Saquon Barkley isn’t mincing words about joint practices, calling the frequent skirmishes “immature” and admitting he “hates” the whole setup. This is a veteran running back absolutely fed up with what he’s seeing out there.
Barkley’s ‘Immature’ Verdict on Joint Sessions
Joint practices are supposed to dial up the competition, right? Get different teams going head to head, pushing each other to get better. But for Eagles veteran running back Saquon Barkley, they just bring out the worst. He got real honest when asked about the benefits of those Eagles and Patriots joint sessions, telling ESPN’s Tim McManus he’s “the wrong guy to ask because I hate joint practices, to be honest. I think one day is good.” He is not holding back, folks. This is a strong stance from a guy who’s seen it all in the league.
Barkley went on to absolutely rip the “immature” level the pushing and shoving gets to. “More times than not nothing good comes out of it,” he said. “When you have the work it’s good, but then you get the pushing, the shoving and someone says this about you and it’s ‘I don’t know about that but you’re this.’ It’s immature when you get to that level.” He’s painting a picture of these sessions devolving into something totally unproductive. It sounds like the negatives are seriously outweighing any potential positives in his book.
Scrums, Face Masks, and Accountability
And yeah, there were actual scuffles proving his point. Barkley himself admitted he got into a brief scrum with the Patriots’ defense. It wasn’t just him, though. We also saw Eagles tackle Lane Johnson and Patriots linebacker K.J. Britt get totally tangled up, grabbing each other by the face masks. Not exactly the kind of highlight you want coming out of practice, right?
Barkley chalks these incidents up to the nature of the beast, saying, “That’s bound to happen after Day 2.” He gets it, football is physical, but he’s also calling for some serious accountability from players. “We’ve also got to do a better job of not allowing that to have a factor in our practice,” he added. What’s even wilder is that Barkley admitted, “I have to do a better job, too, because I’m a little troublemaker sometimes, but I was good this week.” He thinks these kinds of tussles are “mostly unavoidable” with how these practices are currently structured, which is a pretty bleak outlook for the future of joint sessions.
So, where do the Eagles and Patriots go from here after all this talk and all these scrums? These two teams are set to play a preseason game this Saturday. Will all this frustration and “immature” behavior carry over into an actual organized game? Will these players manage to keep their cool when the pads really get popping? We will definitely be watching to see if the pushing and shoving continues under the bright lights.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Bleacher Report.
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