Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Saquon Barkley is set to miss time. The former No. 2 overall pick weirdly rolled his ankle during the team’s Week 5 matchup against the Cowboys when he stepped on a defender’s foot away from the ball. Barkley’s ankle quickly blew up like a balloon and he was carted to the locker room.
In his place, the team called on veteran Devontae Booker to handle Barkley’s workload. Booker responded with a pedestrian 58 total yards on 19 total touches but found the end zone twice. The number of touches makes Booker a high-quality streamer off the fantasy football Week 6 Waiver Wire until Saquon returns to action.
“I think overall, from the eyeball test, he did some solid things out there for us,” Joe Judge said about Booker after the game. “Obviously, finishing right there in the end zone at the end, he did some tough running right there. I saw him step up on some blitz pickups. Pick up the safety off the edge a couple of times, did a nice job right there. Obviously, I’ve got to watch the tape and see exactly what he did.”
Timelines given for Barkley that push into Nov assume his injury is a statistical anomaly. That’s possible but given what we know, it’s hard to be confident in that w/o inside sources (which I personally don’t have)
I’d be shocked if it’s > 2 weeks but I’ve been wrong before pic.twitter.com/Jb4FJuQxXA
— Edwin Porras, DPT (@FBInjuryDoc) October 12, 2021
After being drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 NFL Draft, Booker has mostly played a backup role in the league. However, he’s coming off his best season since his rookie year when he racked up 423 rushing yards on 93 carries and added 17 receptions for the Raiders.
Make no mistake about it. Booker is no Saquon. But, the volume should be there in an offense that is littered with injuries. The Giants could enter Week 6 without Kenny Golladay, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, Kadarius Toney, Daniel Jones, and Barkley on the offensive side of the ball, which could result in 20-plus touches for the veteran back.
Stay tuned for The Wolf’s Week 6 Rankings to see where Booker lands this week.
