Ever since the New York Giants’ controversial selection of Saquon Barkley at No. 2 overall in the 2018 NFL draft, there have been rumors that Dave Gettleman did not even field calls from other teams inquiring about the pick.
Now, years later, with Gettleman’s Giants tenure in the rearview mirror, current general manager, Joe Schoen, has shed some light on that situation.
Schoen was, of course, part of the Buffalo Bills’ front office at the time. This week, while appearing on Peter Schrager’s podcast ‘The Season,’ he discussed the 2018 draft process and the Giants being a potential trade partner.
“We were at No. 21 and No. 22 when the season ended,” Schoen recalled. “We had Kansas City’s pick, too, and we used Cordy Glenn, who we traded to Cincinnati, to swap No. 21 to No. 12 and that got us within range. But again, we were trying to move up. We couldn’t move to No. 1 — Dorsey wouldn’t trade No. 1, Dave Gettleman wouldn’t trade No. 2, No. 3 was the Jets and they weren’t going to trade with us. They made a move early on with the Colts.
“We were actually literally working out Josh, snapping the ball to Josh at Wyoming and I get this update on my Apple watch and it said the Jets traded with the Colts and I’m just like, ‘ugh’ and they get No. 3. We hadn’t met with the guys yet so we weren’t in a position to move up because we had to make sure there was someone we actually liked.”
As much as people would like to believe Gettleman was not fielding any offers for the second overall pick, it’s important to keep in mind that he may just not have been comfortable enough to move as far back as 12th overall where the Bills were sitting.
Barkley may win Comeback Player of the Year this season but in the minds of many, nothing he does will ever be good enough to warrant the second overall pick being spent on a running back.
The irony, however, is that Schoen now intends on keeping Barkley with the Giants long-term.
