Saquon's career to date has been almost as bad as realistically possible given his insane talent level. Almost everything went wrong in NY. Injuries and a pitiful supporting cast being the two biggest issues. I'm curious to see him on a new team. This has Lynch in Seattle vibes. Lynch was just a guy in Buffalo and looked like he was trending out of the league. Context matters a lot. If Barkley stays healthy, he could dominate.
Going back further I think of Marshall Faulk. He was such a great talent coming out of the draft and was on such a mediocre Indy team for the first 4-5 years of his life. Gets traded to the Rams and becomes one of the best RBs to ever play the game, winning a super bowl and a league MVP. I we get some % of that, jeesh, look out.
I am a huge Barkley fan and have him in just about every league I'm in so want this to be true. However there are some pretty big differences. Mainly that Faulk/Lynch were both 24/25 years old and largely uninjured whereas Barkley is 27 and has had several relatively major injuries throughout his career.
I firmly believe 22 year old Saquon in a great situation could have been in the discussion for one of the greatest of all-time. But he's a back whose greatest strength is his suddenness/explosiveness and at 27 with an ACL and several other lower body injuries behind him is certainly not the back he once was. I'm still expecting very good things, but definitely some major differences from those guys.
