When Saquon Barkley is Ready to Return, He'll Return
The questions about Giants running back Saquon Barkley's return to the field after a torn ACL are certainly understandable, given how much he can potentially change an offense.
But after a while, the question is becoming as frequent as an anxious passenger's incessant chanting of Are we there yet? during a long car drive.
Saquon Barkley is coming back this year; that much is something both he and Giants head coach Joe Judge have confirmed is the plan.
But as for a date or even a ballpark window of when that will happen, not even Barkley, the only person on the face of the planet who knows how he truly feels, can offer up that answer.
“The focus is to take it one day at a time and kind of go with the flow," Barkley said recently on “The Rich Eisen Show,” echoing a sentiment he expressed last month when he spoke to reporters for the first time since his surgery.
Make no mistake about it--Barkley is champing at the bit to get back out there on the field and be with his teammates--he said as much during his Giants media session.
"To be able to watch and see (his teammates) out there and not being able to participate with them right now, those are the toughest things," Barkley told reporters last month about what the most challenging part of this journey has been for him.
The mystery surrounding Barkley's return to the game he loves isn't a case of Barkley trying to create drama for what has become a growing captive audience waiting with bated breath for his return to the gridiron where he has dazzled fans in the past with his freakish athletic skills.
This is Barkley--and the Giants--being smart and practical in an age where athletes are known to rush themselves back from injury before they're ready only to suffer some sort of setback, either in terms of their recovery from the injury itself or in their performance.
The Giants and Barkley know they can't have either scenario happen because there is too much at stake this year.
This is a Giants team that, although not formally issued a "playoffs of bust" mandate from team president John Mara, are indeed in a "playoffs or bust" mode after plunking down millions of dollars in free agency to load up the roster with the missing talent necessary to be competitive.
Barkley, once he returns, will be a very big part of that playoff quest. For him to deliver at the level the Giants need him to be at, taking his recovery day by day and resisting the temptation to attach a timeline to when No. 26 will be back on the field trucking over linebackers and defensive backs is a necessary evil right now.
Imagine the disappointment--not to mention the backlash--if Barkley, the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, were to rush things forward, get on the field and look like just another guy instead of Saquon Barkley?
But that would pale by comparison if he returned prematurely and suffered some kind of setback to undo all the hard work he's already put in.
The Giants don't want that, and neither does Barkley, which is why there's not going to be a timeline attached to his return right now.
There could be a possibility that Barkley begins training camp on the Active/PUP list, which means he'd count toward the 90-man roster despite not being able to pass a physical. If that were to happen, he could be activated off the PUP list before the regular season once he passes a physical and is ready to return.
But right now, not even that's unknown, according to Barkley, who told Eisen, "Those are conversations I actually haven’t even had yet, so far, with the trainers and the coaches.”
For now, all Barkley can do is listen to what his body is telling him and listen to the advice and guidance of the coaches and medical staff overseeing his rehab and return to the field.
That and record the response of "Not yet," to the repeated questions of "Are you there yet?"
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