NFL Notes: Saquon Barkley, Bears, Giants, Jets

Saquon Barkley

An NFL scout tells Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports that he believes Penn State RB Saquon Barkley is better than Ezekiel Elliott.

“Saquon Barkley is better than Zeke, he’s faster than Zeke and has more twitch,” the scout said. “Saquon Barkley is a different guy with an extra gear. He’ll never get caught from behind. Zeke doesn’t get caught often, but he can.

“I’m not going to say he’s going to come to the league and rip it up like Zeke,” the scout added. “Zeke went to the best situation he could have possibly gone to with that offensive line. But even if Saquon Barkley went somewhere with a bad offensive line, he’s going to make plays.”

A separate scout admitted that he’d rather have Barkley over Elliott based on the off-the-field concerns, but he still considers Elliott to be the better player.

“I’d rather have Barkley over Zeke because of the character stuff,” the other scout tells Thamel. “If it was just a player? Zeke is a better player than Saquon Barkley is.”

Bears

• According to Ian Rapoport, Bears LB Nick Kwiatkoski‘s injury may not be season-ending as previously thought.
• Rapoport does, however, add that Kwiatkoski will “definitely miss time” but it may end up being just a few weeks.

Giants

• Giants WR Odell Beckham said Thursday that he did not suffer any setbacks from playing in Monday night’s game against the Lions. Beckham added: “I look to play a lot more this week.” (Ralph Vacchiano)

Jets

Jets acting owner Christopher Johnson says he still believes QB Christian Hackenberg has “a lot of upside.”

“The quarterback position is really difficult to evaluate, and we haven’t really seen where Christian might go,” Johnson said, via the New York Daily News. “I’m really more about looking forward than looking back.

“Everybody’s going to look back and find places where things have gone wrong. I don’t think that you can say that about Christian. I think that he has a lot of upside, and I hope to see it.”