Following a 26-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, superstar running back Saquon Barkley found himself firmly in the cross-hairs of retired New York Giants Ring of Honoree, Tiki Barber, who questioned the former first-round pick’s pass protection abilities and suggested he might not be and every-down back.
“Saquon Barkley, he might not be an every down back. He cannot pass protect. And it is starting becoming glaring. It’s probably the only issue he had to deal with coming into the NFL [because] he wasn’t asked to do it at Penn State,” Barber said on CBS Sports Radio. “You see him diving on the ground, not sticking his head into people’s chest…
“It’s going to be a liability. People see it now — it’s on tape. It’s going to come out.”
Giants head coach Joe Judge said he respected Barber and took his criticisms into account, while Barkley addressed the issue on Thursday, saying he views it as a “challenge.”
“No. It does not,” Barkley told reporters on Thursday when asked if he was bothered by Barber’s comments. “To be completely honest, no disrespect to anyone, I truly don’t care about other people’s opinion. Guys on my team and in this building won’t question my to ‘ughness.’
“Obviously Tiki is a legend, did a lot of great things for this franchise. I’m not gonna look at it as disrespect. I’m gonna look at it as a challenge. But it’s the same thing with him as everybody else: I don’t care about anybody’s outside opinions, I’m really only focused on the opinions in this building. I try to come to work every single day and get better.”
Barkley said he arrived to work on Thursday with a smile on his face, but offensive coordinator Jason Garrett admitted there were some areas Barkley could improve.
“He can improve in all areas,” Garrett told reporters. “That’s something that we like so much about him, is his desire to come in and get better and strive to be a complete back. There were some examples of him blocking well in the passing game the other night. There were some examples of him not blocking as well as he needs to. He knows that. We’re working on that, we’re trying to get him better in that area. But we love his approach, we love his desire to be a complete back, and that’s going to help him and our team going forward.”
The Giants take on the Chicago Bears this weekend and will rely heavily on Barkley to pass protect yet again.
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