Barkley Is Back, Giants Potential This Season
Photo by Jim McIsaac
East Rutherford, New Jersey (PSF) - On July 25th it was announced that Saquon Barkley and the New York Giants had reached an agreement on a one-year deal worth up to $11 million dollars. Immediately after news broke of the new contract signing, Barkley was seen at the Giants facility ready to go for training camp. The return of Barkley should pay dividends as he is one the leaders on this team. This one-year deal effectively gives the Giants their best offensive player back for an important season with high aspirations. On the other side of things, it gives both sides more time to hash out a new long-term deal in the future once the season is over. Either way the Giants are now focused on the upcoming season and poised to exceed expectations once again.
Now that all the pieces are finally in place for the Giants, they are going into a season where they have the third-toughest schedule in the NFL. While their schedule will prove to be a challenge, this Giants team has vastly improved from last year as they have made significant acquisitions that will help fix some of the problems they had last season. During this off-season the Giants have added players like Darren Waller, Bobby Okereke, John Michael Schmitz, and Jalin Hyatt. All of these additions are in positions where they were weak last season but now they could prove to be strengths for the team. On paper it seems the Giants potential this season is high because of the improvements they made but the ultimate deciding factor will be how well this team builds chemistry throughout the season as well as training camp.
This past week the Giants began their training camp and for the first four days it seems like this team is starting to build chemistry already. The competition is also great to see as there have been some standout players so far such as Darren Waller, Daniel Jones, Jalin Hyatt, and rookie Tre Hawkins III to name a few. Now while it is still early and the team has yet to practice in pads, it is still exciting to see the additions the Giants have made make an impact early in training camp.
Offensive potential
The potential of this Giants team is one that is exciting to talk about because of the possible explosiveness that is now present in the offense. With the speed they have added and the improved offensive line combined with the brilliant minds that run this offense, I believe that this Giants offense can be top ten in the NFL next season when it is all said and done. There should be vast improvements in the wide receiver core especially since last season that position was one of the weakest in the NFL, at least when you look at stats that is. The rushing attack should continue to be one of the strong points for this team as Barkley is ready to have another stellar season. One player to watch out for that could be an x-factor and vital to this offense's production is Waller. With all of that being said you can expect quarterback Daniel Jones to take another leap this year and produce even more for this offense.
Photo by Seth Wenig
Defensive potential
Photo by Rich Schultz
On the other side of the field the defense looks a bit different as they have brought in a new middle linebacker in Okereke to lead this defense from the inside which is something the Giants have been lacking for years. Their defensive line should also be able to build upon what they did last season and especially since they are all now healthy. The biggest question mark for this defense this upcoming season will be the secondary as they have a lot of young inexperienced talent outside of Adoree Jackson and Xavier McKinney. Both the CB2 and CB3 positions are gonna have to step up if this defense is to produce and stop offenses from scoring on them. One thing you can be sure of is that Jackson and McKinney will aid this defense with their play as well as their leadership in that secondary, this will be vital to resolving the questions they have in that position group. All in all, the potential this Giants team has is great and they can absolutely make the playoffs this year while also making some noise like they did last year but the most essential factor in their possible success will be their chemistry.
