still, it was Schoen who gave Jones the four-year, $160 million contract that is drawing so much ridicule just a year later. So, you can argue that Jones still being the Giants’ quarterback as of today is a Schoen decision. Schoen, though, finally had the draft capital and the salary cap maneuverability to make moves he wanted to make, and opportunities with the Barkley and McKinney free agencies to restructure how the Giants were spending their money. He took full advantage. Barkley has been a great player. McKinney a good one who, at 24, could turn out to be great. They will be missed. No doubt. Still, the Giants had one winning season in Barkley’s six years. It was always a fallacy that you could build, or rebuild, a team around a running back. Which is why Gettleman’s decision to select Barkley No. 2 overall always seemed wrong-headed, no matter how talented Barkley was, and still is. Schoen has been clear that he is philosophically aligned with modern analytical beliefs in positional value. You pay quarterbacks before running backs. Safety isn’t a premium position, so you don’t overextend to pay for one. You pay edge defenders. You pay offensive tackles. You spend premium draft assets to get cornerbacks and wide receivers and pass rushers. It has been clear that Schoen and coach Brian Daboll want to build a quarterback-centric team, not a running back-centric one. Schoen went a long way toward achieving that goal on Monday. The general manager put on a master class in re-allocation of resources. While Barkley got a three-year mega-deal from the Eagles that guaranteed him $26 million and could put as much as $46.75 million, Schoen signed a productive running back who is a year younger. Devin Singletary, a player he and Daboll are familiar with from the Buffalo Bills, got a three-year deal that tops out at $19.75 million. He isn’t Barkley, but he can lead a running game and catch the football. Everybody and their uncles knew that Schoen had to address the Giants’ offensive line. We spent all of our time looking at the high-priced options. Schoen had a different idea. The GM took the three-year, $30 million contract he might have been comfortable allocating to Barkley and gave it to a good starting guard in Jon Runyan, who will be 27 next season. Runyan should have a lot of good football left. He can also play either side, giving the Giants added flexibility as they continue adding pieces. Schoen found a perfect swing player in Jermaine Eluemunor for just two years and $14 million. Eluemunor gives the Giants protection at both tackles that they didn’t have a year ago. He can play guard if need be. He can play left tackle better than anyone the Giants had last year not named Andrew Thomas. If Evan Neal fails once again at right tackle Eluemunor has shown he can capably play that spot. In fact, Eluemunor is plenty good enough to be considered an outright challenger to Neal — a circumstance the Giants really needed to create. The coup de grâce was the deal with the Carolina Panthers to get the Giants a much-needed pass rusher — and a relatively young one, at that — in Brian Burns, who turns 26 next month. It cost Schoen a boatload of John Mara’s money — $87.5 million guaranteed on a five-year deal that maxes out at $150 million. You know what it didn’t cost Schoen? A first-round pick, which is something the Panthers had been said to be seeking in exchange for the formerly franchise-tagged Burns. Schoen gave up a second-round pick, No. 39, and a fifth-round pick in 2025. As Tony DelGenio pointed out, Schoen effectively traded what he acquired for Leonard Williams (a Round 2 pick and a 2025 fifth-round pick) to find a much younger upgrade from Williams for the defensive front seven. All of this makes the Giants different than the team that began the day on Monday. Are they better? I think so, but we’ll see. I think the way they are structured and their resources are used now makes more sense. As it always does, the ultimate success or failure will come down to making the right decisions at quarterback. What the Giants do this offseason and next, when Jones will have no more guaranteed money on his contract provided the injury guarantee does not kick in, will be critical. Still, in my view Monday was a day the Giants and their fans should feel really good about. Even if moving on from Barkley is somewhat bittersweet. NFL Draft. Plenty of it. Some of the likely priorities:
- The Giants still need a veteran backup quarterback. As optimistic as they might be, the Giants are obviously not sold on Tommy DeVito and need a veteran who can start games. Ryan Tannehill, anyone?
- Tight end. With the Darren Waller retirement/non-retirement unresolved, protection at tight end seems necessary. Even before the Waller situation came to light, that is something that seemed to be on the agenda, anyway.
- Figuring out whether they want to bring back one of Justin Pugh or Ben Bredeson, both free agent guards.
- Adding a veteran cornerback opposite Deonte Banks. It won’t be Darious Williams.
- Adding a veteran safety as a stop-gap replacement for McKinney. Jordan Poyer, anyone?
- Perhaps adding some defensive tackle depth. In my view, bringing back A’Shawn Robinson would be fine.
https://www.bigblueview.com/2024/3/12/2 ... sophically
