Saquon Barkley faces obstacles in crucial return to Giants
The Giants running back, sidelined by an ankle injury after already missing much of the season following a torn ACL, was expected to return for a Monday night game against Tampa Bay.
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley was expected to return for a Monday Night Football matchup against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to a report from ESPN's Jeremy Fowler cited by Sports Illustrated. Barkley had been listed as questionable with an ankle injury sustained when he stepped on the foot of Dallas Cowboys defensive back Jourdan Lewis in Week 5.
The ankle injury compounded a season already shaped by a torn ACL the previous year. Barkley had not played since Week 5 and missed four starts in 2021 overall, appearing in just seven games combined across the prior two seasons — a run of injuries that had sharply limited his on-field time since his rookie standout years.
Through his limited action in 2021, Barkley had accumulated 195 rushing yards on 54 carries, with two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown, per the report.
A season of accumulating setbacks
The Giants entered the Tampa Bay game at 3-6, while the Buccaneers were 6-3, with kickoff set for 8:15 p.m. ET. Barkley's stop-and-start 2021 — an ACL tear the year before, then an in-season ankle injury — left the team leaning on a diminished workload from the back who had been its offensive centerpiece since being drafted.
What slowed the recovery
ESPN reported the ankle injury was initially believed to be a low ankle sprain, with the joint ballooning immediately after Barkley stepped on Jourdan Lewis's foot. His return was further delayed by a false-positive COVID-19 test the week before the Giants' bye, according to ESPN's sources, on top of the three consecutive games he had already missed. He returned to a full week of practice ahead of the Tampa Bay game and, per ESPN, told reporters after Friday's session that he felt "pretty good" and was taking his recovery "one day at a time."
ESPN's reporting also noted Barkley's most recent full game had come in Week 4 against New Orleans, where he caught a 54-yard touchdown pass and scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime -- the kind of playmaking the Giants had been without for the five games since.
How the Giants had fared without him
CBS Sports reported the Giants had gone 2-3 in the games Barkley missed since the ankle injury, a stretch that left New York last in the NFC East heading into the Tampa Bay game. The Buccaneers, meanwhile, arrived on a two-game losing streak despite their 6-3 record, with the matchup at Raymond James Stadium and New York cast as a 10.5-point road underdog, according to the outlet's reporting.
CBS Sports also noted Barkley had caught 14 passes for 130 yards and a receiving touchdown to go with his 195 rushing yards in his limited action, and that the Giants were monitoring left tackle Andrew Thomas's own injury status alongside Barkley's heading into the Monday game.
The contract question hanging over the return
CBS Sports' reporting also framed the return against a longer-term question: owner John Mara had signaled interest in a long-term deal for Barkley, the 2021 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year runner-up class's second overall pick, but the team was not expected to negotiate an extension until it had a fuller picture of his durability after the ACL tear and the ankle injury limited him to a combined seven games across two seasons.
What wasn't yet known
The available reporting on his expected return did not include direct comment from Giants coaching staff about his conditioning or workload plan for the Tampa Bay game, only the questionable-to-active designation, the injury history behind it, and Barkley's own brief comment that he felt "pretty good." Reporting also varies slightly on the exact number of games missed since the ankle injury: the original Sports Illustrated-cited report described four missed starts, while ESPN's account described three consecutive missed games; both trace to the same October 10 injury and are reported here as given.
US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports and ESPN, citing ESPN's Jeremy Fowler. It restores a story originally published on this site in November 2021; figures are as reported at the time.