Saquon Barkley ‘Fed Up,’ Responds to Critics of His Play Style

Football coaches will often praise running backs who run “north and south,” attacking the line of scrimmage rather than waiting too long for holes to develop and risking a loss in the backfield. Giants star Saquon Barkley was asked about that criticism of his game, and is clearly not happy with the notion that he “dances in the backfield.” 

Asked if he’s been making a “conscious effort” to run more “north-south,” Barkley seemed to take exception to the entire line of questioning.

“This is probably the last time I’m going to speak on this. I know people want to say, ‘Dancing… He don’t get north-south,’ but I’m not going to just run into my linemen’s back. That’s not how I play the game, that’s not how I’ve been playing since I was eight years old. I’ve been playing the position for a very long time, and by no means am I the perfect running back, I’ve still got so much work to do...

“I know that’s been a conversation… ‘He don’t know what he’s doing, he’s just dancing back there.’ I’m really kind of fed up with people who’ve never played the position and try to speak on how I run the football. We call them All-Pros with clickers in their hand.”

Barkley’s comments come after his new coach Brian Daboll complimented the running back after the team’s first preseason game, saying he “hit the ball downhill [and] didn’t dance,” per the New York Daily News. 

The running back was asked about Daboll’s comments after speaking about critics of his playing style, again denying that he is a backfield “dancer.”

“When he says get north and south, he’s talking about the physicality of me trusting myself, me getting downhill… People are trying to use that as an example of me back there dancing. Dancing’s like stuff you do in high school, in little league football.”

Even considering his rookie season, in which he had 2,028 total yards from scrimmage and 15 total touchdowns, Barkley has endured some criticism that he looks for home runs and doesn’t consistently take what the defense gives him and moves the chains. Whether or not that is fair, it appears that he and Daboll are working on making him a more consistent runner now that he’s healthy following a pair of injury-plagued seasons.

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