All-Twenty Tuesday: Penn State RB Saquon Barkley

The term “generational talent” can’t be thrown around all willy-nilly. That term is definitive. Think about what that literally means. Common knowledge of a generation gap averages about 25 years—from the birth of a parent to the birth of a child—although it certainly varies case by case. The 25 number was established as the working number for a generation in the 1970’s, so in today’s age it’s probably more like 27.

Think of all the running backs that have played over the last 27 years: Emmitt Smith, Terrell Davis, Marshall Faulk, Adrian Peterson, Barry Sander, LaDanian Tomlinson. When you tell me that a running back prospect is a “once in a generation,” you’re telling me they’re just as good and probably better than some of those names.

Is Penn State’s Saquon Barkley a generational player, as they say?

In the weight room he probably is. This dude is a freak, and that’s where we have to start. According to PennLive.com, the 222-pound Barkley has squatted 495 pounds seven times, benched 390, and run a 4.38 second 40-yard dash. Not only that, but there’s a video of him power cleaning 405 pounds. That is the most mind-numbing thing I’ve ever heard for someone who isn’t a body builder on a nice amount of steroids.

Penn State RB Saquon Barkley – Photo by: Getty Images

Okay, so he has the workout numbers. What about the on-field numbers? In three seasons, Barkley, who started as a true freshman, has rushed for 3,843 yards on 617 carries. He averaged 5.7 yards-per-carry over that time, and scored 43 times on the ground. Barkley also has 102 career receptions good for 1,195 yards and eight more scores. That puts his from-scrimmage numbers at over 5,000 yards with 51 total touchdowns. So, in terms of translating athletic speed and strength to stats, Barkley’s are just as elite. If Barkley would have played another season fully healthy, he likely would have finished as one of the Top 15 rushing yard leaders in NCAA history.

Well, how about availability? What’s the wear-and-tear update for a guy who already has nearly 700 carries in just three seasons? Barkey played in 38 games of the course of his Nittany Lion career, which is a lot. Barkley injured his calf early in the 2016 season and then injured his ankle later in the year, but both of those injuries were minor and did not cause him to miss any extra time. So, for all intents and purposes, Barkley’s injury history is as clean as you could desire for a three-year feature running back.

So, the athletic ability is elite, the production is elite an the injury history (or lack there of) is elite.

How’s the tape?

In a loaded running back class, is Barkley still worth a Top 10 selection? And if he makes it to the Bucs at No. 7, should he be their pick?

Let’s start with the obvious good.

When you give Saquon Barkley open space, I’m not sure there’s a better home run-hitting back in all of college football. For a man with that kind of size to move at the speed he does when hitting the open field is eye-popping to say the least. Barkley’s burst is some of the best in college football, and what’s crazy is that I say that as he’s 225 pounds.

At 5-foot-11, 225 pounds, you’d figure Barkley would primarily do his work from between the tackles, even as a home run threat, but that’s the crazy part. This guy’s change of direction and ability to accelerate at weird angles is so unique for his size that he recorded many of his long runs by bouncing to the outside.

Barkley’s tape is filled with clips like the one above where he just out-athletes defender on the sidelines. That’s putting those freakish gym results to the test on the field.

That run from the USC Rose Bowl game is just silly. It’s likely the crown jewel of Barkley’s 20-minute highlight reel from his college days. The rarest form of what Barkley brings to the table is that he has the ability to one cut, as shown in the clip above, at such a bigger size. Big men just should not be able to move that way, and when you talk about things being “generational,” clips like the one above is where that idea comes from.

Barkley comes from a shotgun, read-option offense, and because of that, many of his runs are designed to the outside by nature. Penn State doesn’t often ask him to go inside too much, and you can tell that in some of his tendencies.

Penn State’s offensive line was not great in 2017, but Barkley still showed what he could do when they gave him a run lane. Watch how he out-ran the angle on that safety for Washington in the clip above. That’s what under-200-pound guys like De’Anthony Thomas or Percy Harvin or Tavon Austin are suppose to do, not what 225-pound backs like Barkley are suppose to be able to do.

How do you stop that? Many college defensive coordinators are still wondering the same thing.

I could fill this entire page with showtime Barkley runs, and there will be more to come, but I need to talk about one of the areas of Barkley’s game that worries me when it comes to being a very high pick at the next level.

More often than I’m comfortable seeing, Barkley was hesitant in the hole when it came to running between the tackles. A little of that is surely the nature of taking the handoff from the shotgun, as you’re suppose to have a little read and react to your game. But, as is an example in the clip above, Barkley fails to just plant his foot in the ground, put his head down and power through the line of scrimmage, at times. That’s something that’s important in the NFL, and something Tampa Bay’s Doug Martin failed to do with regularity over the last two years.

Now, I’m not trying to nit-pick here. Barkley does a lot of elite things when he gets space. But, so do a lot of running backs. Might Barkley be a little faster and a little bit better at turning a corner? Sure, especially for his size. But, the reason why Barkley would be so rare is because, at his size, he should be able to do everything you want between the tackles as well as be a dynamic threat on the outside. When it comes to between the tackles, I have my worries.

