Devin Singletary knows how this works.
It was the case when he played with the Texans, when he played with the Bills, when he played with Florida Atlantic — even dating back to his time in high school.
The Giants’ new starting running back, the replacement for the role once filled by Saquon Barkley, wouldn’t describe it as pressure to produce to keep getting the bulk of the carries, but rather an understanding of the need to maximize them simply because of how a depth chart works.
“It’s just when you get the ball, of course you want to do good,” Singletary told The Post after the Giants’ practice Friday. “You want to stay in the green, as we say. You want to keep getting yards … That’s what you want to do as a running back. That’s what you gotta do.”
Every backfield, Singletary later added, has more than one running back.
The Giants have Tyrone Tracy Jr. and Eric Gray — a collection of “three capable backs,” head coach Brian Daboll said — to help spark the running game if needed, and Singletary’s meager 37 yards on 10 carries prompted Daboll to be asked Friday whether Tracy, a rookie who impressed in training camp, could help ignite the layer of the Giants’ offense that used to be the focal point with Barkley.
“I feel comfortable with all three of them,” Daboll said when asked if Tracy could help the offense. “So again, there’s one ball, everybody wants it, but everyone’s got a role.”
Singletary felt the Giants’ running game was close to breaking through.
It was just a missed lane here.
A missed block there.
And once they fix everything, the 27-year-old thinks that area of the offense will help unlock quarterback Daniel Jones and the rest of the unit, too — because then, they’d no longer be one-dimensional.
As soon as Barkley bolted to the Eagles in free agency, figuring out how to replace his production instantly became one of the Giants’ most pressing tasks.
Barkley had topped 950 yards in four seasons.
He emerged — and then remained — the featured piece of the Giants’ offense, the focus of opposing scouting reports.
They turned to Singletary, but in Week 1, the Giants finished with the sixth-fewest rushing yards in the NFL. Last season, the Giants dipped below 74 yards rushing — their final number when the contributions of Wan’Dale Robinson (14 yards), Jones (15), Gray (6) and Tracy (2) blended together with Singletary — just three times.
Singletary was frustrated against the Vikings, when he felt the Giants became one-dimensional.
Those games will happen sometimes, he said, and there will be an adjustment period while the running backs learn how the offensive line will block for them and the offensive line learns how their lanes will be used.
That could take the first month or so of the season, Singletary said. Replacing the role of Barkley was always going to present a challenge, too.
The opening act, though, wasn’t exactly promising.
