There are enough what-ifs to drive Saquon Barkley crazy if he allows it.
What would the star running back’s season look like if not for a freak accident just as he was hitting his stride? Could he have returned to the Giants from a sprained ankle sooner if he didn’t receive a false-positive COVID-19 test result? Is all this lost time costing him money on his next contract?
“A lot of people say ‘Control what you can control,’ and that’s what I live by,” Barkley said after Friday’s practice. “I’m a big believer in, no matter what, the things that you want to accomplish, you’ve got to visualize it, you’ve got to work for it. All the things I want to obtain are still out there for me to obtain. Just because you have a little adversity doesn’t mean you have to start listening to all the noise.”
Barkley is trending toward playing Monday against the Buccaneers for the first time since he stepped on an opponent’s ankle with his head turned after an incomplete pass Oct. 10 against the Cowboys. The Giants (3-6) originally hoped he would miss just two games. It’s four and counting.
“I think at first no one thought that,” Barkley said in his first interview since Oct. 14, “but when the MRIs came back, obviously we knew it was going to be a little more difficult than we thought.”
Barkley looks explosive during individual drills, though he still is a limited practice participant. Head coach Joe Judge isn’t a believer in a predetermined pitch count, so Barkley will have a normal workload Monday if medically cleared.
“I still believe I’m capable of the things that I’ve shown on the field before,” Barkley said, “so when I’m able to make those plays, when those plays come to me, make those plays and don’t force anything. That’s really the only thing I can do. Those are my expectations.”
Barkley said he did not suffer any physical setbacks in the recovery from his ankle injury or any related to his surgically repaired right knee. Under normal circumstances, he might have played Nov. 7 against the Raiders, but he couldn’t rejoin teammates until Friday of that week under COVID-19 protocols.
“I guess you could say, that set me back from what I would’ve liked to accomplish,” Barkley said of an earlier return. “But no one knows and I can’t predict that.”
The Giants decided it was unwise to have Barkley come off a three-week layoff, practice once when it was unlikely he would play and then go into the bye week, so he worked out in his home gym with Giants-provided workouts during quarantine.
“I know I’ve been banged up and hurt the last two years, but I hire a lot of people,” Barkley said. “I do a lot of extra work on my body. That’s why some of the injuries, I guess you could say, don’t make sense. But you’ve got to continue to stay on your body.”
This pivotal season started slowly for Barkley, who missed 14 games in 2020 with a torn ACL. But he exploded for 126 yards and two touchdowns against the Saints and had his swagger back just before going down with his second career ankle injury. He also missed three games in 2019 with a high ankle sprain and didn’t produce like himself for five games while playing through limitations.
Is this injury going to require the same level of management? If so, it could have an adverse effect on the Giants’ odds of making a playoff push, which would be greatly enhanced by upsetting the Buccaneers.
“I guess I’ll know whenever I’m able to get back out there,” Barkley said. “When you’re rehabbing and when you’re coming off an injury where you had to be non-weight-bearing for a little bit, there definitely will be some soreness there. But that’s part of the game that I love to play.”