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Court Briefs

<p>By the end of the list, Dave Gettleman had to stop, take a breath and give a laugh.</p><p>The topic for the New York Giants general manager was Saquon Barkley&#8217;s skillset. Armed with the No. 2 overall pick in next month&#8217;s NFL draft, Gettleman has watched plenty of film on the Penn State star and had no shortage of things to rattle off.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s unusual,&#8221; Gettleman told reporters in Orlando during the NFL owners meetings on Tuesday. &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you &#8212; he can string together moves and get in and out of stuff. It&#8217;s funny, I (reviewed) him on the way down and he&#8217;s unique. No doubt about it. He&#8217;s big, he&#8217;s powerful, he can step on the gas, he&#8217;s got different levels of speed. And he catches the heck out of the ball. And he sees the blitz pickup stuff.</p><p>&#8220;So, you know, he&#8217;s unique.&#8221;</p><p>Buzz has been building over the past few weeks that Barkley could be headed to the New York, playing his games across the Hudson River from the Bronx, where he was born and lived until age 5. The Giants posted video of Gettleman talking specifically about Barkley on the team&#8217;s website.</p><p>A New York Post report last week suggested that the Giants were leaning away from selecting a quarterback with the pick, which would put Barkley and North Carolina State edge rusher Bradley Chubb at the top of the list, especially after New York traded defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul.</p><p>NFL teams have been loathe to draft running backs so high &#8212; it&#8217;s been more than a decade since one went No. 2 (Reggie Bush, 2006) and more than two decades since Penn State&#8217;s Ki-Jana Carter was the last rusher to go No. 1 back in 1995.</p><p>But Gettleman may be more open-minded on the subject. As the general manager of the Carolina Panthers last spring, he selected versatile Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey with the No. 8 pick. McCaffrey quickly became an integral part of the Panthers offense, paired in the backfield with veteran Jonathan Stewart.</p><p>Gettleman has already brought Stewart aboard with the Giants in free agency and could use a talented young back to pair with him again. Gettleman said he hadn&#8217;t spoken extensively with Barkley yet outside of a brief session at the combine, but he was eager to hear for himself what others have been telling him.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll have him in (for a visit before the draft),&#8221; Gettleman said. &#8220;Shame on me if I don&#8217;t know him. And I think everybody said he&#8217;s a great, great human being. I&#8217;ll find out for myself.&#8221;</p><p>As for Barkley himself, he made the rounds at Fox Sports studios on Tuesday, appearing on &#8220;Undisputed&#8221; in the morning and &#8220;The Herd&#8221; in the afternoon.</p><p>Not surprisingly, the Giants were a common topic of conversation.</p><p>The biggest story around the team has been the status of star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., whose name has been popping up in trade rumors as he aims to be the highest-paid receiver in the league on his next contract.</p><p>Barkley said he has talked with Beckham and said he&#8217;d have no problem sharing a locker room with him.</p><p>&#8220;I can only say great things about how he handles himself and how he works out,&#8221; Barkley said. &#8220;The way I look at is, going to New York, going to a team like that, I don&#8217;t think we would step on each other&#8217;s toes at all. &#8230; God willing, if I&#8217;m able to have the success I had in college football, I have to demand attention (from defenses). But you can&#8217;t take too much attention away from Odell. So it&#8217;s kind of like, pick your poison.&#8221;</p><p>Barkley actually grew up a fan of the New York Jets, who will have the No. 3 pick after trading up. But they&#8217;re expected to take a quarterback, as are the Cleveland Browns at No. 1 overall.</p><p>Nittany Lions coach James Franklin spent time promoting Barkley for the top pick during a segment on NFL Network, calling him a &#8220;legend in this town and in this state.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;This guy&#8217;s special,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been doing this for 24 years. His combination of character, skill, size, speed, strength &#8212; he&#8217;s going to instantly make your locker room better. He&#8217;s going to make your quarterback better. He&#8217;s going to make your O-line better. He&#8217;s going to make your defense better. &#8230; He just does so many things.&#8221;</p><p>Asked if he had heard the Browns were interested in USC&#8217;s Sam Darnold for the first pick, Barkley shrugged.</p><p>&#8220;To be completely honest, I have no clue,&#8221; Barkley said. &#8220;I have no clue what&#8217;s going on. Obviously my (agency) has been talking to a lot of teams and got some visits set up here and there. But I have no clue. I wish that the draft could be here a little quicker.</p><p>&#8220;But the mindset I&#8217;m having right now is just to continue to work. You dream to go to the draft, but that&#8217;s not your (main) dream. You dream to be elite in the NFL. And I want to be one of the best.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State running back Saquon Barkley (center) was honored by his hometown of Coplay on &#8216;Saquon Barkley Day&#8217; on Saturday. Though he grew up in the Lehigh Valley, Barkley was born in the Bronx, and the New York Giants are reportedly interested in him with the No. 2 pick. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/web1_AP18083787182272-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State running back Saquon Barkley (center) was honored by his hometown of Coplay on &#8216;Saquon Barkley Day&#8217; on Saturday. Though he grew up in the Lehigh Valley, Barkley was born in the Bronx, and the New York Giants are reportedly interested in him with the No. 2 pick. </caption0><photoCredit0>Joe Hermitt | AP photo, PennLive.com </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Derek Levarse at 570-991-6396 or on Twitter @TLdlevarse</p></shirttailMeta></div>

New York Giants general manager Gettleman calls Saquon Barkley a ‘unique’ talent