Curtain giants invite Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones? Previous Top 10 Picks identified under Brian Dabol’s leadership

It might be a cliché to say that for many players the NFL doesn’t mean the NFL, it’s “not for long,” but New York Giants It is living proof that saying has merit. Retreating to their 2019 training camp: Running back Saquon Barkley had just lived up to the hype of being named second overall in the 2018 draft with a historic rookie season. With the 2028 yard scrimmage, the NFL led the third-most rookie player in NFL history behind Hall Famers Eric Dickerson (2212) and Edgerrin James (2139 in 1999) on his way to winning the Rookie Offensive of the Year award. In the quarterback, the G-Men thought they had their juniors clone elle manning After Duke’s Daniel Jones was named sixth overall in the 2019 NFL Draft.

Today, both Barkley and Jones stand at a career crossroads, as they each stare at the final year of their junior contracts in 2022 while playing for a former new head coach. buffalo bills Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and former assistant general manager Joe Schoen at the Buffalo Bills, neither of them have had to hire starting backs after this season to keep their jobs since the two were drafted by the previous regulations.

The hope for both players is that next season will not be as ugly as 2021 for the giants across the board. Injuries marred ex-coach Joe Judge’s final season, including Jones (missed six games with a neck injury), Barkley (three games, ankle injury/COVID protocol), 2021 off-season top free player. knee), quarterback Nick Gates (15 games, broken leg), goalkeeper Shane Lemieux (16 games, knee injury), and Andrew Thomas (four games, ankle/foot).

Production naturally struggled with a stretch of streak as offense collapsed with the Giants failing to win their last six games without Jones. They finished as one of the league’s two worst scoring units, with the season’s exclamation point showing in their last home game against Washington, as they snuck quarterbacks third and ninth inside their 5-yard streak.

2021 season for giants: the ravages of winter

* Daniel Jones missed all six matches (neck injury).

Attack on Titan 2021: Bottom of the Barrel

Enter Daboll, the NFL’s second-highest offensive engineer (29.8 PPG) over the past two seasons, who helped lead the Bills to consecutive playoff wins in consecutive seasons for the first time since they ran four games in a row in the Super Bowl in the 1990s. Key to Buffalo’s comeback was Daboll figuring out how to make the most of 6-foot-5, 237-pound quarterback Josh Allen, who drafted the team to seventh in 2018.

Using more empty lineups (five receivers, only the midfielder in the backcourt), forward movement, play movement and net concepts/passing methods allowed Dabol to simplify the game for Allen, helping him make faster decisions as a runner and passerby. Under Daboll’s tutelage, Allen became the only player in NFL history in the first four seasons with over 100 touchdowns (103) and 30 touchdowns (31).

Josh Allen’s career renaissance

* Top 10 in the NFL

Between Daboll and new offensive coordinator Mike Kafka, who was Patrick Mahomes Kansas City Chiefs Quarterback coach from 2018-21, Jones is enjoying the opportunity to work with the new offensive giants team going forward.

Jones says He said in May. “I think all of these ideas here, new ideas here, new concepts, new plays, and I think all of these things[will help him get better]. Just trying to pick up these little things here and there and listen to some of their philosophy about focused play, attacking, looking for opportunities To play when they are not there and to protect the ball.

“I think all those conversations, just learning from their experience and what they’ve been around, the success they’ve had.”

Jones has a similar physical make-up (6-5, 230 lbs) to Allen, and some slightly better efficiency numbers (achievement percentage and passing yards per game) than Allen had in his first three seasons.

Comparing the first three seasons of Daniel Jones and Josh Allen

However, Daboll made it clear that one day after he was officially appointed as Jones’ head coach in January, he will not compare the new quarterback with the former quarterback.

“We will take it day by day,” Daboll He said On January 31. “Look, we won’t make any predictions and I won’t do that to Daniel or any player really. I don’t think it’s fair to compare him to another guy I’ve been working with. He’s the same. We’ll find out what he’s doing well. We’ll try to implement a system that works for him and then our job is to bring in the pieces that help him. On being the best version of himself and the best quarterback for us.”

