Good news for Giants: Saquon Barkley active against Bills
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley tries to break free on a rush against the Buffalo Bills during the first half in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Oct. 15, 2023. Credit: AP/Adrian Kraus
ORCHARD PARK — Saquon Barkley suffered a high ankle sprain at the end of the Giants’ second game of the season.
He hadn’t played since. And the Giants hadn’t won since.
In what qualified as good news for the Giants — perhaps very good news — he was active for Sunday night’s game against the Bills.
Barkley appeared to do more on the practice field this past week. In the time allotted for the media to observe, he seemed to be moving at close to if not full strength.
The Giants almost certainly would not have defeated the Cardinals on Sept. 17 without Barkley. He had 17 carries for 63 yards and a touchdown and caught six passes for 29 yards.
That he hadn’t been able to get on the field since then was debilitating for the Giants’ offense.
Barkley, who was injured on the Giants’ penultimate offensive snap in their victory in Arizona, missed losses to San Francisco, Seattle and Miami. In those three games, substitute running backs Matt Breida, Eric Gray and Gary Brightwell ran for 107 yards on 47 carries, a 2.3-yard average.
Perhaps signaling that he would play this week, Barkley had said he felt better this week than last. “Sometimes it takes time,” he said. “I’ve been listening to the trainers, [I] try to do everything I can, and I’m taking it day by day.”
He said pain and being able to cut are two issues he had to overcome.
“That’s what happens when you get some inflammation in there and you’re kind of just working through that and working through the soreness,” he said. “But like I said, each week has been trending upwards. I feel way better this [week] than I felt in the past.”
Coach Brian Daboll had said, “He’s closer, he’s closer again. We’ll take it all the way up to the end of the week.”
They did indeed.
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
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