Apparently we didn't leave the hyperbolic comments in the pre-draft nights.
After eschewing any trade offers for the No. 2 overall pick, New York Giants general manager Dave Gettleman boasted that running back Saquon Barkley was a football player so good he was blessed by a singular deity.
"He was touched by the hand of God, frankly," Gettleman said, per the New York Daily News.
Throughout the draft process, Big Blue's new chief has insisted his goal was to take a future Hall of Famer with the No. 2 overall pick, regardless of position, not pigeonhole his team by forcing a quarterback that high. By his own assessment, Gettleman hit it out of the park.
"I haven't seen a guy like this in a long time, and I've been running around doing this for 30-plus years," Gettleman said of Barkley. "He is the unanimous best player in the draft."
Gettleman called Barkley a "touchdown maker" -- the Penn State product had 53 total touchdowns in three college seasons, a school record. He also described the notion that taking a running back at No. 2 was poor positional value as "a crock."
The decision to draft Barkley instead of the heir apparent to Eli Manning will set the tone for years to come. The additions of Nate Soldier and Barkley this offseason have buttressed the struggling Manning. If the two-time Super Bowl MVP experiences a poor 2018, there will be no arrows left in the quiver of his ardent defenders.
As for Barkley, he's got some grand expectations to live up to quickly. Not only did Gettleman say God bestowed him with unique gifts, a Hall of Fame running back compared the new Giant to all-time great Barry Sanders.
"He has some Barry Sanders] in him, in my opinion," Curtis Martin [told The New York Post. "At the end of the day, I think he's similar to Barry, but more of a bruiser at the same time, and probably faster than Barry.
"If I was to say backs that would make up who he is, I would say Barry, Eric Dickerson and Jim Brown. Because he has that breakaway speed -- that's what I remember Eric Dickerson for. I remember Jim Brown as just this bruising, hard-to-tackle guy, but Barry with all of the quickness."
No pressure, Saquon. You're just heading to the biggest media market in the world with outsized expectations that you will immediately slide on a gold jacket and vault the Giants into a Super Bowl contender in Eli's twilight years. No pressure at all.
