Keep in mind that this article was written on July 20th, not August 5th.
Even though he’s on a losing team and got injured last season, that doesn’t mean that Madden should disrespect Barkley like they did. In Madden 21, his overall is a 91. This puts him in top 5, but not by much at all. In fact, he’s tied for fifth best with the Minnesota back out of Florida State, Dalvin Cook. Barkley’s talent and skills jump out of the page triumphantly and, last time I checked, don’t they do these ratings based on skills? Let me prove Madden wrong, by starting off with breaking down his highlight tape.
The minute the quarterback hands him the ball, the defense might as well forfeit because they couldn’t stop him if they tried. If there’s a defender right in front of him, he does one of two things. He either spins and jukes around the defender or he breaks tackles and can run right through the defender. It’s basically a lose-lose for anybody trying to tackle him. Shockingly, this is just the tip of the iceberg. News flash: he can catch too. It’s not something you see everyday. Actually, the other player that can do that just as well as Barkley is Christian McCaffery from the Carolina Panthers, who is an 99 overall, ironically. Don’t understand how they’re basically the same player, but they get separated by 8 overall points. Anyway, back to the highlight tape. He runs his routes with as much sharpness and quickness as any wideout in the league and can make some clean catches, whether it’s in stride or when he stops on a dime. Oh, and by the way, he can run for extra yardage after the catch as well. Now, let’s jump into his stats.
Despite his injury and his Giants losing a lot of games, Saquon had a great season last year. In 13 games, he rushed for 1,003 yards and 6 touchdowns. His longest run was a 68-yard touchdown against the Eagles in Week 17. Additionally, he had 77.2 yards per game. That total landed him in the top 10 in that stat. On the other side, the receiving stats don’t look too bad either. He had 52 receptions for 438 yards and 2 touchdowns. Along with that, he had 33.7 yards per game and a catch percentage of 71.2%.
If he can stay around for a full season this year, he will most definitely be a force to be reckoned with. He’ll blow through and go around defenders, along with racking up yards and touchdowns. Madden, please don’t disrespect this man again because he’ll prove you wrong. If you do just so happen to disrespect him, he won’t just be trucking through defenders.
Sources: espn.com, pro-football-reference.com, youtube.com