Carl Banks: Stop the Barkley Bashing

[MightyGiants]

I don't think we need to bash Barkley. I'd rather just ignore the entire Barkley era and just say it never happened. Nothing of note happened, it's a blank period in Giants history best ignored.

Well said 

[andrew_nyGiants]

I for one appreciate Barkley. He was a good soldier who never complained, and tried REAL HARD to carry the offense on his back.

Was he perfect? NO!  But he left it all out on the field.

Just like many argue about the QB, if we had built a better team(OLINE) AND THEN added him, we may have been watching a generational RB IMVHO.

But we'll never know...and may continue to suffer this fate until/unless ownership stays out of the war room and other personnel meetings and allow the football people run football operations with their own vision instead of advocating for his pet projects that continually set the franchise back.


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[EDjohnst1981]

I don't get the Barkley hate.

- he had no O line to run behind
- his receivers were not world beaters or even competent at times.

He was the sole offense for much of duration here and the only playing the opposition needed to worry about.

He's and the D are reason the Giants started 6-1 in 2022 and subsequently made the playoffs.

Personally I think he deserves better.

[4 Aces]

With all due respect to Banks, I think everyone appreciates what Barkley did (and didn't) do here.

But he soured on the Giants last year and because of all the ineptitude, guys like him and DJ don't think much of Giants fans either. It's a tough town - it's win or go home. His goodbye to the Giants community was pretty lame and now he'll continue to chirp.

I'm not going to "bash" him but I have the same evaluation of him now that I've had for years here: he's a mental headcase, he's compromised due to injury, he makes mental mistakes in pressure situations and he does not do a good with situational football or keeping the offense on schedule. Despite his reputation he's clunky and robotic in the pass game. What made this guy special is the gamebreaking ability and that's been gone for years now, and isn't coming back.

Business move rooted in emotion, both parties trying to stick it to the Giants. The Eagles were getting smacked around by everyone down the stretch. It's over. He'll have a couple big games and the fans will go crazy, but they'll regret the contract and booing the #^@$ out of him by the end of year. 

[4 Aces]

I do think PSUBeirut made some nice points though, it's not these guys fault where they're drafted and Barkley clearly did the best he could.

The Giants stupidly drafted this guy #2 with no plan. That will always infuriate me. You wanna take Barkley at 2? Fine. Build a fully comprehensive run game with the QB up under center and an unusual amount of resources on run blocking OL. Capitalize on the significant, out-of-the-box direction you've chosen.

Instead, just like with Jones, they surrounded him with a terrible run blocking OL, "blocking" TEs like Evan Engram, Lawrence Cager and Darren Waller, and shotgun inside hand-offs up the wazoo. He was running into a meat-grinder and got physically destroyed, right before our eyes, just like DJ.  It's been ugly to watch.

[DaveBrown74]

I don't feel a great deal of emotion either way about Barkley. All things equal I would have preferred he land somewhere other than the team I hate most, but I don't respect him less for doing what his best for himself and his family, and I am not hoping he does poorly (albeit I want the Eagles to lose so I guess I'm not rooting for MVP caliber play for him either).

As for the future, when the season (or even training camp) starts to get rolling, he'll be talking about the Giants less and less. It will be all about what he's doing there. Eagles fans are not the nicest group of people, and Barkley got a huge contract there by RB standards. Expectations are high. Barkley is very sensitive about criticism, so unless he (1) stays healthy and (2) plays at at least a pro bowl if not all-pro type level, he'll have his hands full with all the noise coming from Eagles nation.

In short, I am glad the Giants didn't pay up to keep him, but I don't wish ill on him nor do I resent him. My focus lies entirely on our current team and incoming players via the draft and the second phase of free agency. I don't really care that much about former players.