Saquon Barkley is remaining positive while the 1-7 New York Giants head into their game with the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football. While things aren’t going so great for the team, Barkley is one of the rare bright spots this season and is still working on getting better. Not that he isn’t already in the running for the title of best player on the team at the moment.
But despite that, he hasn’t allowed his status as a young star to keep him from looking critically at his game. It’s something Barkley spoke on, this Tuesday. “I’m big on watching film, and sometimes it hurts myself because I over-calculate things or I overthink sometimes, so try not to do that and trust myself, play the game, and play the position I’ve been playing since I was a little kid.”
Interestingly, Barkley describes improvement as a need despite his early success. “Every part of my game has room to improve, and that’s a challenge that I’m willing to accept.”
The Giants offensive line picked up a big improvement with former Los Angeles Ram Jamon Brown, and Barkley intends on learning something from Todd Gurley’s former blocker. “I watch film of Todd Gurley and I love the way he plays. He’s an all-purpose back, he’s a threat anytime he touches the ball. He runs physical, he runs great in between the tackles. I would be wrong if I don’t go pick his brain and ask that guy ‘What do you see that Todd did?’ or ‘What made Todd exceptional?’”
Barkley has found it hard to break the 50 yards mark on the ground this season, only doing so three times so far, but has made up for that by contributing in the passing game. He had 38 yards in 13 rushes on the ground, but had 73 yards and an average of 8.11 yards per catch on passing plays against the Washington Redskins.
If he continues on his current pace, Barkley should finish the season with just over 1,000 yards rushing. With the addition of Jamon Brown, however, his performances might get even better. Brown has played in five games for the Rams this season, and as the team is undefeated, they’ve obviously won all of them. He also played in every game for Los Angeles last season, and in the playoff loss against the Falcons.
It’s a pretty good addition for one of the worst offensive lines in the league, an addition that might just help the Giants’ top rusher.