Saquon Barkley says he will not hold anything back to get on the field. The Philadelphia Eagles running back, who has dealt with hamstring and back problems, practiced this week and was asked on Friday if he will be able to play on Sunday night at Washington. “I hope so. I hope I’ll be able to,” he said. He described a “good week of work, rehab and stuff.” Later on Friday, the Eagles left him off their final injury report, so he has no game status for Sunday.
Barkley was asked how he decides whether to play when he is not fully healthy. “One day I’m not going to be playing football. Whenever that is, I’m going to look back,” he said. “I don’t want to look back and be like, I could have gave it a chance, but I didn’t.” Asked whether he would take a more careful approach this week if the Eagles’ running back room were not so banged up, he answered with one word: “No.”
“I don’t want to get too much into that”
Barkley hurt his hamstring on his first carry against Dallas on Monday night and later hurt his back. He still ran seven times for 62 yards and a touchdown in the 38-21 loss. Asked if the back is now the bigger problem, he said: “I don’t want to get too much into that,” adding that he is “working through it.”
He said the injuries will be “definitely something you have to manage throughout the game,” and he will follow the plan the staff puts together. “When I was out there, I felt like I was able to provide a spark and make some plays,” he said of the Dallas game. “Just got to try to keep my body activated so nothing locks up on me.”
He said he is staying positive by “just attacking the day, every single day. Being obsessed with my process and my rehab.” He added: “Obviously it’s not how my season is going so far, but it’s part of the game.” Where did that mindset come from? “I’ve just always been like this,” he said. “My mom and dad hate me for it, but I’ve always been like this.”
Only “two to three carries in the fourth quarter”
Barkley has 244 rushing yards on 43 carries, 5.7 yards per carry, with one touchdown in five games. He missed two games. He said the average is not the point. “I don’t get too caught up in the yards per carry,” he said. “Yes, I’m probably very efficient right now, but I don’t have the amount of carries” he should have at this point. “The main thing is to be out on the field and perform at a high level for four quarters.”
He said he has let himself and the team down there, “whether it’s the neck, whether it’s the back, whether it’s the hip” or other injuries. “The biggest thing that not concerns me but frustrates me is that I’ve only got two to three carries in the fourth quarter this year,” he said. “As the season goes on and late in the game, that’s when I’m able to take over games, and I got to get back to doing that.”
He also backed his fit in offensive coordinator Sean Mannion’s system. “This might sound arrogant. I believe in my skill set that I can fit any scheme,” Barkley said. “Sean does an amazing job.” He said the coaches make it make sense to him, and “I bought in as much as I can this offseason, and I feel like I’m built for this.” But, he said, “this whole year has been weird. We’ve got a lot of weird stuff going on, but we’ve just got to break through it.”
“I’ve never seen anything like this”
The Eagles are 2-5 after five straight losses. Barkley said the message is simple: “Make no excuses.” He said a lot of teammates came up to him this week and appreciated his efforts, and he believes his presence matters beyond his numbers. “That’s stuff that don’t get brought up in contract talks,” he said. “I feel like I have a really good gift of being close with the offense and the defense. Stuff like that matters to me. I feel like that was important when we were winning Super Bowls.”
He has never seen a running back room like this one. “At one point we looked up in the training room and the three guys that we started with were all getting treatment at the same time,” Barkley said. He credited running backs coach Jemal Singleton for how the replacements have played. “That speaks to Coach Jemal. He’s a hell of a coach,” he said. “Now we’ve got to find a way to make plays to help us win football games.”
The Eagles play at the Washington Commanders on Sunday, November 1, at 8:20 p.m. ET, which is 3:20 a.m. on Monday in Cairo.
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