In order for Jones to be the best version of himself, the Giants need Barkley to come close to the high level he set in his first two seasons in terms of production and health. He’s the only player in team history with more than 1,000 yards in each of his first two seasons (2018-2019), but ACL’s rupture in Week 2 of the 2020 season caused Barkley to miss his last 14 games. Still recovering from that injury last season, he’s averaged 3.46 yards per relay over the past two years, the lowest in the NFL among players with 150+ carry-overs. Despite his struggles in the last two seasons, his 14 football career of 50 yards or more is the most in the NFL since entering the league in 2018, three times more than Tennessee Titans Running back Derek Henry 11 in that period.

Saquon Barkley’s career stats: Downhill running

Daniel Jones with or without Sacon Barkley*

*Since Jones’ junior season in 2019

“The past two years haven’t gone the way I want them to, I’ve been kind of thinking about that,” Barkley He said At Giants Training Camp on July 29th. “Everything happens for a reason. So, the ordeal, the injuries that have put my way over the last couple of years, God has a bigger plan and it’s all going to work out. So, this year, year five, for me, I just want, like I said in my first interview when Talking to you guys this year, I just want to show the Giants that the man who forged it is still here. I can still go out there and make plays and help my team achieve success. That’s the one thing I focus on. Take care of myself, take care of my body, take care of myself And try to be the best teammate I can be.”

Getting Barkley back on track is Daboll’s top priority as he incorporates the Titans into his offensive system.

“You see it” [Saquon Barkley] Running here he’s a very skilled player,” Daboll He said At boot camp on July 29th. “Our job is to figure out ways to use it, whether he did it last year or the year before, two years, in college [at Penn State]. When you develop in a system, you kind of discover what these people do best, and you challenge them to do more. And if it doesn’t sound great, you’ll see if you want to keep following it. And if you want to keep following it, you have to improve it. And if not, you just throw it away and do something else.”

The only thing Jones worked on was his high turnover numbers since he finished third in the NFL along with Indianapolis Colts Quarterback Matt Ryan (49), since entering the league in 2019, just behind Detroit Lions Quarterback Jared Goff (52), recently acquired Carolina Panthers Quarterback Baker Mayfield (51). To cut back, he began trying shorter and faster throws, and as a result, Jones was fired at a career low rate last season.

Daniel Jones career stats

To raise the bar for both Jones and Barkley in 2022, Schoen and Daboll acquired three new starters to connect to the offensive line alongside Thomas on left tackle and Lemieux on left guard: expected right tackle Evan Neal (selected seventh overall in the 2022 NFL Draft of Alabama), center John Feliciano (beginning with the last three seasons bills) and goalkeeper Mark Glowinsky (beginning with the Colts the last four seasons).

“he is [Jones] I got the mentality right, “Daboll He said From the new quarterback. “His size is good. There are so many things he loves about Daniel and we will take them one day at a time. We will work with him. We will help him improve. We will help him be a better leader. We will help him be everything. Everyone. It’s not just me. It’s the rest of the coaches in our crew. It’s the scouts. It’s the support team. It’s the ownership group. It takes a lot to raise a midfielder, if you will. He’s been here for the last three years with a few different pieces. We’ll try to give him some stability and take it. from there.”

Stability will be welcome to all involved with the Giants, who are now their fifth coach in six seasons and have been stuck in a five-year drought with a record 22-59 since 2017, the worst in the NFL with the New York Jets. Conducting the playoffs is likely to be a daunting task given that the Giants will need to pass two playoff teams from a season ago in their respective league, Cowboys in Dallas And the Philadelphia Eagles. However, knowing if Barkley and Jones can be their long-term future alongside Daboll will help the team take their next big step forward in rebuilding a franchise they have been so proud of.