dave mcbride

That's a fair point. But they also need LBs and DTs. Players like Vita Vea, Da'Ron Payne, and Marcus Davenport can help any team out. Al Woods and Jonathan Hankins are JAGs. They need a lot of help.

PS - if you look at Barkley's #s, it's almost as if Penn State showcased him as a receiver this year to show how good he was at it to NFL personnel guys. His receiving #s this past season were pretty incredible for an RB (~12 yards per reception on 50+ catches). https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/saquon-barkley-1.html

Yeah, but I like Barkley a LOT better because I think he's ten times the receiver that Guice is (who is a good player, no doubt). The numbers show it too. Just my opinion, but I think passing game ability for RBs is what separates the good players from the elite players.

Fair enough. That said, they want to pass the ball, and Orleans Darkwa is no better of a receiver than Gillislee. Vereen is a decent receiver, but not a good rusher. An all-purpose threat like Barkley would open up things massively for that offense. The arrival of Bell in Pitt coincided with a steep rise in offensive productivity in Pitt, after all.

We'll see. My sense tells me that this is a team in win-now mode. They were good in 2016, after all. They aren't nearly as bad as their record. But even with 2016, just look at these RBs. That's a terrible group, and it dragged the entire offense down with it. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/nyg/2016.htm

Yup. What team has gone 7-9, 8-8, and 9-7 in the last three seasons? Only one I can think of! More seriously, it's less about them trading down in my view than them not taking a qb and going with Barkley. The Colts strike me as the ideal trade candidate because they really need help on their front seven and it seems to me that the #21 and #22 slots are the sweet spot for front-seven talent depth in this draft.

What do you make of that quote, CB? I personally think that Eli's obit has been written prematurely. He's still a quality qb who can make the throws and simply needs a much, much better running game, o-line, and healthy receivers.

There's a decent amount of chatter here in NYC that Barkley is truly the guy the Giants want. At first, I thought that'd be crazy because they need a future qb, but then I thought about it a little. Eli really isn't that bad at all at present, and physically, he hasn't declined as far as I can tell (I see a lot of Giants games). Last season they had a horrible running game (and a bad stable of RBs), a bad o-line, and a hurt OBJ. OBJ will be back next season and presumably fine, they are going to target o-line in FA, and Barkley really is that good. What separates him from the typical talented RB (e.g., AP) is that he has Leveon Bell and Shady-like ability in the passing game. He's a massive asset to a passing game, and don't think that what Kamara did for the Saints offense this season has gone unnoticed. And by most of the accounts I've seen, Barkley is the highest rated player in the entire draft. In the right situation, Manning can easily be a 30-TD passer for the next couple of years. The talent is there on defense, and they are the one team in the league that I think has the capability to turn around their fortunes on a dime. They are and always have been a good organization. My larger point is that the #2, #3 and #4 will not be QBs (assuming the Browns take a qb at #1). Trades will be available. The one wild card is that I could see the Browns taking Barkley at #1 and then taking a qb at #4.

He's genuinely injured! Paying him shouldn't be controversial.

He's already hard at work moving forward with his education:

Yep, I well remember. To be sure, he wasn't as good as Peters, but he was the opposite of a stiff and the trade wasn't all that lopsided at the end of the day given Peters' own injuries over the years.

If they have to pay him, they should pay him. That $5 million is hardly going to bust their cap.

He had a good career and was a good pick.

He had a good 9-year career and made a lot of money, and I'm glad he's leaving on his own terms. He's rich, soon to be 32, in a presumably happy family situation, and has the bulk of his life in front of him. He was a better player than a lot here gave him credit for even though he wasn't the best center in the league. He was, however, better than average and quite reliable, averaging over 13 games played per season over the course of his career. As for the Bills: I think that this is a bigger deal than many might think because he was a rock-solid center (again, not the best, but pretty good) whose general reliability made the center position one the Bills' brass figured they didn't have to worry about for a couple of years. This creates a pretty big hole for them, and they are going to need to address it early on unless they think Groy is capable of being a league-average starter.

Unless things changed yesterday, Clay and glenn haven't sustained very serious injuries - they both have chronic injuries that are wearing them down. Same goes for benjamin. My guess is that it is a new injury judging from how this is being reported.

The bills don't have in their plans anyway so it's not a big thing if is done. Wouldn't be news, i don't think.

That's not really a story though - it's half expected and he was gone anyway.

I thought the same at first. But who knows what happened last night? No reason why the bills wouldn't know before media there would. He and Dawkins are the only ones I really care about with regard to being cornerstones of the offense.

Perhaps. But that's not a guarantee. He is the only truly excellent player on that offense.

If this is big, only a small handful of players count - dawkis, benjamin, and of course mccoy (who, btw, hasn't tweetd in 13 hours, fwiw). No one else is good enough to matter save perhaps incognito, but he's old and the team's future doesn't hinge on him.

I'd say 9 because if it was the pro bowlers, we would have heard about it.

Absolutely. Also, I'm not so sure Washington should have complete regret about RG3. He did, after all, have arguably the greatest season ever for a rookie qb in the nfl. If he hadn't gotten hurt and if Shanahan had remained empowered to use him as he should be used, we're possibly looking at a guy today who puts up Tyrod-like ratio numbers but multiplied by 1.5 (e.g. 25-30 passing tds and 700 rushing yards). A lot of things went wrong with him (much of it on the management front, from the terrible owner to the parents to the coaching situation), but it can't be argued that his rookie season wasn't freaking incredible. If there ever was a season for the Bills to deliberately tank, it was that one. They started out 0-8! Sadly they went 4-4 the rest of the way.

People! Simply register on the site. I registered months ago and can read everything, but not once has the News asked me for one thin dime.

Good post. I agree about the team around him. He didn't play for a good program. PS - Excellent breakdown from the main Jets fan forum site: https://www.ganggreennation.com/2018/1/16/16882448/scouting-the-2018-nfl-draft-josh-allen-qb-quarterback-wyoming-new-york-jets

Prediction: it'll be a close game and it'll come down to whichever team is better at situational football at the end.