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EAST RUTHERFORD — Saquon Barkley and Sterling Shepard haven’t done a whole lot of winning with the Giants, but no one can question their toughness or willingness to lay their bodies on the line for this franchise.
Injury rehab after injury rehab, the running back and wide receiver have kept suiting up and making plays for Big Blue — and they did so for potentially the final time in the Giants’ 27-10 win Sunday at MetLife Stadium against the Eagles.
Barkley, who turns 27 in February, has repeatedly expressed his desire to be a Giant for life but does not want to be franchise-tagged again. Yet it’s hard to see the Giants’ front office being more willing to offer a lucrative multi-year deal than they were last offseason given the extra 247 carries of mileage on Barkley’s body plus another ankle injury that cost him three games.
“I have no idea,” Barkley said when asked if he thinks this was his final game as a Giant. “I can’t control that, if it is my last game playing here. But if it is, it was a fun six years. I made a lot of great memories, but it’s not like the same time I’m ever playing football. … If I knew that it would be my last game, I probably would feel a little different. But like I said, I have no idea.”
Barkley has played in 74 of a possible 99 games, although one of those missed games was for rest in last year’s regular season finale. He tore his ACL in 2020 and has had essentially two fully healthy seasons out of six, with three 1,000-yard rushing seasons and 44 total touchdowns including the postseason.
But in an age of holdouts and with how brutal playing running back can be, you have to give credit to the former No. 2 overall pick for being a team player when the Giants exercised his fifth-year option, and when they tagged him this season and he agreed to sign it with trivial incentives that he had only a small chance of reaching.
And there he was fighting until the last snap Sunday in a meaningless game for the 6-11 Giants but against the playoff-bound 11-6 Eagles, scoring a pair of first-half touchdowns on a jet sweep and a pitch to the outside.
“It’s just the nature of the NFL that this is the last time you’re going to be in the locker room,” Barkley said. “No matter what, this locker room is going to be completely different. It’s just how it works. Through my six years, every year has been a whole new team. Obviously you keep a lot of the key players and core players, but you’re going to have new players every year. So to go out on a win with these guys is meaningful. It means a lot, and I just made sure that I went around and told every single player that I’m thankful for them and it was an honor to play alongside all these guys.”
Shepard, meanwhile, is almost certainly done with the Giants and possibly as an NFL player since the 30-year-old rarely saw the field in his eighth season with the team.
He wasn’t in the starting lineup for Sunday’s game, yet the Giants still had Shepard announced with the other starters to a nice ovation as he ran out of the tunnel one last time. He was also an honorary game captain along with Xavier McKinney and Andrew Thomas for the pregame coin toss.
“I knew that this was probably gonna be my last time being in this jersey,” said Shepard, who will contemplate his NFL future with his family. “I just wanted to take it all in with my brothers and enjoy every moment of it.”
It became an even more special day for Shepard because he had three receptions to surpass Jeremy Shockey in the fourth quarter for fifth in team history with 372. As it stands now, he also ranks 16th in receiving yards and 18th in receiving touchdowns.
“It meant a lot,” Shepard said. “I grew up watching that guy, and it was a special deal being able to get it. It wasn’t easy, but my career hasn’t been easy. So I didn’t expect it to be any other way. But yeah, it was a great feeling.”
Shepard fought through injuries to play in 90 games of a possible 131 games since entering the league in 2016, especially in recent years as he tore his Achilles late in the 2021 season and then his ACL early in the 2022 season.
The former third-round pick from Oklahoma said he wants to be remembered for what he brought to the team.
“Whether I was hurt or out there on the field, I always gave it my all,” Shepard said. “I always rooted my teammates on. I tried to be a selfless guy. I tried to give everybody energy — whatever it is, just trying to be a team guy. That’s the legacy I want to leave.”
Barkley and Shepard only won one playoff game together last year in Minnesota, but obviously the team has had widespread problems contributing to six losing seasons since 2017.
Nonetheless, those two should be celebrated for sacrificing it all and never quitting on the franchise.
They will also be bonded for life because they became first-time fathers around the same and their children are “the best of friends.” But as players, they shared one final embrace together at the end of Sunday’s game.
“That’s my brother,” Shepard said. “Blood couldn’t make us any closer, and he just told me he loved me. And same thing back — that’s my boy. We’re always gonna be locked in for life.”
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