The Giants are back from their bye week. Their first order of on-field business is hosting the Houston Texans in Week 10 at MetLife Stadium. Outside of Xavier McKinney, one can hope Big Blue is ready for the stretch run.
How did running back Saquon Barkley spend his bye week, you ask? Well, one of the things he did was catch up with Odell Beckham Jr. at his birthday party. OBJ is nearing a return from his ACL injury, and a reunion with the Giants isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Barkley spoke with the media about seeing his buddy and former teammate. He also reiterated how he’d love to have him come home to the Giants:
Saquon Barkley attended Odell Beckham Jr.'s birthday party during the bye week.
He says he would love to have Odell back with the Giants: "It would be a great story to come back to the place that he was before and continue to build success." pic.twitter.com/Dgd6BniXbQ
— Giants Videos (@SNYGiants) November 11, 2022
There are a couple of good sound bites in this clip. One is the lack of a recruitment pitch needed. Obviously, Beckham is familiar with the organization from his first stint with the Giants. And as Barkley said, “It’s New York.”
Enough said, dude.
I also loved what he said at the very end of this video. A lot of attention has been paid to Cowboys players hitting up OBJ on social media with recruitment pitches. Why doesn’t Barkley feel the need to do that? After all, nothing is really official if you don’t post or tweet about it. But the running back disagrees with that:
Saquon Barkley smiled when the Cowboys’ recruitment of Odell Beckham Jr. was brought up today.
Says he saw Micah Parsons’ pitch to @obj.
Asked why he hasn’t gone there yet on social media, @saquon smirked:“I don’t have to tweet at him.” #Giants
— Art Stapleton (@art_stapleton) November 11, 2022
That’s just perfect, don’t you think? For the first time in a while, there’s a bit of swagger in that locker room, and deservedly so. A surprisingly successful first half of the year has New York in the playoff picture. The final stretch won’t be easy, but it seems like Brian Daboll’s squad will give every ounce of effort to try and make it a reality.
Will it include a homecoming with OBJ, or will he go to an NFC East rival? That’s anyone’s guess at this point. We can be sure that Barkley has already given him his best recruitment pitch a long time ago, though.
Matt Musico can be reached at matt.musico@xlmedia.com and you can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
