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The man who has led the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl run, the man who has been the most exciting player in football, almost quit the sport just before his career was about to take off. That was 14 years ago, in Eastern Pennsylvania, before Saquon Barkley became SAQUON! — a hulking, hurdling blur with superhero-like muscles and an origin story that feels right out of Marvel, too.
Barkley was frustrated, struggling with his self-confidence. Some kids had matured faster than him. Sophomore year, he didn’t play varsity because his best friend was ahead of him. Saquon had to work. That’s how he’s wired and why he’s so great.
He played a little varsity as a sophomore at the end of that season. That summer we went to Rutgers as a team camp. His improvements that he made that offseason are different from any other athlete I’ve ever seen. He had a tremendous camp.
Saquon committed to Rutgers and he legitimately thought they offered the wrong guy. He knows he’s good, but he doesn’t know he’s great. He called us and said, “I think I got an offer.” I said, “What do you mean you think? Normally, that’s pretty clear.” He goes, “No, I think they messed up.” So he commits because he thought they were gonna take the offer back.
Rutgers gave him that offer, and Saquon being Saquon says, “I need to work my tail off to prove that I earned that scholarship.”
After rushing for 1,506 yards and 27 touchdowns as a junior at Whitehall, Barkley scored 31 touchdowns and ran for 1,856 as a senior, averaging almost nine yards per carry. His scouting report on 247Sports, grading on a scale of 1-10, ranked his speed and build as “7” and his tackle-breaking and power as “6”.
He wasn’t even the No. 1 RB in the state of Pennsylvania when we got there. Andre Robinson, at Bishop McDevitt High School (in Harrisburg), was. Saquon was like the No. 2 or 3 guy.
He called our track coach and asked about a bunch of things that offseason, like how to elongate your stride without losing your form. I still have videos that I’ll show our running backs of a young Saquon in the sandpit running in place for 30, 45 seconds, of him sprinting in the sandpit and turning around and sprinting full speed out of the pit.
I’m not saying I’m a running back czar. It was strictly trial and error. He was helping me and I was helping him. We started jumping rope. We did some soccer ball drills because in all of athletics, who has the quickest feet? Soccer players and boxers. Soccer ball alternating taps quick and as long as he could. He’d get 100 taps in. He still does some of this stuff today.
He challenged me to be a better running back coach because he wanted to be a better running back. He was really big into the mental game. We had some meetings addressing some things: How do you go out and challenge yourself even when the competition already says you’re the best?
Going into the next year, I told him, “You’ve got to be prepared to have the biggest letdown season of your life.” I said, “Now teams are not gonna let you beat (them).” You have to be able to find success in the little things. Maybe you don’t rush for 200 yards and three touchdowns, but you can eliminate a few negative plays, improve your pass blocking, get better at catching the ball coming out of the backfield. Develop the other parts of your game.
He was like, “OK, I’m good with that.”
He was with him again with the Giants (as the defensive line coach) when he got his (torn ACL) injury against the Bears in 2020. He looked at me in the locker room and said, “Why me, Coach?” We were both about to tear up. I said, “You’re gonna come back stronger.” It was emotional. I’ve known this dude since he was 17 years old.
Barkley recovered, but the Giants continued to sputter. Last March, Barkley signed a three-year, $37.75 million deal with the Eagles. Playing for the Giants’ division rival, Barkley tore up the NFL, going for a league-high 2,005 rushing yards — almost 700 more than his previous career-best.
All of that work that started in Happy Valley to help not get caught? It worked. He’s had nine runs of 50 yards or longer this year. No one else in the NFL has more than three. His seven touchdown runs of 60-plus yards are only three fewer than the entire rest of the league has combined, according to Pro Football Focus.
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