Halfway through his rookie season, Giants running back Saquon Barkley is poised to join some rare statistical company.
Barkley has 519 rushing yards and 497 receiving yards through eight games this season. That puts him on pace for 1,038 rushing yards and 994 receiving yards in 16 games. If he can stay on that rushing pace and ever so slightly increase his receiving pace, he can finish the year with 1,000 yards both rushing and receiving.
That’s a rare feat indeed: Only two players in NFL history have ever done it, Roger Craig with the 49ers in 1985 and Marshall Faulk with the Rams in 1999.
Unfortunately for Barkley, it’s also rare for a running back to have a season that productive on a team this bad. Craig’s 49ers went to the playoffs in 1985, and Faulk’s Rams won the Super Bowl in 1999. Barkley’s Giants are 1-7.
Barkley is a bright spot for a bad Giants team, but also an unfortunate reminder that in today’s NFL, with the emphasis on the passing game, a running back can do so much. You can draft a running back second overall and he can be every bit as good as you thought he would be, and if you don’t have a good team around him, you’re going to be picking high in the draft next year, too.
