Here’s a totally made-up scene inspired by the offseason edition of Hard Knocks, but it wouldn’t be surprising if true:
Somewhere, New York Giants owner John Mara paced around debating whether to send a condescending text to his GM Joe Schoen each time Saquon Barkley scored a touchdown in his Philadelphia Eagles debut Friday night against the Green Bay Packers. By the third score, he finally hit send.
If this is true, let’s hope Mara didn’t slip a few times while he paced in annoyance seeing his beloved former running back making dynamic plays for an NFC East rival.
The slippery field in São Paulo, Brazil didn’t stop Barkley. And based on the way he fit into Philadelphia’s offense, there might not be many teams that will be able to contain him in his seventh season, now finally with a special group of players around him.
It was only one game, but Barkley quickly found out how much easier it is to use his all-world talents when he has offensive teammates as talented as him. Barkley caught a touchdown and rushed for two scores before helping the Eagles put away the Packers in a 34–29 season-opening victory.
Barkley’s hat trick matched Terrell Owens’s three touchdowns from his memorable Eagles debut in 2004. That season the Eagles made it to the Super Bowl, but don’t remind Mara.
For six years, the Giants failed to build a quality offense around Barkley. He played one season with Odell Beckham Jr. before the Giants whiffed on a handful of wide receivers. In one game with the Eagles, Barkley saw plenty of open space playing with wide receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and tight end Dallas Goedert. It also helps that Jalen Hurts is now his starting quarterback after five seasons of rocky performances from Daniel Jones.
Even with the losses, though, Barkley didn’t want to leave New York, and it was obvious that Mara didn’t want to lose his star running back based on the mixed emotions he displayed during Hard Knocks.
Mara trusted Schoen to make the best decision for the team, and now he and his fan base have to live with the results. It can still work out for both sides, but boy, it must have hurt Mara seeing Barkley fit so well with the Eagles.
For Philadelphia, the early results were very impressive, and not just Barkley’s 109 yards on 24 carries. New offensive coordinator Kellen Moore flourished in his Philly debut, displaying creative plays to free his best playmakers. The Eagles racked up 410 offensive yards, including 144 on the ground.
Philadelphia constantly attacked the left sideline because the Packers had no idea which player was going to gain the advantageous matchups after the presnap motions. Moore had a beautifully designed play for Barkley to face a Packers linebacker in open space, leading to an 18-yard touchdown reception.
Again, it’s only one game, something we need to keep reminding ourselves throughout Week 1. But it says plenty that Moore managed to get all of the Eagles’ best weapons involved in the flow of the offense. Last season, they rarely appeared comfortable with Brian Johnson as the offensive coordinator.
So for one game, Eagles GM Howie Roseman appears to have made the right decision to pay an older running back with a lengthy injury history $37.75 million over three years. And perhaps the same can be said about Eagles coach Nick Sirianni hiring Moore as his offensive play-caller, even though Moore was coming off a rough one season with the Los Angeles Chargers.
But it’s a long season and the miles from those New York days might catch up to Barkley. On the other hand, the Eagles have enough weapons to keep Barkley fresh for the stretch run if they continue to play as well as they did Friday night. Moore had plenty of success using multiple running backs on the field.
But the Eagles were far from perfect in Brazil. Hurts had a pair of head-scratching interceptions and there was miscommunication on an early snap from new center Cam Jurgens that led to a lost fumble. Jurgens, however, adjusted and had a few well executed tush pushes, a play his predecessor, Jason Kelce, perfected the past few seasons.
You know it’s a good night for the Eagles when the focus is on Barkley’s stellar debut and not on how much they’re going to miss Kelce this season. It just makes you wonder how much better the Eagles could be had Kelce not decided to retire.
For Mara, though, he’s probably thinking what if Schoen re-signed Barkley and didn’t allow him to join a rival.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Saquon Barkley Was a Giant Killer in His Eagles Debut.
