Penn State running back Saquon Barley has sparked interest from many NFL scouts. He has been known to showcases his skills on the field but has a secret passion — the weight room.
“The 4.33 40-yard dash Barkley ran during spring testing would have made him the fastest running back at the 2017 NFL combine. His 32 bench-press reps of 225 pounds would have ranked fourth . . . among defensive linemen—and tied a combine record for rushers,” according to Pete Thamel, a football and basketball reporter for Yahoo sports in a recent article in Sports Illustrated.
Barkley was recently a candidate for the Heisman trophy, which is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Barkley has been called “one of the best football prospects in a ‘decade’ by some scouts, and he proved exactly why against the Iowa Hawkeyes in PSU’s fourth game of the season,” according to Matthew Jussim of Men’s Fitness.
Jussim also said, “In June 2017, Barkley set a Penn State weight room record with a 405-lb power clean, and he regularly turns heads with his massive, eye-popping lifts in the weight room.”
Penn State is a highly prestigious college football program and he has the weight lifting record, as a running back, not as a 280+ pound lineman.
Barkley is incredible on the field because of how incredible he is in the gym.
Barkley’s ability to apply his efforts in the weight room to his outstanding talents on the field. Barkley runs the ball tremendously and is always a threat to take it to the house with his speed and incredible jukes. His great catching skills makes him a killer third-down back as well as being a great blocker because of his 230 pound frame.
Barkley does it all and that is what makes him such an intriguing player who is ranked the highest, if not one of the highest, in pretty much every updated 2018 NFL draft big board.
