Dallas City News

Eagles’ Saquon Barkley not concerned with career longevity at RB: Don’t ‘tell me how long I can play’ – Kevin Patra, NFL.com

The talented RB stands defiant against the critics.

One argument against paying big money to running backs is longevity concerns. Younger, cheaper talent can offer similar production, the rationalization goes.

From that perspective, new Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, at 27 years old, could be considered close to the back side of his career. Barkley would like to call hogwash on those questions about longevity.

“That’s [BS],” Barkley told EJ Smith of The Philadelphia Inquirer in a lengthy feature. “Marcus Allen played until he was 36, 37 years old. Some of the greats that I admire and I look up and study, they played well into their 30s. Barry (Sanders) left at 29, 30 and he left in his prime. It’s what you put in, what you put in is what you get out. That’s any position. There’s this weird thing with running backs right now. Is it a difficult position to play? Yes. Do you take wear and tear? Yes. But who are you or anyone else to tell me how long I can play the game? I call [BS].

“When it’s over for me, it’s over for me. But I feel like if I continue to put the right stuff in my body and do the right things, there will be a day when I’m 32 or 33, and I want to hang it up, and I’m going to do it just because.”

“I’ve been trying to control everything,” Barkley said. “Like, ‘I have to do this so I won’t get hurt.’ I can’t control that. My three or four injuries I’ve had in the NFL are flukes. There was nothing I could do to change them. But that’s what it is — everything I want to be and all the potential people talk about, when I’m on the field, I’m that and more.”

NFL analyst: Giants ‘would be bonkers’ to move on from Brian Daboll – Tyler Henry, USA Today

A playoff win in year one should give Daboll the benefit of the doubt in year three.

After the success head coach Brian Daboll experienced in his first season with the New York Giants, it seemed as though the franchise had finally found its long-term leader at the post.

The Giants have, of course, had a revolving door at head coach since the Tom Coughlin era ended in 2015.

Meanwhile, Daboll was recently listed among the bottom half of head coaches in the NFL following a dismal 2023 campaign. The pendulum continues to swing.

After being humbled in his second season and failing to return to the playoffs, all of a sudden, it feels as though a little stumble early in the season will land Dabes on the hot seat.

NFL analyst Conor Orr thinks the Giants would be wrong to consider moving on from their head coach if that were to happen.

“To me, it would be bonkers to go and fire another head coach before the duration of his contract,” Orr said on the Valentine’s Views podcast. “That would make it what, that would make it four in a row that didn’t get a second contract? I don’t think [Mara] is trying to do that, I really don’t. That’s just me talking, but I think he knows he has the right guy here.”

Daboll certainly got the most he could get out of his roster in 2022. After a down season, the Giants will look to rebound and get back to the playoffs this year.

Commanders Top 3 Offensive Players Ranked Near the Bottom of the NFL – David Harrison, USA Today

A young QB and an aging RB leave questions around Washington’s Big Three.

The temperatures when considering what the Washington Commanders might accomplish this season run hot and cold depending on who you’re talking to and what the context of the conversation is.

Ask someone if receiver Terry McLaurin could have a bounce-back season and you’ll likely get some good vibes in return. Same goes when discussing Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels as an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate.

Talk about Washington as a worst-to-first candidate and you’ll actually get some good feedback for the most part as well, but discuss the roster as a whole and things get a tad darker. Specifically when you ask CBS Sports about the top three offensive players on the team.

“Daniels is ultra-talented. We know this. Everyone has been waiting a while to see McLaurin play with a real quarterback, and hopefully he has finally found one,” Jared Dubin of CBS Sports wrote in his ranking of NFL trios. “Ekeler is coming off a down season, but he’s still really reliable — especially in the passing game. But it’s hard to say the Commies should be any higher than this given the uncertainty about how this trio will work on the field.”

If you need reassurance, Dubin ranks the Washington trio 25th in the NFL, not at the bottom, but quite nearly there.

Given a rookie quarterback, the doubt many have in Ekeler to return to form, and questions about whether McLaurin is really as big a career quarterback victim as we’ve painted him to be, it’s not surprising Washington is getting little love in these rankings.

If it bothers them, they’ll have the chance to change the hearts and minds of those who build these lists very soon.