It’s not that I don’t think he can do it. I think Barkley is plenty powerful. But, take the clip above, for example. That has to be a first down; it has to. Barkley is too big, too fast and too strong to not pick up what he needed to there and he just didn’t. It’s like he ran into the offensive lineman at half speed. I watched eight or nine games of Barkley and too many times I saw a guy who didn’t yearn for contact to get crucial yards – that’s the NFL game.

When Barkley sees open space, he bursts there as fast as he can. I don’t see that same kind of fight in him on a carry-by-carry basis when it comes to between the tackles work. Look at the clip above, for example. It’s almost like Barkley is preparing himself to go down before contact – like Martin would often do. I want Barkley to be as stoked about running a flat-footed linebacker over for extra yards as he is hurdling a guy or making a guy miss in the open field.

That clip above is gross. I don’t know if it’s because Penn State plays such a fast offense that when one play isn’t developing they just want to get to the ground to try another, but Barkley literally gave himself up there to a linebacker he could have easily gotten two or so more yards from. I know shotgun offenses exist plenty in the NFL, but to be a feature back you have to get as many yards as possible, and for a running back that often means a lot of them through contact.

The most frustrating thing is that it’s not like Barkley can’t do it. He certainly can, as shown above. Barkley can get a head of steam, run up the middle, run through contact and even stay up and balanced. But, I’ve seen his ability to do it and at times he just doesn’t. Because of that, now I have to worry about mentality. Now I have to have doubt in the back of my mind that when the yards are going to come tough that Barkley will, without hesitation, do what needs to be done to get extra yards. If he’s not, he’s a dynamic home run threat in space, can make people miss, is a good receiver, but can’t do enough between the tackles. If he’s not, then he’s Christian McCaffrey and the whole “rare athlete for his size” goes out the window if he doesn’t use his size like he’s capable of doing.

You see the clip above? Those are tough yards. I need Barkley to give me tough yards just as much as I need him to give me the home run ball. And I need him to do that often. Too many times while watching his game film I caught a broadcast stat that said something like “first two carries: 86 yards, last 12 carries: 27 yards.” That makes for a fine stat sheet average at the end of the game, but in the NFL, what happens when one of those first two runs doesn’t work?

I don’t need 20+ yards on every touch, but I can’t have as many zero and negative yard runs as Barkley had. I need consistency and willingness to pair with that big-play ability. If not, I’m selecting you on size you’re not going to use.

Even if he’s never the between the tackles runner we may want him to be for his full potential – and he could very well be, this isn’t me writing him off as a prospect – Barkley is still special. He displays acrobatic moves like the one shown above through each year he’s played, and the more comfortable he is, the more likely he will pull off something that few running backs, or any players, for that matter, can. Barkley has a sixth sense and a desire to make the most out of every play, and though that can get him in trouble, it also has to be noted as a positive because of how often he made it happen.

Barkley is also a pretty damn good receiver out of the backfield. Though he does have some mental blips with wheel route catches, at times, he has plenty of other instances where he’s blowing by linebackers in coverage for open space and big yards through the air. He’s not the most natural receiver, but he’s still considered a dual-threat back out of the backfield, which certainly help in his feature back case.

My parting words on Barkley are this: he is an elite running back prospect, but you have to be confident that he can be the running back you need him to be in between the tackles if you’re going to select him high. Even if an NFL team that is more shotgun and hurry up than the league average wants to bring him in, Barkley needs a lot less of those give-yourself up, back-to-the-line-of-scrimmage runs where he turns two or three-yard gains into zero-yard gains or even losses. I don’t even think Barkley’s vision is bad, as some have suggested. I think he processes incoming traffic quickly, and that’s why you see so many aggressive, successful one cuts into open space. But, for whatever reason it is, I see him shy away from contact up the middle, at times. If you’re doing that, why am I picking you high when I can pick a specialization back later in the draft?

If you don’t get touched, you can’t get tackled. That’s a good motto to have, and one that has catapulted Barkley to college football’s spotlight over the last three years. But, in the NFL, the chances of Barkley going untouched the way he did in college is hardly sustainable. Right now he’s lightning in a bottle. He has McCaffrey-like tools in open space to take things to the house. But, I think even the Panthers are realizing that, while McCaffrey is a great asset, they’ll always have to have a second running back with him.

But, what separates Barkley from McCaffrey is that Barkey has about 20-25 more pounds of sheer strength and athlete on him. I need him to use it. I need Barkley to be lightning in a bottle and thunder through contact to be worth the pick some are predicting.

If you can guarantee me that Barkley will be that, that I’ll get the most out of those tree-trunk legs, not just down the sideline, but when churring for the extra yards, too, then he’s not just McCaffrey, he becomes Adrian Peterson, he becomes a generational-type, and he becomes worthy of a Top 10 selection.

For now, I have to stay somewhat reserved.