Why Saquon Barkley Can Be the Overall RB1

Photo: Imagn Images

People have spent the 2022 fantasy football offseason calling Saquon Barkley a trap.

Barkley has worked the past three seasons chasing the high of his short NFL career: finishing as the overall RB1 in PPR formats during his rookie season in 2018. Ever since that season, he has faced challenges, whether the injuries that have sidelined him for portions of each of the last three seasons or the horrific playcalling from Freddie Kitchens, Jason Garrett, and Joe Judge that sapped any upside away from the offense as a whole.

When you put it into context like that, sure, Barkley could feel like a trap going into the 2022 season. But some still believe that he is one of the most talented running backs in the league. With the offensive staff changes around him as well as other ancillary upgrades for the New York Giants, Barkley has a solid chance to not only get back to being an RB1 in your 12-team leagues but to even ascend back to the level he has been chasing: the cream of the crop.

The Injuries

When discussing Barkley, you have the start with the injuries that have held him back over the past few years.

It is important to note that Barkley has suffered numerous ankle sprains in college at Penn State and in the NFL. He had a high-ankle sprain in 2019 that cost him three games, and last year, suffered a low-ankle sprain that caused him to miss four contests. Barkley is a quick healer, though. In 2019, he was running a cutting just a week after his injury, and now during this year's training camp, it looks like he is ready to show that he is fully back. Looking at the tweet below, we've seen numerous training camp videos saying that Barkley looks "explosive," per Jordan Ranaan.

Saquon breaks loose pic.twitter.com/HL8vxVyVEV

— New York Revival (@NewYorkRevival) August 3, 2022

From this and other tweets that we have seen expressing how in shape and in form Barkley has looked this offseason, it appears that he is fully healed from anything that was holding him back post-ACL tear. Now two years removed from that injury, he is ready to get back to his previous form. We have seen other players like Dalvin Cook take a full season to adjust post-ACL recovery and then post breakout numbers in Year 2 post-injury. Let's see what happens with Barkley this year and hope that he adheres to a similar timeline. It's worth noting that there hasn't been any data that suggests that any player’s injury history indicates a likelihood of being injured again at a higher rate in the future.