PHILADELPHIA -- No team in the NFL possibly had a worse first week than the New York Giants. In addition to not scoring an offensive touchdown in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Daniel Jones was arguably one of the worst quarterbacks in Week 1.
To put the cherry on top, the player the Giants let walk out of the building -- Saquon Barkley -- was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week in his first game with the Philadelphia Eagles. Barkley scored three touchdowns in Week 1, or triple the amount of points the Giants scored.
While Barkley's performance combined with the Giants loss could have been described as sweet vengeance for the star running back, he has plenty of allies on his former team that he wants to see succeed. That includes Jones and head coach Brian Daboll.
"I know lot of people think there's like bad blood between me and New York," Barkley said. "But in reality, it's not that at all. It's a business and we understand, I understand. I think fans got caught up in that."
Barkley and Daboll even spoke prior to the start of the season, with Daboll contacting Barkley leading up to the Eagles season opener in Brazil.
"He called me and just wished me good luck. That's really what it was," Barkley said. "I said thank you and wished him good luck the rest of the season.
"I stayed in contact with a lot of guys over there. I mean, I was there for six years and have a lot of friends there. No bad feelings. I hope they are able to bounce back and get things rolling."
While the Giants had a rough week to start their 100th season, Jones has faced the most scrutiny. Jones finished with an anemic 52.4% completion rate in Week 1, averaging 4.4 yards per attempt with zero touchdowns and two interceptions and a 44.3 rating.
Since the start of last season, Jones has thrown more touchdown passes to the other team (3) than he has to his own team (2). Jones is 1-7 with two pass touchdowns in his last eight starts after he had two passing touchdowns in a 2022 Wild Card win at the Vikings (the Giants have been outscored 249-81 in those eight games).
Barkley did reach out to his former quarterback, helping him out in any way he can.
"I talked to him. I'm really good friends with DJ," Barkley said. "Obviously he didn't have the game that he wanted. I just let him know to go out and play free. Do what you do best."
Even though Barkley has turned the page on his Giants career, he has an exciting new chapter ahead with the Eagles. Barkley did have 132 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns in his first game with Philadelphia, scoring the most touchdowns for a player in his Eagles debut since Terrell Owens in 2004.
The Eagles know how that season turned out, along with the impact Owens had on that Super Bowl run.
"The beauty of it was going back and watching film. I left a lot out of there," Barkley said. "We got a lot of room to improve, which is not a bad thing. You don't wanna be filing on all cylinders in Week 1 anyway.
"We jot the job done and got the win and I look forward to continuing to develop and continue to mesh well on this offensive line and continue to build throughout the whole season."
