Analysis: It might be a good time for Giants to end Saquon  Barkley's season

As Saquon Barkley prepares to return to Soldier Field, the stadium where he tore his ACL 15 months ago, the good news is that there is no medical reason for him to be limited or sidelined in Sunday’s game against the Bears.

The bad news is that there are plenty of other reasons, not the least of which is his complete lack of production for a team that is in dire need of any ember of a spark on offense. In Sunday’s loss to the Eagles, Barkley ran for 32 yards on 15 carries and caught one pass for minus-4.

It may be time for the Giants to consider ending this miserable season for Barkley and allow him to regroup physically and mentally during the offseason before he suffers another serious injury that could impact his play in the 2022 campaign.

Put him on the shelf with Daniel Jones. Play out the final two games with the ballcarrying duties shared by Devontae Booker and Eli Penny (both of whom, it should be noted, have more yards per carry than Barkley anyway). Then they can hope that when he returns next season, he’ll be much closer to the player who won Offensive Rookie of the Year than the one who has been running into walls literally and figuratively most of this year.

Not that Joe Judge would do that.

"At this moment, there wouldn’t be any medical reason, at least not that they have brought to me, about shutting him down," he said on Monday. "Any time we have those conversations, that’s for our players’ immediate and long-term health consideration."

Judge went on to note that Barkley has been dealing with injuries.

"I know Saquon has battled through a number of things this year," he said, including the ankle injury he suffered in Week 5 that continues to linger. "[But] he’s out there, he’s playing. He’s dinged up in a lot of ways, as most of the players in the NFL are this time of year — no one is really 100% — but he is battling through a lot of things for us."

More than just MRIs and agility tests go into these decisions, though. Barkley has not been himself on or off the field since the ankle injury he suffered in Dallas. He looks lost with the football in his hands, uncertain of what he can do and what he should do. He’s spoken about the disconnect between what he sees and the moves he tries to make.

Yes, there have been "flashes" of the playmaker he used to be, as Judge said. But for each of those, there are plays that illustrate what he has become.

Sunday had several, including a run to the left in the third quarter that was opening up in front of him but was thwarted when linebacker Genard Avery tackled him from behind. Or the first-quarter run in which he came through a hole to meet Alex Singleton. Instead of lowering his shoulder to bulldoze the linebacker — or juking him the way he once might have — he seemed to be in search of a landing spot at the end of a 6-yard carry.

While the losing over the last few years certainly has worn on everyone in the organization, Barkley, who was taken with the second overall pick and tasked with the onus of changing that dynamic, has seemed especially beaten down by the results.

The once gregarious Barkley has taken to timing his media appearances to make sure they do not go longer than he can stomach, and that’s when he even makes them. After Sunday’s loss, Barkley was not available to speak with reporters — the Giants said by the time he showered and received postgame treatment, there was no time with the buses pulling out for the drive home to New Jersey — and he did not speak on Monday either.

"I feel like every time I’m up here, I always have to answer questions about everyone else’s expectations on myself," he said last week during his most recent availability. "At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is my thought process, you know what I mean?"

So end it. For the next few months, anyway. There isn’t anything Barkley can do in these last two games that will change the tenor of this season for the team or himself. He could score 20 touchdowns and the Giants still would not make the playoffs and still would have at least 11 losses, and Barkley still would have had a disappointing campaign.

He’s under contract for 2022 (that big extension he seemingly has been in line for the past few offseasons is sure to remain off the table), so why not cut the losses of 2020 and move on?

And most of all, don’t let another game at Soldier Field curtail Barkley in 2022 the way last year’s game there cast a shadow over all of his 2021.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.