Saquon Barkley keeps running into frustrating injuries and a murky Giants future
Saquon Barkley of the Giants runs with the ball against the Falcons at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 26. Credit: Mike Stobe
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
As he sat on the bench, his ankle throbbing with pain and swelling to nearly twice its normal size, Saquon Barkley looked up to the rafters of cavernous AT&T Stadium on Oct. 10. His expression left you with the inescapable observation that he was thinking of a simple one-word reaction to his situation:
"Why?"
At that point, there still was no official update of this latest injury in what has turned into a star-crossed career as the Giants’ franchise running back, but Barkley didn’t need a doctor’s diagnosis to know this would be yet another setback.
He pounded both fists on his thigh pads. Not once, but twice.
"What would go through you guys’ minds if you just rehabbed for 10 or 11 months to get back on the field and then you got hurt by rolling your ankle by stepping on someone else’s foot?" Barkley said recently when I reminded him of his reaction. "You’re going to be frustrated. You’re going to be exhausted. You’re human. I’m human. Obviously, those negative thoughts creep in."
Barkley knew.
He knew right then that he would have to miss more time after coming back for the start of the 2021 season from a knee injury that felled him in Week 2 last year. All that work. All that rehab. All that time confronting doubts about whether his ACL would hold up, and now a sprained ankle after accidentally stepping on Cowboys defensive back Jourdan Lewis’ foot.
A week earlier in New Orleans, he was just starting to feel as if he was getting back to form, catching a 54-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and running for the winning touchdown in overtime in a dramatic victory at the Superdome.
And now this.
Monday night’s game against AFC champion Kansas City marked the third straight game he has missed, although he hopes to be back in time for Sunday’s home game against the Raiders. Tuesday is the NFL trade deadline. Although it is highly unlikely the Giants will deal the player they once hoped to build the offense around when they made him the No. 2 overall pick in 2018, the fact that his future remains uncertain is simply not what he ever imagined.
As he stared up to the top of the Cowboys’ stadium that afternoon, he must have wondered why it had all come to this.
He could only watch his teammates go up against Patrick Mahomes & Co. on the national stage Monday night. He could only imagine what it finally will be like once he gets back on the field.
"I only control what I can control, and right now the only thing I can control is to find a way to get back on the field by taking care of my body and getting my body ready and getting my body healthy," he said. "All those other things [about the future] are out of my control, so I can’t even focus on that."
He insisted that he’s not focused on his contract, which will expire after the 2022 season. What he’s thinking about is getting "back on the football field and doing what I love and playing the sport that I’ve loved since I was a little kid."
At his best, Barkley plays with the kind of enthusiasm that made him the country’s best running back at Penn State and led to a brilliant rookie season with the Giants. He ran for 1,307 yards and 11 touchdowns and had 91 catches for 721 yards and four TDs in 2018. After the Giants drafted Daniel Jones a year later, it looked as if maybe, just maybe, they had their quarterback and running back of the future.
But Barkley has been injured three straight years: a sprained ankle in 2019, the knee injury in 2020 and now another ankle sprain. Even if the Giants were to entertain trade offers before Tuesday’s deadline, it’s hard to imagine they’d get equal value in return. After all, it’s hard to quantify Barkley’s value right now because of the injury situation.
They have time on their side after exercising a fifth-year option for 2022, but it might not make fiscal sense to keep him beyond that on another contract, especially if he is looking to join the stratospheric financial world of the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott or the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook. And look no further than Titans All-Pro running back Derrick Henry’s potentially season-ending foot injury as the latest evidence that placing too much value in a running back is a high-risk proposition.
Barkley knows.
The Giants know.
He almost certainly will remain a Giant after the trade deadline. As he should. He deserves the chance to resume his career where it started. But as he must have realized while helplessly watching his teammates carry on without him in Dallas, Barkley’s story with the Giants might not last as long as he once hoped.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
