Saquon Barkley Omitted from PFF's Top 25-Under-25 List

With no timeframe in place for his return from a torn ACL, running back Saquon Barkley wasn't deemed a worthwhile candidate for inclusion of PFF's list of rising young stars under the age of 25.

Author:
Patricia Traina
Publish date:
Jun 15, 2021 3:44 PM EDT

Pro Football Focus recently published its NFL Top 25-under-25 list, and while no one was expecting the New York Giants to dominate the list, there was one surprising omission.

That would be running back Saquon Barkley, who just turned 24 years old in February, a player who landed at No. 14 on CBS Sports Cody Benjamin’s list of the top 25 NFL players under the age of 25 by this year’s opening day.

Sam Monson, who authored PFF’s list, might have gone with players who weren't coming off significant season-ending injuries, as is the case with Barkley, who tore his ACL in Week 2 last year.

Barkley has been hard at work in his rehab from reconstructive ACL surgery, but both he and Giants head coach Joe Judge have refrained from setting a timeline as to when the star running back might be cleared to return to the field.

"You know me--I'm going to take it one day at a time, come in with my head down and ready to work," Barkley said last week when asked if there was a target date established for his return.

"I'm fortunate enough that I don't think that I have anyone around me -- not going to think I know from top to bottom, there's nothing that's going to be forced for me to come back. It's going to be whenever my body tells me I'm ready and it will show when I'm ready to go, that's when I'll be able to go out there and be hopefully as good as I was before or even better."

"We are going to make sure that we take Saquon's rehab at the correct rate for his individual body and injury," Judge said.

"It's not any mirror of anybody else's injury out there. We have to make sure that we let him get it at his pace and put him on the field, can play 100 percent aggressive and confident and he's going to play safe and he can play effective."

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