Which player on the New York Giants is the best one outside of Saquon Barkley? The answer isn’t very clear cut – the Giants have a lot of potential impact makers this season but don’t quite have a lot of star power outside of their running back, who looks to be one of the most popular and respected running backs in the league despite only having one year of experience under his belt.
With players like Landon Collins and Damon Harrison gone from the defense and Odell Beckham Jr. notably gone from the offense this season, it’s hard to project just where the team’s stars are outside of Barkley. After all, many players expected to step up this season such as Sterling Shepard on offense and Lorenzo Carter on defense are still relatively unproven when compared to other players who have more preexisting success.
According to one veteran NFL scout who spoke to NJ Advance Media, however, the best player on the Giants outside of Barkley isn’t someone at a position that one might expect, and it’s not Shepard, even if Shepard did sign a big four year deal to become the team’s arguable top receiver.
The best player on the team other than Barkley is a tight end, specifically Evan Engram, according to this scout.
“It’s Evan Engram. He’s a playmaker. He’s got speed and great hands,” the scout elaborated.
It’s something of a strange choice considering the tight end’s history, following up a promising first season with a second season that saw production slashed and usage in the lineup drop, but to Engram’s credit, much of the problems last season were because of injury.
With the Giants receiver group having a lot of potential to either rise or flop this season, there is room for Engram to take advantage of the absence of Odell Beckham Jr. depending on just how well the receivers live up to that task this year. But Engram will have to compete with receivers Sterling Shepard and Golden Tate for chances to catch the ball, and will have to get in the lineup in the first place, which could be a challenge if the coaching staff continue to prefer other options as they did during the back end of last season.
We’ll see soon whether or not Engram takes a step forward this season or not – whether he does could impact his future with the team.