Was a little bored and I knew that Saquon had a ton of big plays last year, so I tried to see where his year stacked up in terms of big plays. Pro-Football-Reference has game play data since 1994, which is why I chose that year. It's not "NFL History" but that's 25 years of NFL data which is nothing to sneeze at.
Since 1994, the only players to have had 5+ runs of 50+ yards are in the list below. I also put their number of 50+ yard receptions in parentheses next to their rushes.
B. Sanders 1997 -- 7 runs / 4 TD ---- (1 rec / 1 TD)
Peterson 2012 ---- 7 runs / 4 TD ---- (0 rec)
Barkley 2018 ----- 6 runs / 4 TD ---- (2 rec / 1 TD)
N. Kaufman 1997 -- 6 runs / 4 TD ---- (1 rec / 1 TD)
B. Sanders 1994 -- 6 runs / 1 TD ---- (0 rec)
C. Johnson 2009 -- 5 runs / 5 TD ---- (2 rec / 2 TD)
Tomlinson 2003 --- 5 runs / 3 TD ---- (2 rec / 2 TD)
C. Portis 2003 --- 5 runs / 3 TD ---- (1 rec / 0 TD)
Tomlinson 2006 --- 5 runs / 2 TD ---- (1 rec / 1 TD)
Ray Rice 2011 ---- 5 runs / 2 TD ---- (1 rec / 0 TD)
F. Gore 2006 ----- 5 runs / 1 TD ---- (0 rec)
T. Barber 2005 --- 5 runs / 1 TD ---- (0 rec)
Only Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson in their respective 2000 yard season seasons had more runs of 50+ yards than Barkley just had in his rookie year. If you combine runs + receptions, only Barry Sanders and Barkley had 8+ 50 yard plays from scrimmage in one season. Chris Johnson does have the record for 7 TDs of 50+ yards in his 2000 yard season, 4.2 speed does that for you.
Some interesting names on the list. Napoleon Kaufman with one crazy year, biggest (smallest?) surprise on the list. Ray Rice was a hell of a player before the off-field stuff came tarnished his legacy. Our boy Tiki on the list, what a beast he was during that stretch.
I know these highlight plays aren't everything, Saquon and this OL need to get better at the basic 4yd run. That's how you sustain a ball control offense, churning out those consistent positive runs.
But it takes a special talent to do what Saquon did last year, so many of these plays were almost entirely because of him and not because of some massive hole at the LOS.
I can't wait to see what he has in store for this year.
Gurley ——— 4 rushes ——— 7 plays —— 1229 touches
Bell ———— 3 rushes ——— 3 plays —— 1541 touches
Elliot ———— 2 rushes —— 4 plays ——— 1003 touches
McCaffrey —— 2 rushes —— 2 plays —— 523 touches
Kamara ——— 1 rush ——— 1 play ——— 476 touches
Our guy is just different.
Barkley is a joy to watch.
I'm thrilled, and being a Giants fan is the cherry on top.
Saquon is just so amazingly special. He's going to break all kinds of records. I really do believe he can break the single season scrimmage record THIS YEAR. Which, btw, is Chris Johnson with 2,509 yards. That's a tough but to crack but if anyone can do it it's this guy. In fact, anything less than 2200 yards will be a mild surprise for me.
I'm thrilled, and being a Giants fan is the cherry on top.
Saquon is just so amazingly special. He's going to break all kinds of records. I really do believe he can break the single season scrimmage record THIS YEAR. Which, btw, is Chris Johnson with 2,509 yards. That's a tough but to crack but if anyone can do it it's this guy. In fact, anything less than 2200 yards will be a mild surprise for me.
Hot expectations
You start giving this guy some real holes to run through and get creative in how you use him in the passing game some more records will be broken in the coming seasons. He is going to be a nightmare for defenses to deal with if the Giants can give him some support.
Now, we all know that is really an indictment on the OL. However, it really emphasizes the fact that he needed the long gainers to essentially mask the stink of the OL.
We all saw how many times he was hit in the backfield last year.
I'm guessing Barkley will have more than 8 this year, with a few more reception going long distance and perhaps fewer runs.
Although for sure pure luck is involved in accumulating that many.
Now, we all know that is really an indictment on the OL. However, it really emphasizes the fact that he needed the long gainers to essentially mask the stink of the OL.
We all saw how many times he was hit in the backfield last year.
That's why I expect his YPC to increase to 5.4 or better this year if the starting OL remain healthy the vast majority of the year.
Barkley was a sure thing and he is just different. I understand the analytics arguments that you don't take RBs in the top half of the first (maybe even lower). Barkley is not Fournette though...he's just different. He should be thought of as an offensive weapon and not just a back.
It's gets lost in discussion, but the Giants offensive was quite consistent and in terms of run blocking, the numbers would indicate pretty good.
All players healthy I'd expect Barkley to mirror his second half of the season last year, which hopefully gets the Giants from a bottom 3rd to a top 3rd rushing team.
The Giants might even get on prime time again despite having traded our “brand ambassador” prince...wouldn’t that be cool!
Now, we all know that is really an indictment on the OL. However, it really emphasizes the fact that he needed the long gainers to essentially mask the stink of the OL.
We all saw how many times he was hit in the backfield last year.
That is why this offense is not going to b a “ground and pound” offense. There are still going to be a lot of 3rd and 5 situations and the offense will have to deliver on 3rd down. Barkley will be a receiver on 3rd down.
Barkley was a sure thing and he is just different. I understand the analytics arguments that you don't take RBs in the top half of the first (maybe even lower). Barkley is not Fournette though...he's just different. He should be thought of as an offensive weapon and not just a back.
Yep. It's sort of disingenuous to just call Barkley a RB... he's a lot more than that. Which is why I always hated the "you don't draft a RB that high" stuff. Saquon is a generational talent - a term people use too loosely now - but he is.
On top of all his physical talents and abilities on the field; he's a tremendous young man and the person I want representing the Giants for what I hope will be a bit longer than the standard RB shelf-life. Something tells me Saquon will find a way to exceed that, too.