Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni trolls New York Giants fans over Barkley

Given their proximity to each other, the rivalry between the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles is well established and that was long before the latter managed to acquire the former’s star player. Needless to say, things are even more tense now but the Eagles coach appears to be embracing that with a smile.

Nick Sirianni’s high level trolling of Giants fans

Earlier this offseason, running back Saquon Barkley made what can only be described as a blockbuster move from the New York Giants to the Philadelphia Eagles. Given the numbers that Barkley has racked up in recent seasons, it was a move that was met with celebration in Philly while it was lamentation in the Big Apple and that’s something that Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni is very pleased about. Asked recently about the addition of the superstar RB to the roster Sirianni not only discussed the luxury but interestingly enough also touched on the Giants fanbase as well, one with whom he’s had a few run-ins.

“Sometimes you see Giants fans around here - being so close. And they give me a good, ‘Hey, go Giants,” Sirianni said. “I typically let it go, but if the [fan] gets me good enough I usually say, ‘You know, we got your best player.’” As you can probably guess, Sirianni’s jab was made with a smile on his face as he alluded to the idea that it gives him great pleasure knowing the franchises, being NFC East rivals, will face each other twice a year, a fixture that will now see Barkley on the other side of the line of scrimmage.

Is Saquon Barkley worth the hype?

Quite frankly, yes. To be clear, the 27-year-old now ranks fourth on the Giants’ list of running backs with 5,211 yards, while ranking seventh in yards from scrimmage with 7,311. Along with Tiki Barber, they represent the only two players in franchise history with 5,000+ rushing yards and 2,000+ receiving yards, though it must be said that Barkley was the quickest player in Giants history to rush for 5,000 yards (70 games). His 35 100-yard scrimmage games while playing for the Giants is second only to Barber. Incidentally, it was Barber who in a Giants uniform trailed only Barber (81). Incidentally, Barber was one of the chief critics of Barkley’s move to the Eagles, something the young running back took issue with, eventually hitting back at the now-retired star.

Nonetheless, it would appear that Barkley has handled the blowback about him joining the Eagles with a degree of calm and even humor as was evidenced back in March when he shared a funny story involving his 5-year-old daughter at his introductory press conference.”She knows there’s a lot of history in my career with the Eagles,” Barkley said. “When I told her that we’re going to be going to Philly, she kind of was just like, ‘Does that mean we’re going to win now?’ And I just started smiling again and I was like, ‘Hopefully. Hopefully, we can win some more games.’”

That brings us back to Sirianni who made it quite clear that he is happy to have Barkley on the roster and moreover that he would no longer have to face him twice a year. “Saquon. It’s really nice to see him in green,” Sirianni said. “It’s really nice to see him [here]. We missed a tackle on him the other day on the sidelines. Now, we’re not tackling [in OTAs], but you can tell without pads on you can tell if that guy made the tackle or not. I had visions back of him, like, Saquon making somebody miss and doing it again - it brought me back to that. I wasn’t happy that our defensive player missed the tackle on this particular play, but I’m really happy that Saquon, that No. 26 is on our side making the guy miss.”