After the New York Giants used their No. 2 pick in this year’s NFL Draft to get Saquon Barkley, it is clear that the Giants want to make a playoff run now. Many people thought that the Giants should’ve taken a quarterback in the draft, like Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen, but I think that the Giants made the right move. It is no guarantee that Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold will become great quarterbacks in the NFL and Eli Manning can still play quarterback at a high level. Some people will argue that Manning is not a good quarterback anymore, and his stats are showing that he should not be a starting quarterback. However, Manning is not the problem for the New York Giants, the problem has been their offensive line and their lack of a running game. We all know that Manning is not a mobile quarterback, so it is nearly impossible for him to extend plays by running outside of the pocket. If Manning doesn’t even have two seconds to throw the ball, we should not blame him for the Giants lack of offense, we should blame the offensive line.
It’s no secret that Ereck Flowers has played terribly for the Giants the last couple of seasons. The team needed to find a replacement for him if they wanted to have any chance of succeeding on the offensive side of the ball, so signing Nate Solder this offseason was a great move. He will do a much better job at protecting Manning in his blind spot, so already the offensive line has significantly improve. Then, as I mentioned earlier, the Giants drafted running back Saquon Barkley, who was clearly the best talent in the NFL Draft, so now the Giants have a running game, which is something that they have not had in years. He is also a great run blocker so this will give Manning even more time in the pocket, and in the second round of the draft, the Giants selected Will Hernandez, who is also a left guard, so I think that it’s safe to say that the Giants offense will be much improved this season.
Since the Giants did not take a quarterback in this year’s draft, they definitely are not looking for Manning’s replacement right now, but instead, they are looking to win one more Super Bowl with Manning as the quarterback. They’ve made significant moves, which should make the Giants a playoff contender this season, but we still have to see if Manning will have the time to throw the ball to all of his weapons. Manning now has a healthy Odell Beckham Jr., Sterling Shepard, Evan Engram, and Saquon Barkley. On paper, this offensive roster is scary talented and one could expect Manning to have a phenomenal year with all of these weapons. However, until we see how much time Manning has in the pocket, we will never know how great this team will be. We will have to wait until the preseason starts, and then we will find out what this Giants team is made of.
Their first preseason game is Aug. 9 against the Cleveland Browns.
