Saquon Barkley’s selflessness in the Giants game was especially meaningful to Eagles rookie Will Shipley
Barkley received his second NFL weekly honor of the season, and it was willingness to "see the young boys eat" that helped backup running back Shipley get his first carries.
Saquon Barkley was named NFC offensive player of the week on Wednesday for his dominant performance against the New York Giants on Sunday.
The Eagles running back finished the 28-3 win against his former team with 176 rushing yards and one touchdown to go along with two receptions for 11 yards. It’s his second time winning the award, with the first coming after his 109-yard, three-touchdown performance against the Green Bay Packers in the Eagles’ season opener.
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Barkley finished just 13 rushing yards shy of matching his career high against the Giants but elected to sit for most of the fourth quarter along with the majority of the Eagles’ offensive starters when given the choice to chase the milestone by Eagles coach Nick Sirianni.
Eagles rookie running back Will Shipley was the main beneficiary of Barkley’s answer to Sirianni’s offer, which was posted to the team’s social media pages earlier this week. Getting the first carries of his career, the fourth-round pick out of Clemson said Wednesday that he wasn’t surprised to see Barkley tell Sirianni he’d “rather see the young boys eat.”
“It was awesome,” said Shipley, who had eight attempts for 15 yards. “That’s who I’ve been around for the past couple months, he’s selfless. He’s a leader. Somebody that you look up, to a role model. It didn’t surprise me, but I was grateful. … Everybody would have loved for him to get that against his old team. I would have told him to go do it. I would have taken a step back and been like, ‘You go do it.’ But he wanted me to go out there and get my first touches in the league, that’s something I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”
After signing a three-year, $37.75 million contract with the Eagles in the offseason, Barkley is having one of the most efficient years of his career so far. His yards per attempt, yards per game, and rushing success rate are each significantly higher than his previous career bests. He’s also on pace to score his highest number of touchdowns in a season and a record number of rushes of 10 or more yards.
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Going into the game, he said he didn’t feel he had anything to prove to the Giants after unsuccessful contract extension led to his leaving in free agency. After his dominant performance, Barkley conceded that seeing fans burn his jersey in the parking lot as the Eagles’ team bus pulled into MetLife Stadium gave him a little extra motivation.
“That was crazy,” Barkley said. “I’ve seen my jersey get burned before on social media, but the timing of it. I’m locked in, I’m listening to my music, and all I see is fans just pointing, and I look and I’m like, ‘What are they pointing at?’ I see smoke and I’m just like, ‘Where’s my jersey at?’
“That was definitely different. I don’t know if I’ve ever experienced anything like that in my life and hopefully, I don’t experience that again but, in that moment, I was ready for third-and-1.”