Giants’ Barkley ready for ’22
RB looks to regain form two years after knee injury
Julian Love has not only seen a different Saquon Barkley on the field in recent months, the New York Giants safety is excited what the star running back is showing in the locker room.
Love said Barkley, the No. 2 overall draft pick in 2018, is itching to play.
“I think he’s back in his headspace of being super competitive,” Love said Wednesday after the second practice of a three-day mandatory minicamp. “When I mentioned competitive talks in the locker room, he’s the main guy. He’s one locker over from me and that’s the main conversation every day about him competing. So I think that’s what we’ve been seeing, and I’m excited for him.”
In his second season removed from a major injury on his right knee, Barkley is showing signs that he might be able to regain the form that made him one of the NFL’S top running backs in his first two seasons.
An ACL and meniscus injury ended his third season in the second game. Last season, Barkley wasn’t the same after a year-long rehabilitation. He didn’t start practicing until two weeks before the start of the regular season, and he never appeared comfortable in a dismal 4-13 season.
In 13 games, the Penn State product rushed for 593 yards on 162 carries and caught 41 passes for 263 yards. He scored four touchdowns. An ankle injury sidelined him for four games.
The statistics were a far cry from Barkley’s rookie year when he was the AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. He ran 1,307 yards and 11 touchdowns and caught 91 passes for 721 yards and four touchdowns. He gained 1,003 yards rushing in 2019 and had 52 catches.
Barkley never came close to that level of play last season, playing behind a weak offensive line. He never looked comfortable in open space.
“I’ll tell you, I feel a lot better than I felt at this point last year,” Barkley said. “Like you said, I was rehabbing. My body feels good. My body feels strong. Feel like I got my strength back. Feel like I got my speed back. Feel like I can trust my knee again, trust myself to make plays and not think about it.”
Barkley is still pushing himself to be faster and stronger so he can return to training camp late next month and be ready to go.
If anything is noticeable in the offense coach Brian Daboll has installed, it is he plans to use Barkley as a receiver more. He has been lined up all over the field in the organized team activities and the minicamp.
“I think any time you have a good player, if you’re an offensive play-caller scheming, you find a way to get the best players the football,” said Daboll. “Targets. Sometimes as a decoy, touches in the run game. Guys that can produce and make yards with the ball in their hand, as a play-caller, you like those guys.”
Barkley also has done some work himself. He went back and looked at film of his games with the Nittany Lions, searching for anything he could carry forward to help his game.
Barkley isn’t ready to shout out to the NFL that he’s back.
“Like I said before, it’s really early, so I can’t make too many predictions for the future,” he said. “But it is what it is. I think I said it before, when the tables turn, just make sure you’re on the side of that table. Just stay on that side. It is what it is.”
More Giants: Love got a few laughs when asked what he saw from the offensive linemen when he lined up as a linebacker in Tuesday’s practice. “I saw a few of them crying,” the 195-pound Love quipped. … Placekicker Graham Gano sent the team away happy at the end of Wednesday’s practice. He kicked a 53-yard field goal with a stiff crosswind blowing. Players and coaches did not have to run after practice because he made the kick.
Jets: Rob Calabrese grew up rooting for the Jets, a fandom born somewhat out of necessity because it was everywhere he turned. The Jets’ current quarterbacks coach was a wideeyed youngster in East Islip when Boomer Esiason was tossing TD passes for New York in the mid-1990s. Everyone in the neighborhood wanted to be like Esiason, including Calabrese. “It was more so being from Boomer’s hometown, it was like I had no choice,” Calabrese said with a laugh. “Like, that’s Boomer Esiason, the Jets quarterback. And I instantly fell in love with the Jets.” Fast forward nearly 30 years, and Calabrese is one of his favorite NFL franchise’s most important people. Calabrese, now 32, is in charge of helping develop Zach Wilson — a second-year signal caller whose development is crucial to the Jets getting back to respectability and ending an 11-year playoff drought.
49ers: Nick Bosa spent his offseason away from the San Francisco 49ers enjoying his new boat and getting into even better shape than before rather than worrying about breaking the bank with his next contract. After spending the voluntary portion of the offseason working out in Florida with his brother Joey and taking his new boat out on the water for his “extracurricular” activity, Bosa’s return to the Niners this week for mandatory minicamp was a welcome sight. Even though coach Kyle Shanahan said the team has not started negotiations on a new long-term deal with Bosa that could top $30 million a year in value, he expects Bosa to remain in San Francisco for the foreseeable future and Bosa has no concerns about the timing of any talks. The Niners already picked up his $17.9 million fifth-year option for 2023 and Bosa will likely look to come close to Aaron Donald’s new $31.7 million a year price tag from his new deal with the Los Angeles Rams.
Browns: Deshaun Watson’s complex legal situation has the Browns in limbo and unclear about the quarterback’s immediate future. They have a better handle on Baker Mayfield’s. The team said Wednesday that Mayfield, who lost his job when the Browns traded for and signed Watson in March to a $230 million contract, has been excused from next week’s mandatory minicamp. Mayfield remains on the Browns’ roster while the team tries to trade the No. 1 overall pick from 2018. He has been estranged from the team since the Browns publicly pursued Watson. While Mayfield’s situation is headed toward a resolution, Watson’s continues to change. Now facing 24 civil lawsuits from massage therapists accusing him of sexual misconduct during sessions while he played for Houston, Watson practiced amid the release of new details contained in a report by The New York Times.
Commanders: An assistant coach with Washington doubled down on a comparison between the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and the protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd. Jack Del Rio, a former linebacker who now runs Washington’s defense, downplayed the deadly insurrection and questioned why the summer of 2020 protests were not receiving the same scrutiny.
Bears: Chicago had to cancel an offseason workout this week because they violated NFL rules by having live contact in a session last month, coach Matt Eberflus said Wednesday. Eberflus said the contact that occurred was because of overzealous players and not the team’s practice structure.
Rams: Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp agreed to a three-year contract extension with Los Angeles after a spectacular season in which he led the NFL in every major receiving category. The Rams announced the deal just two days after signing Aaron Donald to a massive contract extension. Kupp’s new extension is worth $75 million, bringing his total deal to $110 million when adding the two years remaining on his first extension.