Saquon Barkley Winning Super Bowl With Eagles Would Cement Babe Ruth-level Mistake By Giants
Saquon Barkley Winning Super Bowl With Eagles Would Cement Babe Ruth-level Mistake By Giants
Blog Article
The Giants’ decision to let Saquon Barkley walk and sign with their rival Philadelphia Eagles already confounds the football world.
“That might be the worst executive move I’ve seen since Babe Ruth left Boston and went to the New York Yankees,” longtime NFL agent Leigh Steinberg said on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast on Friday. “How could you let an irreplaceable player like that go to a team in your division? I don’t get that.”
Now imagine Barkley standing on the stage Sunday lifting the Lombardi Trophy in Eagles green. The magnitude of Joe Schoen’s misevaluation would escalate to historic proportions.
It would become the GM’s legacy and the Giants’ new brand:
They were the franchise that let a player walk into one of the best seasons in NFL history to lead their arch rival to a Super Bowl.
Think about that.
What a surreal experience it was, too, to watch Barkley’s Eagles players congratulate him in a tribute video after he won the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award on Thursday night. Receiver DeVonta Smith called him “Superman” and thanked Barkley for “helping lead this team.”
Rookie corner Cooper DeJean said Barkley is “probably one of the best football players I’ve ever watched.”
Left tackle Jordan Mailata told Barkley that “the character that you have, brother, man stands out more than the player you are.”
“It means a lot to me just to be your teammate,” safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson said. “One of the best running backs of all time. I [get to] explain to my kids I played with the best running backs of all time.”
Then Mailata made it even more personal.
“I love you, bro,” the Eagles’ left tackle said.
It was all the sentiment of Barkley’s longtime Giants teammates — who played with him from 2018-2023 and knew his value to the locker room, not just the team — coming out of the mouths of Eagles players who haven’t even known Barkley personally for a calendar year.
The tribute reinforced not just how immediate of an impact Barkley has made on the Eagles as a leader, but how historically unique it is for a player in his position to have this kind of effect on a team.
“His leadership is very similar to the leadership I saw from Ray Lewis with the Baltimore Ravens when we won the Super Bowl in 2012,” said Michigan defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, who is a candidate to become the Saints’ new DC if the Giants’ Mike Kafka lands the New Orleans head coaching job. “His effect as a leader is the same thing you see in the great leadership of any Super Bowl team.
“Very rarely do you talk about a non-quarterback and his leadership this way. It’s rare,” Martindale added. “But there are players who can will their team to win, and that’s what you’re watching with Saquon. His leadership is real. What you hear him say is real.”
Martindale pointed to how Barkley is constantly crediting his offensive line, quarterback Jalen Hurts — anyone but himself.
“And after they beat Washington in the NFC Championship Game, every player in Philly is talking about Saquon because of his leadership,” Martindale said.
Then the Wolverines’ DC, unprompted, said the same words Mailata did about Barkley, whom he worked with on the Giants from 2022-23.
“I love him,” Martindale said.
All of this will remain true about Barkley even if the Eagles don’t win on Sunday. It will still go down as an all-time season and an unbelievable story.
“I thought that Saquon Barkley was the MVP of the league this year,” Steinberg said. “If you look at the effect of a single player on a team, he’s it. There’s this pre-prejudice against running backs and devaluation. But he’s the guy. And he’s a culture changer.
“His work ethic, the way he relates to other people, his humility, means you put him in a locker room and other people will look up to that and follow that,” he added. “He’s a dynamic force.”
Barkley’s determination and drive, though, feels like it could lift the Eagles to actually get it done in Super Bowl 59.
“I’m more worried for the Chiefs about Saquon’s impact in the game even than Jalen Hurts,” Steinberg said. “They’re both important, but when Saquon is on like he was a couple weeks ago, he’s unstoppable. It’s indefensible.”
The Eagles’ running game is indefensible. So is the Giants’ decision to let a home run hitter with leadership in his DNA go to Philadelphia – a modern day Babe Ruth-sized mistake.