Saquon Barkley of the New York Giants has frequently been touted as the best running back in the NFL this offseason, but retired running back Maurice Jones-Drew is here to pump the brakes on that and to buck the trend.
MJD released his personal running back rankings on Monday and Barkley not only failed to land the top spot, he fell out of the top five entirely.
Rank 6: Saquon Barkley, New York Giants
Barkley is one of the most talented players in the NFL. There’s no questioning that. BUT his pass protection is horrible. Remember when Jamal Adams grabbed the ball out of Daniel Jones’ hands and took it to the house? Well, that was Barkley’s block. He missed it, and it cost the Giants big time. I need to see this part of his game improve.
Barkley is actually a solid pass protector who saw that part of his game slip a bit a season ago. MJD points out the most-obvious mistake made by Barkley, but those are not as common as his analysis would lead you to believe.
The Giants have struggled in pass protection as a whole and many of those issues became compounded when Daniel Jones took over for Eli Manning and center Jon Halapio went down with injury. Miscommunication was an obvious problem, especially with Jones struggling to call out the proper protections — an area in which Manning excelled.
As far as Barkley, it’s also very important to remember that he missed time due to a high-ankle sprain and then returned too early, which impacted every aspect of his game, including pass protection.
And in case you were wondering, the five running backs MJD had ranked above Barkley were Joe Mixon (No. 5), Alvin Kamara (No. 4), Nick Chubb (No. 3), Ezekiel Elliott (No. 2) and Christian McCaffrey (No. 1).
