So: my thoughts on Barkley!
- excellent running back, rookie who is setup to get a massive workload. The giants gutted their closet of RBs and have moved their run offense to be based around Saquan.
- We are seeing more common these days that rookie RBs can do some serious damage when given the chance (see Elliot, Hunt, Fournette last year). Barkley is a horse of a man who I think can do the same.
- Pat shurmur will give him the ball non-stop if he sees some early success
- The NYG have moved out JPP (arguably one of the leagues best pass rushers) last year to give their defense a new look. They are moving to a 3-4 instead of a regular 4-3 defense, and I believe Shurmur is going to be using the run game to help control the clock. Which is a big change from the previous couple years.
- I am a giants fan and am excited for finally have a running game.
Why not Bell, Gurley, Hunt, etc.?
My revisionist history has taught me that having first round success depends on where your dart lands. Every year about half the 1st round is lost to injury, so whoever got the guys who happened to not get injured have their picks work out (usually).
Over the years I've made many first round busts:
Marshawn Lynch (back spasms most that year)
Jamaal Charles (torn ACl out for season)
David Johnson (injured early and out for season)
Le'Veon Bell (injured leg in 2nd game, out for season)
OBJ (ankle injury and complete bust season)
DeAndre Hopkins 2016 (well that one was just my bad pick, haha)
Just pick the guy you want, and he has as much chance of working out as the rest of the 1st round.
If you are going NYG, why not pick a more reliable option like OBJ?
In non-PPR I believe I need to get my hands on a solid RB up front. Let OBJ get back to me and I'll scoop him off the board :P
If this were a real draft I would have tried to trade down the draft after being chosen 1st, even if I could get nothing more than future considerations. I would do this knowing I could likely scoop Barkley in the bottom 6 of the 1st round, and it would give me a better 2nd round pick. I do not believe this choice will drastically alter the course of the mock draft, and thus decided to go with the bold RB choice.
If I was less interested in the NYG and this rookie I'd likely have chosen Gurley 1st for non-PPR.
Hope that helps to satisfy some curiosity