Saquon Barkley is an early fan favorite to be the New York Giants draft pick at No. 2 overall in the 2018 NFL Draft among fans who want to build around Eli Manning for one final two-year window.

The talented and explosive running back out of Penn State has drawn lofty NFL comparisons and he is quickly emerging as the consensus best running back in the draft class. Some analysts also believe that Barkley is the best player overall in the entire draft class. Barkley is viewed by many draftniks as a better prospect than Ezekiel Elliott or Leonard Fournette were and both of those running backs were selected in the first five picks of their respective draft classes.

Some NFL insiders are now starting to seriously consider the possibility that the Giants draft Barkley with the No. 2 overall pick.

"I'm most curious about the Giants," NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport said on NFL Network, via Giants.com. Their draft philosophy has always been best player available regardless of position. This is very curious considering how important it is (for the Giants) to get better at the running back position and want kind of emphasis he puts on it. The Jacksonville Jaguars have seen that kind of success with Leonard Fournette."

Earlier this offseason, Manning said in a WFAN radio interview that he can work within any new offensive scheme, but that he would like the next offense he runs to get back to utilizing the play-action passing game. This is something that all but disappeared during Ben McAdoo's run with the Giants. This is also something that Manning excels at and some analysts believe the veteran is at his best when working off the play-action passing game due to an efficient and successful run game.

Barkley would provide that spark for the Giants run game while also forcing defenses to account for him on every play. In turn, this would allow Manning and the Giants to revitalize their play-action passing game.

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During his introductory press conference, new general manager Dave Gettleman said that he believes every team must "run the ball, stop the run and rush the passer" to win. However, while running the ball is now a priority for Giants football moving forward, there is a debate as to how they can accomplish that. Some fans and analysts believe that building the right offensive line can spring a larger range of running backs to be successful.

Many fans believe that the Giants are best off targeting a running back in the Rds. 2-4 range of the 2018 NFL Draft because of recent draft hits Alvin Kamara (Round 3) and Kareem Hunt (Round 3). We fall into this category here, but it's not because of recency bias and the success of Kamara and Hunt. While taking a 30,000-foot view of the 2018 draft class, it's easy to see that the running back position is stacked with talent at the top, in the middle, and throughout. Running back might be the most talent-rich position in the entire class, and therefore, the Giants can extract the most value by targeting a player who falls further than he should due to the talent around him at his position.