Giants shouldn’t tempt fate with Barkley

Saquon Barkley was removed from Monday’s practice with a strained leg.  He was stretching when he tightened up and had to leave practice.  According to the Giants, he may miss joint practice between New York and the Detroit Lions.  Barkley’s injury is not serious, and according to head coach Pat Shurmur “Saquon has a mild strain, and we’ll be smart with him as we move along here”.

What does this mean going forward?  Well it means that the Giants dodged a bullet with Barkley and need to handle him with caution.  That’s not to say Saquon Barkley isn’t allowed to practice;  It’s that the Giants shouldn’t over-exert him or play him any more in the preseason.  The preseason, regardless of how much “experience” a player can get, is just tempting the fate of another devastating injury.

Earlier in the month Derrius Guice tore his ACL in a preseason game against the New England Patriots.  Guice was the Redskins’ prized possession even though he was drafted in the second round of this year’s draft.  Unfortunately for him his season is over.  The ACL tear has been an epidemic sweeping the NFL over the past few seasons.  The Giants need to tread those waters carefully and not use Barkley if they don’t need to.

Barkley will need to get acclimated to the speed of the NFL game but the Giants need to find a way to protect him at all costs.  People may say it’s soft to protect Barkley and that he needs to get his feet wet and practice as much as possible, the more he’s exposed the more he’s susceptible to a tear of any sort.  ACL injuries are unpredictable and usually happen during a non-contact play in a game.  They’re most prevalent when cutting on a dime.

Finding a way to both expose Saquon Barkley and protect him is a slippery slope.  If they overplay him and he gets hurt, the Giants will be burned at the stake for their mistake.  If they take things slow with him and hold him out until the regular season, he may not be at the level everyone wants him to be at, and once again the Giants will be burned at the stake for it.  The Giants should play it somewhere down the middle, where he’s practicing and getting first team reps but doesn’t play in the rest of the preseason.  They can’t afford to lose a dynamic player like him.