New York Giants: Saquon Barkley Insists He Isn’t Injured

New York Giants, Saquon Barkley
Sep 8, 2019; Arlington, TX, USA; New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley (26) during the game between the Cowboys and the Giants at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

One of the biggest problems for the New York Giants this season has been Saquon Barkley not performing to the same standard as last year. It’s hard to tell just what the root of that problem is – it might just be a natural sophomore slump, it could be bad blocking, bad coaching, or injury or any mix of multiple factors.

However, there’s good reason to believe that injury might play more into it than the other things mentioned. Barkley had more than 100 rushing yards in both of his first two games of the season but after his injury, he hasn’t broken that mark. There’s been a notable difference in performance, and there’s been a lot of talk that Barkley shouldn’t have even seen the field again after a couple games following his recovery made it clear that he’s not playing the same.

Barkley himself fought back against that idea and was able to get back on the playing field following his injury and has continued to play – it looks like Barkley will continue to play through the end of the season with the team not budging on the matter of keeping him on the field, for better or worse.

And Barkley has still been adamant that he’s able to play.

“Did I look hurt? No. So let’s stop making an excuse that I’m hurt. I’m not hurt,” Barkley said. “Let’s stop making an excuse I’m not 100 percent. Nobody is 100 percent… I can pull up multiple clips, multiple clips, where you can look back and see I’m doing the same thing that I did in college or that I did in my first year.”

The numbers may tell a different story of Barkley, because while he has performed in flashes and had 59 yards against the Bears, a much better performance than he did against the Jets, he still hasn’t necessarily been himself.

There’s other factors to blame than just injury, blocking being one of them, but it’s hard to say that’s the entire reason. The blocking wasn’t good in Barkley’s first season either, after all. There has been a drop in performance, and it did noticeably start following Barkley’s injury. His statistics took a major drop and to ignore the factor of injury would also ignore that correlation.

The Giants have already made it clear, though, that they aren’t going to save Barkley from himself and put him on the bench for the rest of the games, which will have little meaning to them other than playing for pride thanks to the team’s sorry record.

Barkley’s determination and desire to get on the field whenever possible is one of his best aspects, but in this case, it’s slightly dangerous – the fanbase at this point can just hope that he doesn’t pick up another injury before the end of the year while still playing in a state that appears weakened.