Evan opened Tuesday’s show with a hot take, declaring that the Giants’ decision to draft Saquon Barkley second overall in 2018 was a bigger screw-up than the Jets taking Sam Darnold one pick later.
“Our two franchises, linked together forever because of a decision…the one thing we can all agree on six years later, with Saquon Barkley officially gone and Sam Darnold having been gone for three years, we all screwed up,” Evan said. “But who screwed up more? I’m here to tell you…you guys screwed up more than we did!
“What’s the goal of sports? It’s to win, right? I’m about to blow your mind with a stat. Saquon Barkley ended up playing in 73 games over six seasons. In those six seasons, when he was on the field, the Giants had a record of 25-48. That is a winning percentage of .342…of course not all his fault…Sam Darnold played in 38 games for the Jets over three years. His record was 13-25, you know what his winning percentage was? The exact same thing.”
To further his case, Evan went on to say that the Jets at least correctly identified their position of need in that draft, unlike the Giants, who were still sticking with Eli Manning under center.
“The Jets knew and identified, we had to find a quarterback,” Evan said. “Were they wrong? Of course they were wrong…it failed, but they tried. The Giants on the other hand, while they drafted a good football player…they made a wrong fundamental decision.”
Tiki strongly disagreed, pointing to the parity in career production between Barkley and Darnold for the teams that drafted them.
“Sam Darnold never rose to the level of a third overall pick,” Tiki said. “The very next opportunity to draft a quarterback, you basically use the same pick, except for one higher, to take another quarterback. When you draft a quarterback, and four years later try to draft at the exact same position, how can you not say that’s the bigger screw up?”