saquon barkley giants
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The Giants enter Week 4 of the NFL regular season with a surprising 2-1 record. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Big Blue, though.

Following a tough loss to the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, head coach Brian Daboll’s squad suffered another loss. With a torn ACL, wide receiver Sterling Shepard is lost for the season.

That puts the Giants in a tough spot when looking at their wide-receiver depth chart. They’ll have to see what they have on the roster, but it doesn’t seem like much. One has to think general manager Joe Schoen will get some sort of outside help sooner rather than later.

Running back Saquon Barkley clearly agrees, which is why he gave Odell Beckham Jr. a call once Monday night’s game was over. Here’s part of what he had to say about it (via TikTok):

I actually just got off the phone with him last night, talking about Shep. Odell, he’s a different cat — special, special player…I know that he’s doing everything he can in his rehab to come back even better, and you never know, maybe one day we’ll be back on the same team.

OBJ, of course, is rehabbing from his own non-contact injury that was suffered in the Super Bowl last February. He won’t be ready for action until closer to the middle of the season, but we do know he’s been keeping some tabs on the Giants. That’s especially the case with his former teammates in Shepard and Barkley.

New York lacks a big-time playmaker at wide receiver. That’s only gotten worse now that Shepard is on the shelf. Can Barkley and Co. convince Beckham to come home and suit up for Big Blue again? It’s something fans have been asking him to do via social media for weeks now, too.

The chances of OBJ actually returning to MetLife Stadium for a second tour with the Giants this year seem slim on the surface. But who knows — maybe Barkley can put together a very convincing argument.

Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.

Matt Musico is an editor for ESNY. He’s been writing about baseball and the Mets for the past decade. His work has been featured on numberFire, MetsMerized Online, Bleacher Report, and Yahoo! Sports.