Devontae Booker signed a one-year deal with the Giants this offseason to be insurance for Saquon Barkley at worst, and a quality backup at best.
He wasn’t quite the latter through the first four weeks, recording just 10 touches for 36 yards, and he was actually inactive for the Giants’ Week 3 loss to Atlanta.
That all changed on Sunday, though, when Barkley went down in the first quarter in Dallas with what the team believes is a low-ankle sprain, pressing Booker into duty immediately and possibly for the near future.
How did Booker respond? Sixteen carries for 42 yards and a touchdown, and three catches for 16 yards and another score. Like Kadarius Toney, who stepped up with 10 catches and 189 yards in the absence of three receivers, Booker more than doubled his season output in Week 4, impressing his head coach.
“Overall, from the eyeball test, I think he did some solid things for us. Obviously, finishing in the end zone in the end he did some tough running, he stepped up in some blitz pickups and picked up the safety off the edge,” Joe Judge said. “We’ll watch the tape and there will be things to build on, but he practices hard and plays hard, and we have confidence in him.”
“I prepare every week like a starter, and I can only control what I can control,” Booker added about his role. “What happened with Saquon, it sucks to see him go down, but I always have to be ready.”
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Perhaps even tougher for Booker was that his number was called one play after Daniel Jones also left the game due to a head injury, with backup quarterback Mike Glennon handing off to Booker for a jump over the pile and a game-tying touchdown.
“Really I was just thinking about scoring. Injuries happen in a game, and we don’t want them to happen, but it’s a next play mentality with us,” Booker said. “Being right there on the goal line, we had to score.”
Booker is used to not necessarily being the feature back, as was in timeshares or a true backup role for most of his first five seasons in Denver and Las Vegas. His ability to have a game like Sunday’s, though, is just another example of the Giants’ “next man up” mentality, one that was tested so much that Glennon joked it felt like a preseason game in the second half.
“It was like that, but all the guys going down, but this is what we prepare for. That’s our mentality,” Booker said. “If one guy goes down, next man up, and you have to go out and perform when your number is called.”
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Booker will do just that in practice this week, even if he’s not going to be comfortable that he will indeed be the starter on game day until that day comes.
“Saquon’s very humble, so he may be back next week, who knows,” Booker said. “As far as it goes for me, just continue to go out there, work my butt off and prepare like I’m a starter.”
He’ll be doing so behind an offensive line that is also banged up and a little bit patchwork…but once again, all that matters is that the next man up steps up and executes.
“It can be hard at some points, but we all know what we’re doing out there, and we have to gel when the plays are called,” he said. “Any given week someone can be out, so we have to go out there and execute.”
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