Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley is coming off a career high in carries for a season, after the Eagles played all the way into February, where they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
So, Barkley is trusting those close to him, a group including Eagles coaches, mentors, and a couple of Hall of Fame backs, when they tell him that he needs to take things slower than normal this offseason to give his body the time it needs to fully recover.
“You’ve just got to be smarter, right? You have your moments where you go in there and you grind, you push it,” Barkley said, according to ESPN.
“But the majority of those days is just mobility, conditioning, doing all the things to get your body in shape to perform at a high level. It was a lot of workload [last year], but my body feels great, so that’s the most important thing.”
Barkley turned to Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni, running backs coach Jemal Singleton, legendary NFL running backs Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James, as well as others, and they all gave him the same advice, which made it easy for him to follow.
“It wasn’t hard because everyone I trust told me basically to sit my ass down for a little bit,” Barkley said afterthe team’s only minicamp practice last week.
Sirianni noted that every player has a regimen tailored to what that player’s needs.
“We kind of monitored everybody as we went,” Sirianni said. “We got a lot of good work in, Saquon got a lot of good work in and yeah, I’m pleased with how the offseason program has gone.”
