Getty Saquon Barkley is finally getting the plays he's asked for from the New York Giants.
It’s taken a while, but New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka are finally giving Saquon Barkley the plays he’s been asking for. Specifically, Daboll and Kafka are using the two-time Pro Bowl running back as a receiver more often and in increasingly expansive ways.
The creative ways the Giants are integrating Barkley into the passing game showed up during Week 11’s 31-19 win over the Washington Commanders. Barkley burned the Giants’ NFC East rivals for four catches, 57 yards and two touchdowns.
His first scoring catch came on a play he had been waiting a while to execute, per ESPN’s Jordan Raanan: “It’s a play I’ve been asking for a long time. So when we got it called, in my mind I was like, ‘I can’t mess this one up.'”
Finding the end zone twice as a receiver helped Barkley stay positive amid the Commanders stopping him on the ground. The 26-year-old revealed he asked his coaches to involve him another way: “I just kept saying on the sidelines, I know the run game isn’t working, ‘Let me at least help! Let me at least try to get involved in the pass game.”
Daboll and Kafka yielded to Barkley’s demands. In the process, they helped him rediscover a threat as a pass-catcher he’s rarely been given the chance to showcase since his rookie season in 2018.
Saquon Barkley Showed Signs of Award-Winning Form as Receiver
Barkley’s first touchdown against Washington saw him beat linebacker Jamin Davis up the sideline, per Nick Falato of SB Nation’s Big Blue View.
Saquon Barkley with another touchdown isolated against Jamin Davis in man coverage
As Raanan pointed out, this was “Barkley’s initial target on a designed route 10-plus yards downfield this season.”
Vertical targets have been in short supply for Barkley since Daboll and Kafka took over in 2022: “Barkley had five targets beyond 10 yards as a rookie and four in his second season. He had three last year and just one entering Sunday.”
Barkley was used in more expansive ways when the second-overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft snagged 91 receptions as a rookie. Pat Shurmur called the offense when Barkley was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, but his role in the passing game has declined since, particularly the last two seasons.
Raanan noted how “Barkley’s 4.6 targets per game are the second lowest of his career. It’s on par with his 4.8 targets per game last year in his first season under coach Brian Daboll and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.”
Changing how they use Barkley hasn’t just helped undrafted free agent Tommy DeVito succeed at quarterback. It’s also taken more advantage of Barkley’s natural talent for running routes and winning in space.
Giants Changing How They Use Saquon Barkley as a Receiver
Barkley actually tied for the team lead with 57 catches in 2022. Yet, he averaged -1.7 yards before catch per reception, according to Pro Football Reference. The implication is obvious. No. 26 was making most of his grabs well behind the line of scrimmage.
That’s changing, based on how Barkley was deployed as a target against the Commanders. Kafka earned plaudits for designing concepts that gave Barkley more room to attack vertically and stretch coverage.
Barkley responded brilliantly because he knows how to adjust his breaks and win with alignment and release. Those things were noticed on his first touchdown catch by NorthJersey.com’s Art Stapleton, who applauded Barkley’s “nuance within the route.”
On Saquon Barkley’s first TD catch, his nuance within the route – originally a wheel – helped set up the score. Washington had been chipping him, so Barkley widened his alignment to make that more difficult.
That’s why when you watch the route, it wasn’t as sharp of a wheel, but…
This cerebral approach to playing receiver makes it easy to wonder why the Giants haven’t used Barkley in this way before. After all, “this is a play that Barkley said they’ve been working on since training camp,” according to Raanan.
The previous reluctance to turn Barkley loose in the passing game is more confusing when the player was a dynamic and versatile target during his collegiate days at Penn State. He routinely got free from the slot and on the outside, doing both on this play highlighted by Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus.
OK, so he makes a mess of the catch initially, but look at how easily Saquon Barkley gets open from the slot down field. This is special running back dynamism in the passing game.
It appears Barkley has long been keen to do more of this in a Giants uniform. The win over the Commanders proved it can work, so hopefully Week 11 is not an outlier for Barkley the receiver.