New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley is entering his second season in the NFL, and the optimism is running rampant. After all, the first-round pick from Penn State tallied more than 2,000 scrimmage yards as a rookie and served as the best offensive weapon on the team during a 5-11 season.
With Odell Beckham Jr. now suiting up in Cleveland, Golden Tate missing four games due to a suspension, and Sterling Shepard missing time with a fractured thumb, it will be critical that Barkley is even better for the Giants during the 2019 season.
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Fortunately, the second-year running back is drawing motivation from one of the best players in NBA history. The Giants posted a photo of the inside of Barkley’s Nike cleats on Friday and showed how serious he is about producing with text that reads “Mamba Mentality.”
Saquon = Mamba Mentality 🐐@kobebryant | @Nike pic.twitter.com/eaWh2ZZ25G
— New York Giants (@Giants) August 16, 2019
According to Bryant, the “Mamba Mentality” essentially is constantly trying to be the best version of yourself. This was the subject of his book, The Mamba Mentality: How I Play, and now Barkley is adopting it in an effort to become even better than he was as a record-setting rookie.
With a career that spanned 20 years and 1,346 games, Bryant is known as one of the NBA’s all-time greats. The former Los Angeles Laker was named an NBA All-Star a whopping 18 times, and he was a member of five championship teams. He also had two separate numbers (8, 24) retired by the Lakers following his retirement.
As a running back, it’s unlikely that Barkley will be playing for 20 years due to the abuse that players in this position deal with on a weekly basis, but there is no denying that he is set on producing at a comparable level to the Black Mamba. The Giants need someone to provide balance for quarterback Eli Manning and this offense, and Barkley will be the man called upon to make a difference for the team.
Will the second-year back produce at an even greater level while leading the Giants back to the postseason? At this point in the preseason, it’s undetermined, but the Mamba Mentality is undefeated.
