Saquon Barkley
RB, Giants
Saquon Barkley is a stud, but he comes with some concerns. First of all, Saquon is coming off a bad knee injury. He may not be ready by the start of the season, and even if he is ready the Giants might choose to ease him back onto the field in the first couple of games. Saquon has also had injury problems for most of his career. He played all 16 games as a rookie but got injured relatively early in the season in his second year. He only ended up missing three games but wasn’t the same player for most of the season. And then he only played two games before going out for the year last season. The other big problem with Barkley is the fact that the Giants have an atrocious offensive line. It’s simply going to be hard for him to find running room. The addition of Kenny Golladay should help prevent defenses from completely loading the box to stop Saquon, but he’ll still have a hard time producing with the talent around him. Nonetheless, Saquon is an elite talent who can catch and run, so he has incredible upside. He can still create for himself when the offensive line breaks down and will produce through the air. Overall, Saquon is the least safe of the top running backs, but he has a similar ceiling to Christian McCaffrey and Dalvin Cook.
Standard Analytics-Based Projected Points: 200.6
PPR Analytics-Based Projected Points: 246.2