In the first round of the 2018 NFL draft, the New York Giants and then-general manager Dave Gettleman famously selected Penn State running back Saquon Barkley.
Some loved the pick but others hated it. And over time, the decision to draft Barkley has taken on an ugly reflection. After an impressive rookie campaign, Barkley has become somewhat injury-prone while the Giants have floundered as a team.
In a recent 2018 NFL re-draft, Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport sought to right those wrongs. Rather than Barkley, he had the Giants travel back in time to select quarterback Lamar Jackson.
For a time, it looked like the Giants had made good use of the second overall pick in 2018. Saquon Barkley racked up over 2,000 total yards as a rookie on the way to being named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year.
But it’s been something of a downhill slide ever since—so much so that the Giants are going back to the well by selecting the only player from the 2018 class who has won the league’s highest individual honor.
That came in 2019, when Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson was named MVP in his second season with the Baltimore Ravens. All Jackson did that year was set a new high-water mark for rushing yards in a season by a quarterback with 1,206 while pacing the NFL with 36 touchdown passes and winning 13 of 15 regular-season starts.
Since then, Jackson has become the only quarterback in NFL history to top 1,000 rushing yards in back-to-back seasons, establishing himself as arguably the most dangerous scrambler in NFL history in the process.
With Eli Manning nearing the end in 2018, this would have been a franchise-defining pick in New York, especially given the three up-and-down seasons the team has gotten from Daniel Jones after drafting him sixth overall the following year.
Although Jackson is an extremely talented quarterback capable of great things, we now know in hindsight the Giants needed to fix other problems first. And like Barkley, Jackson wouldn’t have been the duct tape needed to fix those issues.
If they were allowed a 2018 do-over, rather than Barkley or a quarterback, perhaps the Giants would have selected offensive lineman Quenton Nelson instead. Even now looking back, that would make total sense.
In Davenport’s re-draft, it’s important to note that quarterback Josh Allen went No. 1 overall. Nelson went No. 3 overall and Barkley slipped all the way to the Seattle Seahawks at No. 18 overall.
Follow the Giants Wire Podcast:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts
