No matter the result of Eagles vs. Commanders, the Giants are the real losers
Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley runs the ball for a touchdown during the second half of an NFC divisional playoff game against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Derik Hamilton
A few weeks ago, Saquon Barkley appeared in a commercial for a sleep-aid product.
“I heard some of you were having trouble sleeping, so I wrote you a lullaby,” a pajama-clad Barkley said in the ad, a clear shot at Giants president and CEO John Mara, who had famously said he would have “a tough time sleeping” if Barkley signed with the Eagles . . . which of course he did.
“It sure is tough to lose sleep over football,” Barkley continued in the spot. “Not for me, though. Good night to you all!”
Mara called Barkley shortly after seeing video of that pitch to tell the running back he was insulted.
“The least you could have done was ask me to be in the commercial with you,” a grinning Mara said he told Barkley. “I could’ve been tossing and turning, and it would’ve been great. There is an acting gene in our family, you know. It’s not just my nieces.”
Those would be Kate and Rooney Mara, of course.
It’s a good thing that the top Giant can laugh at himself, even a little bit, because, quite frankly, just about everyone else in the football world has been. And no matter the outcome of Sunday’s NFC Championship Game between the Eagles and Commanders, the intensity of those mocking snickers is going to be sky-high for at least the next two weeks.
This isn’t just about two rivals having success. It’s worse. One of them is going to Super Bowl LIX, and in no small part thanks to the mismanagement of the Giants themselves. No matter who wins on Sunday, the Giants lose.
Cue the sad trombone music that has become the soundtrack to their nightmare season and continues to score their existence three weeks after they last played a game.
It’s already started, of course. Two weeks ago, even Michael Strahan was taking shots at general manager Joe Schoen for not retaining the services of Barkley this past offseason.
“Thank you, New York Giants, because you let [Xavier McKinney] go and you let Barkley go,” he said during Fox’s pregame show ahead of the Eagles-Packers playoff game.
“Well done,” Strahan said sarcastically.
And on Friday, Commanders running back Austin Ekeler got his jabs in.
“What a joke over there letting this guy go,” he said on “The Dan Le Batard Show,” regarding the Giants' decision to let Barkley walk in free agency.
This from a guy whose team has to face Barkley on Sunday, too.
The Commanders are in this spot mostly because of the play of rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels . . . the player the Giants wanted to trade up to get (but couldn’t).
Of course, they wouldn’t have had to swing a deal for him had they not won a few meaningless games at the end of the 2023 season and wound up with the sixth overall pick. For the past few years, it’s felt as if winning has had more negative consequences for the Giants than losing has.
There is a glorious world in which the Giants could have had both Barkley and Daniels on their team.
It’s just not this world.
None of this is to say that Barkley would have been able to produce one of the greatest seasons by a running back in NFL history had the Giants kept him. In fact, he probably wouldn’t have. No one knows that more than he does.
“You might have media deals, you might get commercials, you might have followers on IG [Instagram],” Barkley told reporters this past week. “But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is how you compete as a team. And if you don't have a great team, it won't matter. You won't be successful. I think I'm a prime example of that right now."
Barkley was very good even on very bad Giants teams. He’s become phenomenal on this very good Eagles team.
Nor is it a sure thing that Daniels would have become the slam dunk offensive rookie of the year and on the verge of becoming the first rookie quarterback to lead his team to a Super Bowl had he become a Giant. He probably wouldn’t have even begun the 2024 season as the starter. The Giants were hell-bent on giving Daniel Jones at least a shot at keeping that job early on. And if the Giants had drafted Daniels, they wouldn’t have been able to get Malik Nabers as a target for him.
Daniels’ success has come in an offense in which he can target Terry McLaurin and Zach Ertz and hand off to Ekeler and Brian Robinson Jr. The Giants don’t have those kinds of weapons . . . although in our little fantasy thought experiment, they still might have had Barkley.
Here's something that is becoming glaringly unavoidable, though:
The Eagles and the Commanders not only are much better than the Giants this season but seem poised to maintain that lead for years to come.
Things could change. The Giants could change. They could make the kind of leap that Washington took, going from four wins to the final four in one overhauled offseason. But right now — and for at least the next few weeks — one of those foes is going to be the toast of the league and the Giants will be the butt of the jokes.
A tossing and turning John Mara? He probably won’t need those acting genes to pull off that role for a while.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
