How a special confidence boost helped Saquon Barkley reach the next level

The Eagles had made it through the offseason and the grind of training camp but before the 2024 season began, running backs coach Jemal Singleton had an important message he wanted to deliver to Saquon Barkley.

It was a special meeting.

“I’ll never forget it, to be honest,” Barkley said.

Singleton, 48, has coached running backs for a long time in college and the NFL and he’s scouted plenty of great players. But Barkley is the highest-rated running back Singleton has ever scouted.

And before they began their first season together, Singleton wanted to make sure Barkley heard that from him.

“I think they need to know that,” Singleton said to NBC Sports Philadelphia. “I think they need to know the confidence that I have in them. I think with him, it was maybe something he needed to hear. Maybe something he believed but maybe had just a little doubt. I just wanted to make sure he knew I felt that way about him. I think that when a player knows his coach has faith in him and all that and truly believes he’s one of the best players, he can start to respond that way.”

There’s no question that Barkley has responded.

Through eight games, Barkley has already surpassed 1,000 scrimmage yards, has eight total touchdowns and has been named the NFC Offensive Player of the Week three times. The Eagles signed Barkley to a three-year, $37.75 million deal this offseason and he has been worth every penny.

And Singleton is proving to be the perfect coach for Barkley in this chapter of his career.

“Yeah, perfect timing,” Barkley said. “Everything happens for a reason. That’s for sure.”

At 27 years old, Barkley is playing better than anyone could have imagined and it started with a little belief from his coach.

“I think it was a really critical point for me, coming to Philly as an Eagle,” Barkley said. “He told me how he viewed me as a player throughout the draft process and my career. Basically that it was time to remind everybody the type of player I am and the type of player he believes I am. … 

“At that moment, he had more confidence in me than I had in my own self, to be honest. Not because of the lack of play but where you were, you’re in a new spot, you don’t know how the new season is going to be, the ups and downs and this and that. He kind of just helped me to have faith, ‘Don’t worry and just be you.’ I’ve been kind of sticking with that.”

The confidence boost

It might seem strange to talk about confidence with Barkley. Because this is a guy who was the No. 2 overall pick in 2018 and made two Pro Bowls with the Giants on teams where he was the only star.

But confidence is fickle.

“As athletes, we talk too negative to ourselves,” Barkley said. “I don’t know why we do that.”

Barkley said he’s even reading a book now about the advantages of positive criticism over negative criticism. And Singleton’s outlook has helped.

At the time of their meeting before the season in the front of the running backs room at the NovaCare Complex, Singleton wasn’t sure what kind of effect it would have on Barkley. He didn’t know if it was a speech the star running back even really needed to hear. 

But after the Giants franchise-tagged Barkley in 2023 and then let him walk in 2024 in a saga that played out on national TV via Hard Knocks, he figured it couldn’t hurt.

“He went through some things. He went through life a little bit,” Singleton said. “Any man’s confidence can be shaken a little bit. Not taken but maybe shaken. I just wanted to make sure he knew where I was coming from.”

Gotta prove it first

Singleton’s first job in the NFL came in 2016 when he was hired as the Colts’ running backs coach. And he walked into a position room with veteran Frank Gore. At that time, Gore was in his second season with the Colts but his 12th in the NFL. He was already a five-time Pro Bowler and future Hall of Famer.

So Singleton was thinking, “How can I help a guy that has to know everything?”

Before you can help a player like that, you have to prove to the player that you can. Singleton felt like he had to prove himself to Barkley this offseason too.

“I think that’s the NFL in general,” Singleton said. “I firmly believe that. People always ask me, ‘What’s the difference between college and the NFL?’ And I say, ‘In college, you’re the position coach and that’s your room. You’re the coach, that’s it.’ In the NFL, it’s a little bit different. You walk into a room, you have to earn the room.”

Of course, a big part of earning a player’s trust is about proving to them that you can help them get better on the football field. But another underrated aspect is connecting with the player on a personal level. That’s something head coach Nick Sirianni cares about a ton and Singleton agrees.

Singleton’s experience with Gore back in 2016 has definitely informed the way he’s been coaching Barkley in 2024.

“I keep digressing back to Frank Gore but it wasn’t until I proved to Frank that this guy knows ball a little bit, he can help me get better, ‘I’m all in,’” Singleton said. “That’s what the majority of these guys, they know that you can help them get better and you’re doing it the right way, you’re all in.”

Getting 1% better

There are some challenges in coaching a player like Barkley. He’s an incredible athlete and an accomplished NFL running back. It’s not like there’s a bunch of room for growth.

But there’s still room.

For Singleton, the challenge is finding those margins and making minor fixes to maximize Barkley’s incredible potential. It’s not like he wanted to tear everything down and start fresh. That’s another lesson Singleton learned from Gore.

“I always feel that no matter how good the player, there’s levels of it,” Singleton said. “There’s levels of something he can do better. The difference is when you’re trying to make a guy get that much better, the detail is that minute. It is something so small. We’re talking, maybe angles. It’s his shoulders are here and if we can get them there. We’re talking inches is the whole thing. All I’m trying to do is that much.

“What I’m trying to do isn’t a huge major thing but it is something that can have a huge, major impact. The little things make the big things happen. With him, that’s the key. Just little minor tweaks. Where to put his eyes, where to use his steps, maybe expanding his knowledge of the defensive fronts and sets that not only allow him to get better but to get smarter as well.”

Because Barkley doesn’t play on special teams, he gets some extra 1-on-1 time with Singleton on the field and off it. They have some meetings throughout the week. Sometimes those meetings are right down to business, sometimes they talk about game plan or opponents. 

But there are also times where they just talk. About life, family, whatever.

Those moments go a long way too.

“You can’t really explain how he’s able to come to the building every single day and be that happy,” Barkley said. “He just loves life. He’s big in his faith. He’s a wonderful human being to be around. I feel like I’ve learned so much, not just as a player but how to become a better person and a better father. He pushes all of us in that way.”

Don’t do it again

Barkley said his favorite part of his incredible reverse hurdle against the Jaguars on Sunday was seeing all the reactions from his teammates.

But while most of the sideline was celebrating the play, what was Singleton doing?

“Waiting to yell at him when he got to the sideline,” Singleton said. “The guys know. I hate jumping. I hate when backs jump. They know it. I talk about it all the time. When you jump in the air, you are at the mercy of the defense at that point. You’ve got nothing. Gravity owns you at that point. You can’t move, it’s hard to protect yourself. He knows how I felt.”

It’ll probably make Singleton happy to know that Barkley said he doesn’t plan on trying that move again. It was a one-time thing.

Even though Singleton didn’t love the hurdle element of the play, he was able to appreciate Barkley’s creativity.

“His brain is wired that way, that his brain is assessing things before they really happen and looking for different ways to do something,” Singleton said. “It’s a tough thing for a guy to pull off something like that physically but there’s a mental piece of it to even have the wherewithal to do it too.”

There’s probably one guy on the planet who could have pulled off that play.

Saquon Barkley is that dude. 

He just needed a little reminder before the season.

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