RB Coach Craig Johnson -- December 7, 2018
Q: Did you teach (Saquon) Barkley the high-jump move?
A: I did. Something like that. He’s got a lot of help with that. He’s a very good player.
Q: Do you cringe when he does that? I know he’s got the ability and talent to do it, but does that kind of make you nervous?
A: It always makes coaches (nervous), I think most of the running back coaches in general will say try to keep your feet more on the ground, but you’re not going to take away his ability. That’s something he saw, he went for it, and you always worry is he going to land properly, but that’s just part of his game.
Q: Saquon has the chance for 2,000 combined yards if he finishes the season strong. Could you have envisioned that coming in at that level and what would that number mean to you?
A: I don’t know if I ever paint a number, but he had highly productive tape in college, so overall, not a surprise. Obviously he’s been fortunate that he’s been able to stay away from the injury bug. I don’t worry about jinxes, he’s been able to be on the field a lot and that’s helped him. Again, a lot of his college tape showed that this is not surprising.
Q: Pat (Shurmur) said a few weeks ago he’d like to see him do more of the north-south, five-yard runs and stop looking for homeruns. In the last month or so, has he seemed to get that down?
A: I don’t think there’s any doubt that he has improved that aspect of his game. He was making a lot of explosives, he’s done that continually all year, but some of the tougher yardage gains, some of the gains he needed to make, that’s just part of the process that he had to go through. I think he’s really stepped up in that area.
Q: Any disappointment that Jonathan Stewart was not able to make it back?
A: Yes, because I think Jonathan Stewart is a great role model. He’s been kind of where Saquon’s attempting to go, and anytime you have a guy like that, you’d like to be able to see him show what he can do. It’s just a matter of early in the year, he’s nicked up a little bit, and then late in the year, because of our roster we’ve got a lot of injuries and I don’t deal with it that much but yes, he’s been great. I can’t tell you how much he has helped our room and it’s always nice for a younger player to have a veteran guy who’s been through it in the room. It’s always good to hear from that guy. That is really I think an important thing.
Q: Have you seen Saquon trying to tap into that knowledge and experience from him?
A: If you were in my meeting room yesterday, you would have seen an unbelievable amount of that. They were dissecting a run as I walked into the meeting. They were in there about three or four minutes early and they were both dissecting the run from practice the other day and Saquon said, ‘I saw this’ and Stew told him, ‘Yes, but you need to think about this’. It just touched my heart, it was really a great moment, which is the way I believe it should be if you can have a veteran who’s been there talking to a younger player who’s willing to listen and ask a lot of questions as he does of Stew, and he also asks of me because he’s always looking to try to get better.