No one ever said Devin Singletary is a better or more accomplished running back than Saquon Barkley.
NFL front office executives and scouts did not say it with their evaluations of these players when they came out of college. Barkley was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. A year later, Singletary went in the third round at No. 74 overall, a spot far more in keeping with how the league values the position.
And no one said it while Barkley was taking the ball for the Giants and Singletary was carrying it for the Bills and the Texans. Barkley has surpassed 1,000 rushing yards in three of his six seasons. Singletary has not reached 900 yards in any of his five years in the league.
Now, Barkley has taken his talents south and will line up behind the most capable offensive line of his career with the Eagles. At 27 years old, perhaps this second chapter will be his finest. There is every reason to believe Barkley will thrive, if healthy.
It is possible, though, the 26-year-old Singletary, given his skill set, will be capable of finding ways to make something from nothing with his new team, if the Giants’ offensive line is at least marginally improved.
“I think Saquon is a good player,’’ Brian Baldinger, a former NFL offensive lineman who now is an NFL Network analyst, told Sports+. “I like my backs to have more contact balance than he has. I like to see him run through tackles better than he does.
“But maybe with an elite offensive line he’s gonna get to that second level and use his breakaway speed and some power, maybe we’ll see more long runs from him. … I thought at times he went down too easily. I know all Giants fans felt the same thing.’’
Giants fans felt many things about Barkley, most of them overwhelmingly positive, considering his role as a top offensive player, team leader, captain and a pillar in the community.
There was frustration about his failure to stay on the field — he stayed fully healthy in only two of his six seasons — and at times about his perceived tendency to hit the turf a bit too quickly.
When Baldinger talks about “contact balance,” he is referring to a running back having the power to disengage from tackle attempts, showing the balance to stay on his feet after getting hit. That balance adds up to more yards gained.
For such a physically imposing athletic specimen — at 232 pounds, he is built like a tank and his thighs are as thick as some people’s waists — Barkley, though, has not been elite at staying on his feet. In 2023, his 453 yards after contact ranked just ninth in the league, well behind NFL leader Christian McCaffrey, who had 573 yards after contact. Barkley also trailed Derrick Henry (570), Najee Harris (535), Breece Hall (490), Tony Pollard (474), James Cook (473), David Montgomery (466) and Jonathan Taylor (454).
Singletary was 23rd among running backs with 347 yards after contact last season. He has played behind better offensive lines in Buffalo and Houston than Barkley did with the Giants. With the additions of Jon Runyan Jr. and Jermaine Eluemunor and the further development of second-year center John Michael Schmitz, the Giants believe their offensive line will be much improved this season.
“Sometimes if you don’t think there’s already going to be holes there, you’re already bracing yourself for no holes,’’ Baldinger said. “It’s a shame they weren’t able to get the deal done with Saquon and they could never build an offensive line good enough where a back could have consistent success.’’
Yes, that is a shame. Barkley wanted to stay with the Giants, but it grew increasingly evident the Giants were not willing to pay what he wanted.
Barkley signed a three-year deal with the Eagles for $37.75 million with $26 million in guaranteed money.
The Giants had no desire to pay that to Barkley or any other running back. They brought in Singletary on a three-year, $16.5 million contract with $9.5 million guaranteed.
This is not a swing-for-the-fences free-agency addition. The Giants will add another running back, either in the NFL Draft or from the open market.
At this point, the other running backs on the roster — Eric Gray, Gary Brightwell and Jashaun Corbin — are last-rung-on-the-depth-chart options. The Giants hoped Gray, a 2023 fifth-round draft pick, would have shown some glimpses as a rookie, but he had few opportunities and fewer positive moments on offense and was a failure in a cameo appearance as a punt returner.
The disparity in the money is an indication how Barkley and Singletary are viewed, at least by the Eagles, in Barkley’s case. Barkley has averaged 4.3 yards per attempt in his career, unquestionably encumbered by less-than-ideal blocking.
The 5-foot-7, 203-pound Singletary, unlike Barkley, has rarely filled the role of a lead back, usually sharing the role with another player.
He has averaged 4.6 yards per rushing attempt. He is called “Motor’’ based on his past declaration that “I never stop going. I don’t get tired.’’
That hard-charging style has served him well.
“I do like Motor,’’ Baldinger said. “Motor’s a great kid. He has unbelievable balance. … He’s a really good receiver, he’s a great screen guy.
“The Giants got good value for him. He’s a really good teammate, he’s been really healthy. I think he’s not Saquon because he doesn’t have that sort of persona, but he’s a good back and you can find backs in this draft, for sure. I think you can line up with Motor on Day 1 and be in good shape, and you can find his complementary back in the draft.’’
In this case, the Giants are not sweating the notion that “you get what you pay for.’’ They want to allocate their money in places other than running back, believing a mid-salary back can get the job done with a capable passing attack and a competent offensive line.
The Eagles paid Barkley to take their already-potent offense to another level. The Giants brought in Singletary to augment an offense that has mostly sagged the past few seasons and last season especially.
Time will tell how these running backs fare with their new teams.
Asked and answered
Here are two questions that have come up recently that we will attempt to answer as accurately as possible:
Why didn’t John Mara put Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll on notice when he spoke the other day? Does he think last season was acceptable?
Mara said he has “all the confidence in the world’’ in Schoen and Daboll, and he also said last season was a “huge disappointment.’’ How do those two statements not contradict each other?
Well, Mara has learned from the recent past, when he hired and fired too many coaches over a short period of time. A franchise that seeks stability cannot do that. If Mara has conviction that the guys he has in place are the right guys, he has to give them time to show what they’ve got. That does not mean riding the roller coaster from the highs of 2022 to the lows of 2023. Stuff happens. Reacting too positively or negatively is not the answer.
Schoen and Daboll came in together and clearly work well together. Mara sees this. They are prepared and organized. Putting them on the hot seat or offering a vote of confidence is not going to change the way they operate.
Schoen said, “Anything that is out there is likely not true.’’ What was he referring to and what does that mean?
Schoen was speaking about all the speculation and pseudo-information about what the Giants will or will not do in the upcoming NFL Draft. This is smokescreen season, to be sure, when you can try to connect the dots to figure out which direction the Giants will go.
If Schoen and Daboll are at a Pro Day where a prominent quarterback is throwing, they must be interested in taking a quarterback. Or when they bring in the top three wide receivers to the team facility for top-30 visits, they must be leaning toward taking a receiver with the No. 6 overall pick.
In his two years at the helm, Schoen has been approachable but stays tight-lipped on anything he deems as related to strategy. He shuts down at this time of year as the draft nears and he makes sure those around him in the front office and scouting departments circle the wagons and keep quiet. There are very few leaks coming out of the Giants.
