By Zack Rosenblatt and Brooks Kubena The Athletic
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NEW ORLEANS — Saquon Barkley doesn’t have a lot of love for the Giants general manager who let him walk out the door. He does for the one who drafted him.

When Dave Gettleman drafted Barkley No. 2 in 2018, it became the defining move of his failed tenure as the team’s GM — largely because of the way he talked about the decision to draft a running back that high, and because of the way he talked about what Barkley was capable of. The lasting image of Gettleman’s four-year tenure was when he mimicked typing on a keyboard to make fun of all the analytic-minded people mocking him for doing such a thing.

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Gettleman wanted to draft Barkley so badly out of Penn State that he didn’t even take phone calls for quarterback-needy teams trying to trade up to No. 2. The story is well-told at this point — as were his quotes at the time.

Before that draft, Gettleman ascribed a “gold jacket standard” to the No. 2 pick — as in, he needed to be able to envision a Hall of Fame future for a player he was drafting that high. He saw that in Barkley.

His signature quote about Barkley in 2018, though: “It’s like he was touched by the hand of god, frankly.”

That quote helped to put more pressure on Barkley to live up to his billing as, in the eyes of many, an overdrafted player. But Barkley never saw it that way, he says now.

“I don’t think it hurt me,” Barkley said. “I think it helped instill confidence in me and I think he was alluding to what I believed in, what I already knew. I don’t think it was a crazy statement for him to say. If you go back and watch my film in college and the things I was able to do, I don’t know how people didn’t see it. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work like that because you’re blessed with god-given ability and you work super hard. It’s not going to be a straight road but I’ve been super thankful for him.”

Barkley flashed that talent in New York, though injuries and incompetence around him ultimately led to a tenure with only one playoff appearance in 2022 — the first season after Gettleman was fired. Then through a series of poor choices by Joe Schoen, Gettleman’s successor, Barkley found his way to the Eagles, put together a historic season (2,005 yards rushing) and made it harder for Giants owner John Mara to sleep in the process.

Along the way, he’s kept in touch with Gettleman. At his current pace, Barkley is well on his way to achieving that “gold jacket standard” — especially if he keeps up his production from 2024 going forward.

“We’ve continued to talk and text, more this year than in the past,” Barkley said of Gettleman. “But I always have love for him. He drafted me, he gave me an opportunity and drafted me to New York. Unfortunately, things didn’t go the way that we would like. But hopefully — one of my goals is to make everyone proud and hopefully I’m making him proud right now.”

Barkley, Dickerson fences mended

As Barkley neared Eric Dickerson’s rushing record of 2,105 yards this season, the Hall of Fame running back stated publicly that he did not want him to break the record.

“I don’t think he’ll break it. But if he breaks it, he breaks it,” Dickerson told the “Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t pull no punches on that. But I’m not whining about it. He had 17 games to do it? Hey, football is football. That’s the way I look at it. If he’s fortunate to get over 2,000 yards and get the record, it’s a great record to have.”

Barkley wound up sitting out the Eagles’ last game to keep him fresh for the playoffs — which has worked out pretty well so far — and Dickerson called Barkley to explain himself anyway. Barkley, to his credit, said he didn’t take any offense.

“He congratulated me,” Barkley said. “A lot of people get caught up in what he said and I didn’t take it that way at all because he made a great point: Everybody that says records are meant to be broken don’t have records. I look at it the same way. It was cool for him to reach out to me and I respected him having that conversation with me.”

Jurgens managing pain

Eagles center Cam Jurgens, who confirmed he’s playing in Super Bowl LIX, said he’s “throwing the kitchen sink” at managing the pain from a back injury he suffered in the divisional round and played through in the NFC title game.

Well, not literally. That certainly wouldn’t be easy on the back. Jurgens wouldn’t disclose the details of his remedies or his therapies. He only credited Philadelphia’s athletic trainers and the lengths to which the organization is ensuring he’s as healthy as possible entering the weekend.

“Whatever helps, I’m going to go do,” Jurgens said.

Jurgens, a Pro Bowler in his first year in place of Jason Kelce, further endeared himself to a tough fanbase by subbing in for the second half of the NFC Championship Game — a day he wasn’t even scheduled to play. Landon Dickerson started in place of Jurgens, but Dickerson, normally a left guard, suffered a knee injury that knocked him out of the game at halftime. Jurgens opened the third quarter at center, then paved the way for a 55-23 win over the Washington Commanders in which the Eagles outscored their NFC East rival 28-8 in the second half.

Jurgens did not practice in any of the Eagles’ three subsequent practices, resting the entirety of the team’s final week in Philadelphia before boarding a Sunday flight to New Orleans. The Eagles are occupying the Saints’ facilities this week, although their practices are closed to the media.

Jurgens only said that his back feels better than it did last week. If he’s indeed limited in practice, he’s already learned how to deliver on the field with no practice at all.

“Yeah, I mean, especially leading up to this last game, I wasn’t able to practice,” Jurgens said. “And just being as mentally locked in as I can, being able to watch a walkthrough, watch film, or practice, or whatever — like, I was just putting myself in that spot and going through every single thing that could happen. ‘What’s my call? What’s protection? What am I doing? What is this guy doing?’ And just like mentally being in there, you know, it helps you so when you actually get out there and are able to practice or able to play, it’s like you already had all those mental reps that everybody else had.”

Jurgens and quarterback Jalen Hurts are both preparing for a Super Bowl rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs and their blitz-heavy defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo. The Chiefs had eight sacks in their divisional-round win over the Houston Texans, and, in the AFC title game against the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs sacked Josh Allen twice and pressured him into a game-ending incompletion on a fourth-down throw. Hurts ended the 2024 regular season with the highest blitz EPA of his career (0.25), per TruMedia — partly due to the protection calls he shares with Jurgens.

Sunday’s Super Bowl in the Superdome will mark the center and quarterback’s 20th game together.

And Jurgens, three weeks into his recovery, will have his signal caller’s back.

Graham slips up … again

The Eagles veteran defensive end made the mistake on Monday of blurting out that he’d be playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl before backtracking and saying what he was supposed to — that he needed to practice this week and then the team would make a decision.

Head coach Nick Sirianni echoed that on Wednesday morning, saying they needed to see how Graham progressed in practice this week before deciding if he’d play coming off what was supposed to be a season-ending triceps injury.

Well, Graham did it again on Wednesday.

When a reporter brought up Graham’s signature moment as an Eagle — a forced fumble to help clinch a Super Bowl victory over the Patriots in 2018 — and asked whether he’d like to have a similar moment against the Chiefs this week, Graham said: “I’m playing in the game, so anything can happen.”