Mailbag: Saquon Barkley Edition
Saquon Barkley’s blocking dominates this week’s mailbag topics, so let’s jump right into it.
I’m not sure I understand your question. Why would they need another safety when that group is one of the more solid ones on the roster?
As I’ve said before, the injury bug doesn’t discriminate. Yes, Peppers could get hurt returning a punt. He could also get hurt playing defense.
Heck, look at how Cody Core got hurt during practice. You can’t play or coach scared, so why would you want to remove a guy who seems to offer a spark from a unit out of fear of injury?
Not really. I made this point before and will make it again. The minute you start painting guys into a corner is the minute you give the other team an advantage.
Barkley can pass block; he needs to do a better job with being consistent with his technique.
The other thing I would have been curious to know (though I doubt he would have admitted) was how much of his issues were related to a breakdown upfront that caused him to look so tentative on that one play.
I don’t know if they’ll do this, but I was a little concerned with the “speed” I saw from some of the offensive linemen in pulling. I thought there were a couple of instances where guys didn’t get to their spots as quickly as they needed to, and the Steelers defenders were able to blow up the plays.
Again, I don’t know if they’ll adjust that, but I think I’d try running an H-back or a fullback straight ahead rather than ask multiple offensive linemen to pull.
If there’s an injury, yes, I could see that happening. Remember that now the media is reduced to being allowed to view just 15 minutes of warmups, so I can’t sit here and tell you how far along Peart or anyone is from two weeks ago.
But I wouldn’t be shocked if Peart gets into a game at some point as the year cranks on.
Tony, the best way I can describe the gameday experience at the stadium with no fans there was eerie. I didn’t like it one bit. Maybe this is just me, but I can feel the crowd's energy up in the press box, and I’ve become used to that.
I missed that feeling, but I understand (and agree) with the decision made (which had to be given the state law).
I consider this season a rebuilding one. New coaching staff, new players, new culture, and toss in the fact that there was no traditional off-season, and I think we have to adjust our expectations accordingly.
I look for progress each week in terms of cohesiveness and overall play, so we’ll see how that comes together over the coming weeks.
I’ve said quite a bit about Saquon Barkley’s blocking here, here, and here. I’ll just leave you with this.
David Meggett was 5’7: all, and he had no trouble blocking blitzers thanks to mostly pristine technique and leverage.
If Barkley truly has that desire to be an elite player and is willing to do whatever is asked of him, he’ll do whatever it takes to drill proper technique into his brain, so he goes on autopilot moving forward.
