Former Penn State running back Saquon Barkley poses for a...

Former Penn State running back Saquon Barkley poses for a selfie with Mia Rothman, 16, and Samantha Krebs, 17, in the Governor's Reception Room at the State Capitol on March 14, 2018, in State College, Pa. Credit: AP / Joe Hermitt

Add Gil Brandt to the growing list of analysts who think Saquon Barkley is the best choice for the Giants with the No. 2 overall pick in next week’s draft.

“I think he’s the best running back to come up through the draft since Adrian Peterson,” Brandt, a long-time NFL executive who is now an analyst for Sirius XM’s NFL Radio, said on a conference call on Wednesday. “I believe that Barkley has the speed and quickness and catching ability. I think he’s a special player . . . I think Barkley is going to be a future star in this league.”

There are, of course, other options for the Giants. One is quarterback.

Both Brandt and fellow NFL Radio analyst Phil Savage said they expect Eli Manning will be able to play at a high level for multiple years.

“You throw out everything from last year with Eli Manning simply because the coaching situation was not good, the receiver situation was not good, the running back situation was not good,” Brandt said. “So if you go back to 2016, if memory serves, they won 11 games and he didn’t get sacked a lot . . . To me, I think that Eli has still got some good years left in him.”

Added Savage: “I had a chance to see the Giants play at the end of the season when he went back into the lineup. I do think that the play of their offensive line, the lack of a run game, Odell Beckham Jr. being out, all of those things played a role in 2017 not being that successful for them. Does he have a couple years left? I would think so. I’ve seen him throw it around down at the Manning Passing Academy every summer and he didn’t look a lot different to me last June than he did the three or four Junes before that. I definitely think he’s got something left.”

Barkley, they said, would add to whatever it is Manning still has.

“Would Saquon Barkley help this team the most? Arguably he could,” Savage said. “If everything gets resolved with Odell and they have Sterling Shepard . . . You put their three-wide package out there with Evan Engram at the tight end, I mean that’s a lot of talent and a lot of skill and spatial ability. Saquon I think would absolutely elevate and add to the mix of that talent base.”

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