Big Blue View mailbag: Saquon Barkley, offensive line dominates questions

More than a day until the New York Giants open their 2021 season against the Denver Broncos. With that as a backdrop, let’s open up the Big Blue View Mailbag and see what you think.

Michael Carroll asks: OT Ricky Wagner. One reason we didn’t add this guy to our list? We added 3 IOLs for depth behind Gates, Hernandez and Lemieux, but is it okay to start the season with just 3 OT? Who all struggled in the preseason? Wagner is a proven veteran and played well for Great Britain last year. Maybe there is another reason why it is not signed? But if he is in good health and everything is going well, he only improves our OL, which should be the priority this season.

Ed says: Michael, Rick Wagner is probably an average to slightly better than average right tackle at this point in his career. Why isn’t he a giant? Well, why isn’t he on anyone’s list right now? If I’m Wagner, at 31 and after eight years in the league, I just sit there and wait for the right opportunity. It’s probably a good team that’s almost certain to make the playoffs, start right away and get paid handsomely.

It’s not the Giants. Plus, let’s be realistic about the money. Nate Solder is carrying a cap of $ 9.5 million this year. After all of their restructuring and injury settlements, Over The Cap shows the Giants with just $ 3.281 million in cap space left for 2021. How much money are they going to use to sign Wagner?

I don’t think a Wagner-Giants marriage makes sense.

George Wallace asks: Washington’s game more critical than Week 1 Denver. Wouldn’t it make sense to have Barkley sit Week 1 for Week 2 against Washington and [have] extended rest for week 3?

Ed says: George, NEVER tell an NFL head coach that the next game is on the schedule [in this case, Sunday vs, the Denver Broncos] is not the most important sports competition of all time.

Look, I understand where you’re from. Washington is a division game and a conference game, so that raises the bar. The Giants, however, have no room for error. They cannot choose and play one more important game than another. They have to do their best every week.

As for Barkley, I’ll be shocked if he has a heavy workload or plays a high volume of snaps on Sunday. I would expect 8-10 touches, mostly in places the Giants think they can do in the open field. With a limited workload, I think they also hope to have it Thursday against Washington.

Ed says: Ben Bredeson and Billy Price (53-man squad), as well as Matt Skura and Korey Cunningham (practice squad) all had to dig deep. You’re not going to see some sort of massively reshuffled offensive line start on Sunday.

We know Nate Solder supplanted Matt Peart in the right tackle. Having said that, I’m sure we’re going to see a rotation there with Peart that will have a lot of playing time.

We could also see some of Bredeson in the left guard. Shane Lemieux is not on the injury report, but he has a partially torn patellar tendon. How much it can play and how effective it can be is something we will have to find out. I wouldn’t be at all shocked if Bredeson gets any shots against the Broncos.

Ed says: No. The Giants have already exercised Saquon Barkley’s fifth-year option at a cost of $ 7.217 million against the salary cap. The Giants wouldn’t have chosen that option if there was any doubt that they wanted it on the 2022 roster. What happens in the long term is uncertain, but I think after what happened along with Odell Beckham Jr., John Mara is going to want Barkley in the long run.

Billy Pilgrim asks: In an offense-driven league where “almost” every team lights up the scoreboard, why are the Giants an exception year after year? They make scoring painfully difficult. From your perspective, can you break it down into a percentage who is to blame for this?

Also, I see from your roundtable that only Joe picked the team to play better than .500. I completely agree with that. I don’t think you can expect a team to play better than 0.500 football, let alone 0.500 when your QB isn’t throwing for TD and producing points, is not a playmaker and has a high spin ratio on TD. How many wins do you think this team would get if they had a third tier QB like Stafford?

Ed says: Billy, I don’t think it’s fair to say that almost every team in the NFL lights up the scoreboard. In terms of points per game, only the Green Bay Packers (31.5) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (30.8) averaged 30 or more points last season. Fifteen teams have averaged 25 or more points. Four teams, including the Giants, have averaged less than 20 points per game.

In 2019, the Giants were 19th in the league in points per game and in 2018, they were 16th. So basically the league average. Your “aberrant year after year” comment is the frustration of losing games while talking. This is not a realistic commentary on the team’s offense.

Now, there’s no question the Giants need to score more than the 17.5 points per game they got last year. I’ve said a number of times that if they can hit that league average of around 25 points per game, play defense as well as a year ago and have a good kicking game, they have a chance to be a good football team.

I tend to think that our roundtable predictions have been burned too many times by being overly optimistic and wanting to be cautious or conservative.

Yes, a team needs a good quarterback to always be a good team. Let’s see what Daniel Jones is doing this year. We should know by the end of 2021 if Jones can’t be that top third of the league quarterback.