Saquon Barkley ready to carry the load after sitting out preseason

The New York Giants will open their 2023 regular season schedule on Sunday night at MetLife Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys, a team they’ve beaten just once in the past six years.

Pro Bowl Running back Saquon Barkley has been around for much of that futility and is aiming for the tide to turn back in the Giants’ direction.

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“I understand that we weren’t able to beat Dallas and Philly last year, but that was last year. It’s a whole new year,” Barkley told reporters on Wednesday. “We’ve got a great opportunity in front of us, and we’ve got to take advantage of it.

“We know how good the NFC East is and it’s important to get (off to) a fast start. That’s just how the season goes. You see how helpful it was to us last year. But it’s going to be a tough game, like I said, and I feel like we’ve got a great game plan. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and execute.”

Executing could be a little tough early on for Barkley as he did not take a single snap in any of the Giants’ preseason games this summer.

“It didn’t bother me,” Barkley said of being idle this summer. “I go against Dexter (Lawrence) and Leo(nard Williams) every week in camp. They’re some of my best friends and extremely talented, but they don’t take it easy on me. So, I get a lot of contact as you guys probably saw throughout the camp.”

Mike Kafka, the Giants’ offensive coordinator, also doesn’t see rust being an issue for Barkley.

“I think Saquon’s got a good amount of work this training camp, especially being in pads as much as we were, and those guys did a tremendous job of I think getting into the flow of the game. Barkley’s a veteran guy so I don’t think it’ll take him too long to get adjusted to that,” Kafka said.

“He came in in great shape, jumped right into the mix and got caught up to all the stuff we were doing on offense, and he’s done a great job. First and foremost, he’s a captain so he’s one of those guys you look for from a leadership standpoint. He’s working, he’s setting a standard for the offense and he’s part of that group that’s doing that.”

Barkley also said that his contract issues are behind him for the moment and is still talking about being a Giant ‘for life’ — or not.

“I think I’d be doing a disservice to myself to get too caught up in my future and worrying about what’s gonna happen and being a Giant for life”

Saquon Barkley was asked about his future with the Giants and wanting to be a Giant for the rest of his career: pic.twitter.com/hLorZNB81E

— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) September 6, 2023

Whether or not Barkley remains a Giant beyond this year is a story for another time. Right now, he’s focused on kicking off the regular season with a win and taking one more step toward becoming an all-time franchise great.