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Where does the New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley fit in the hierarchy of the NFL’s top running backs after two season marred by injury? Former NFL running back turned television analyst Maurice Jones-Drew still sees Barkley as one of the league’s top backs.
Rank 7. Saquon Barkley
2020 stats: 2 games | 19 att | 34 rush yds | 1.8 ypc | 0 rush TDs | 6 rec | 60 rec yds | 0 rec TDs
Saquon Barkley enters Year 3 with high expectations after a knee injury sidelined him for all but two games in the 2020 season. The Giants need him in a big way as the organization figures out whether this young team is heading in the right direction or if they need to rebuild … again. Saquon can absolutely take this rejuvenated Joe Judge-led team far. We just need to see it.
True, we do need to see it. After his breakthrough rookie season in 2018 where he led the NFL in total yards from scrimmage and was named to the Pro Bowl, Barkley has been bit by the injury bug. In 2019, a high ankle sprain either kept him out of, or rendered him ineffective, for half the season. Last year, the former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year missed the final 14 games to a torn ACL.
Barkley’s rehab is said to be on schedule and the Giants expect him to be back with the team for training camp later this month but hinted he may not be a full participant until deemed 100 percent healthy.
Jones-Drew placed Barkley seventh on his list of the NFL’s top 32 running backs behind Tennessee’s Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey of Carolina, New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook of Minnesota, Cleveland’s Nick Chubb and Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys.
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