The year 2020 was kind of a crazy year; all of us remember it. But one thing you may not know about the year 2020 is that it was the last time that Saquon Barkley put together scores of 60 or higher in both yards after contact and tackles avoided per attempt in the DRBR. To add fuel to the fire, it's also the last time that he scored 60 or higher in all three dynamic categories when you also add in receiving yards after the catch.
Over the last three seasons, his DRBR numbers continue to slowly progress down, and that could be for one of two reasons. Reason number one: maybe he just has not been able to overcome how bad the New York Giants' offense has been, and it hasn't been great at times. But then you also have examples like Breece Hall, and in the New York Jets DRBR, we talk about just how efficient he was in the dynamic categories last season and how impressive that was because he did it with such a terrible offense. Well, Saquon Barkley showed those types of glimpses when he entered the league, so why wasn't he able to overcome it the last couple of years?
Reason number two: maybe Saquon Barkley has lost a step. There is a good chance that all the injuries that he's dealt with since he entered the league have just kind of brought him down a little bit. Maybe he doesn't have the same burst or the same pop that he used to have when he first entered the league with the New York Giants.
Now, these numbers are not going to keep me from drafting Saquon Barkley this year. He's in a much better situation: better offensive line, better weapons around him. He definitely has an opportunity to pop back up in a lot of these numbers that you see here below. But if it doesn't end up happening for some reason, then we truly do know that Saquon Barkley just isn't the Saquon Barkley of old. And that happens sometimes. We've talked about it with some other running backs, where one minute they look really, really good, and then all of a sudden, boom, they come crashing down.
But I would like Barkley to not have to be reliant on the volume alone. Because if you're getting a good amount of volume, you're going to put together a good floor. But that's not what you want when you draft a running back as high as Saquon Barkley. You want a little bit of ceiling to go with it, and that's where I get some concerns. If Jalen Hurts is still stealing touchdowns at the goal line, and if Saquon Barkley's receiving work isn't what we used to see in the past because they have so many weapons there, then there is a really good chance that if he doesn't have that initial upside that we saw when he entered the league, and if his dynamic scores do not get better than what we've seen the last three seasons, you're going to be drafting Saquon Barkley to be a really safe RB2 that will have some RB1 weeks but may lack the upside that you want out of him every single time.
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