PFF just provided Saquon Barkley, NY Giants motivation with RB rankings
Outside of people in New Jersey and New York, there aren’t a lot of folks who have a strong belief in the NY Giants this season. Few can blame them, as the team went 4-13 last year and they were tough to watch for most of the season. There’s a new buzz around town, though, and running back Saquon Barkley is hoping he can help this team bounce back.
Barkley, who recently said he’s starting to feel like his old self, has plenty of doubters who don’t think he and the Giants will be able to do much of anything. While the team over at Pro Football Focus didn’t bash Barkley or NY in any way, the fact that they’ve put them at No. 17 in their RB rankings is sure to raise plenty of eyebrows.
NY Giants RB Saquon Barkley is ready to silence his haters in 2022
"“In terms of talent, Saquon Barkley alone warrants a higher spot on this list for the Giants backfield,” PFF wrote on the G-Men. “Unfortunately, that talent has spent a lot of time on the sideline and been dampened by injury over the last three years. New York will be looking for a healthy Barkley to return to rookie form, when he posted PFF grades above 83.0 as a rusher and receiver on over 800 offensive snaps.Matt Breida stands out as the No. 1 option behind Barkley on the depth chart. He’s a nice No. 2 option with some speed but not someone the team necessarily wants stepping into a lead role if injuries limit Barkley again.”"
As you can see from PFF’s take, they have no issues admitting Barkley has a tremendous amount of talent. However, their concern is that Barkley has battled injuries in recent campaigns. No one has forgotten about his torn ACL. Barkley returned from that injury last season, but he just didn’t look the same at all.
That’s why it’s understandable that PFF would place the Giants in the middle of the pack here. At the same time, Barkley looks like a new man at minicamp for the G-Men and he really is practicing with plenty of confidence. The expectation is that this will continue at training camp and then over to the regular season.
light. Trending. Jihad Ward has priceless quote on how he’s helping Kayvon Thibodeaux
With his future up in the air, 2022 will be a chance for Barkley to showcase to all of his haters that he’s still an elite running back and his rookie season where he earned Pro Bowl honors wasn’t a fluke. Barkley will have plenty of motivation to have a monster year, and Giants supporters can now thank PFF for giving him and the other RBs on the team another reason to ball out.