20/20: Saquon Barkley

Joseph Nammour

Welcome to the 20/20 series. As part of our continued Dynasty Scouts coverage and in preparation for the NFL Combine, we will be profiling 20 of the top incoming rookies of the class of 2018 by giving you 20 facts you must know.

1.) Player Name – Saquon Barkley

2.) College – Penn State

3.) Height/Weight – 6’0″, 233 lbs

4.) Birth date – 02/07/1997 (21 years old)

5.) Class – Junior

6.) Basic college stats – 2015: 182 carries for 1076 yards (5.9 YPC) and seven touchdowns. 20 receptions for 161 yards (8.1 YPR) and one touchdown. 2016: 272 carries for 1496 yards (5.5 YPC) and 18 touchdowns. 28 receptions for 402 yards (14.4 YPR) and four touchdowns. 2017: 217 carries for 1271 yards (5.9 YPC) and 18 touchdowns. 54 receptions for 632 yards (11.7 YPR) and three touchdowns. He added two kick return touchdowns.

7.) NFL Draft round projection – Early first round.

8.) Current NFL comparison – LaDainian Tomlinson.

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In reality, Barkley is an impossible player to compare. He’s one of the freakiest athletes at 233 pounds to ever play the position. Saquon’s all-purpose skill set has the potential of having the impact that Tomlinson once had. Although, the NFL has changed since LT’s dominant years and the chances of Barkley seeing the workloads Tomlinson did are slim.

Barkley has a tendency to play like a finesse back in a power back’s body – reminiscent of Shaun Alexander – although Barkley is a much better receiving back than Alexander was in college. Saquon’s cutting ability and balance remind me of a thicker LeSean McCoy.

9.) Best possible destination – Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Barkley might not even make it to the seventh pick, but of the teams picking in the top ten this year, the Buccaneers are the closest thing to a complete offense. With Jameis Winston, Mike Evans, O.J. Howard, DeSean Jackson, and Chris Godwin in place, all they’re missing is a franchise running back. They have a league-average offensive line, per Football Outsiders, which cannot be said for most of the other teams picking early in this draft. And the teams that do have decent lines, like the Cleveland Browns, have uncertain quarterback situations. Lastly, the Buccaneers have very little competition at the position, so Barkley would be able to step into a workhorse three-down role immediately.

10.) Worst possible destination – New York Giants, Indianapolis Colts, New York Jets.

No team would be a truly bad landing spot for Barkley, as he would instantly become the centerpiece of the offense, a la Leonard Fournette in Jacksonville just last year. But there are fits that would be worse than others, and the three teams I listed are the ones I believe fit into that mold. The Giants, Jets, and Colts all have uncertain quarterback situations in the near future, and all three have mediocre offensive lines (at best). Eli Manning is probably only a year away from retirement, the Jets will be looking to add their quarterback of the future in the draft (eliminating them from taking Barkley) if they can’t land Cousins in free agency, and Andrew Luck’s situation in Indianapolis lacks any semblance of clarity. Fortunately for Barkley, he’s a truly special talent who can succeed in a suboptimal situation.

11.) Best current skill – Athleticism.

For a player that gets the “generational” label thrown around, Barkley’s athleticism stands out as his calling card. It’s rare – if not nearly unprecedented – that a 233-pound back has 4.33 speed and agility to match, yet that’s exactly what Barkley is.

12.) Skill that needs to be improved – Physicality.

Honestly, this is nitpicking. The only concern about Barkley’s game is that he doesn’t consistently play to his size. He wants to turn every run into a home run, occasionally bouncing runs outside when there’s an inside lane available, and sometimes trying to make a defensive back miss rather than running through him. Choosing to rely on his athleticism is the bigger concern for me, as that’s less likely to work out at the NFL level, but the tendency to reach for the home run on runs where he should take what was given was a byproduct of Penn State’s terrible offensive line. But to be completely frank, I’m not really worried about either of these at the next level.

13.) Past/current rookie ADP – Among our rookie rankers, Barkley is unanimously ranked first. His February rookie ADP is also first. Barring anything drastic off-field, he’s a near-certain lock to remain in this position throughout the offseason and draft process.

14.) Projected dynasty value – As the consensus 1.01, Barkley was the 12th player off the board in February’s ADP. His ADP settled in at 12.17 after being selected as high as fourth and as low as 16th. There likely will be little fluctuation from this point throughout the process.

15.) Workout warrior – Barkley ran an unofficial 4.33 this spring, which, per sources, is fast. He holds Penn State’s running back weightlifting and conditioning records in everything: 40-yard dash (4.38 sec), NFL shuttle (4.00 sec), vertical jump (38.0 inches), broad jump (10.10 feet), squat (600 pounds), bench (415 pounds), and power clean (390 pounds). These were all recorded in 2016, and he’s already bested some of these records since then. Barkley’s clean record ties Penn State’s best ever, which was recorded by a defensive lineman – and there’s video evidence of him topping that number later too. The man is a freak.

16.) Receiving –Only three running backs in college football had more receptions than Barkley (54) this season – James Williams (71) and Jamal Morrow (60), both of Washington State, and Larry Rose III of New Mexico State (55) – and none of them had as many receiving yards as Saquon did. They also didn’t offer nearly as much as runners – neither Williams nor Morrow had more than 92 carries, and Rose III trailed Barkley by 30 carries.

17.) As a recruit – Barkley didn’t take off as a recruit until late in his high school, but ended up as a four-star prospect per 247Sports. Their composite rank placed him as the 13th-best running back in the class – behind 2018 cohorts Ronald Jones, Derrius Guice, and Mark Walton – and 119th overall.

18.) Character – An illuminating story about Barkley’s character from high school caught my attention. As captured by Bleacher Report:

“He joined the track team, and at one meet he saw a girl win the 100-meter hurdles. But there had been a problem with the timer, so they made the girls run the race again. Before that happened, Barkley ran—and won—his regularly scheduled race.

“She was in the lead again and got clipped on a hurdle,” Barkley recalls. “And it was a league tournament. She got messed up in her stride and lost. I felt she deserved the gold medal.”

So he gave her his.

“She was just, Thank you. Thank you so much,” he says. “It put a smile on her face.””

A story like this likely won’t have any impact on his career, but it’s refreshing to see a high-profile prospect display humility and character without a spotlight on them.

19.) Age – For all of his accolades, Barkley just turned 21 a couple weeks ago. He’s one of the youngest players in this class.

20.) Production and highlights – There likely isn’t much you don’t already know about Saquon. Vision, athleticism, balance, patience, hands, pass protection, route running, return ability – he’s a beast. Instead, I’ll leave you with a highlight tape of his. Please enjoy as much as I did.

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