Although the news is not yet official, it’s widely known that the New York Giants will hire Burton Burns as their next running backs coach, which drew the immediate approval of New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram Jr., the son of former Giants wide receiver Mark Ingram.
Burns had coached Ingram during his time at Alabama, and the running back has long credited his coach for helping develop him into the player he is today.
Burns will now assume the role of coaching Saquon Barkley, one of the league’s most electrifying backs, and Ingram believes the already talented Barkley will now get to the next level.
“Saquon is elite, and I think he’s going to be trying to add value to Saquon,” Ingram told the New York Post. “Obviously Saquon is special, and I think Coach Burns will give him tools that will help him be even more special.
“He’s just getting a coach who loves his players, who was very knowledgeable about the game of football, who understands the running back position, understands running backs’ eyes and knows how to teach running backs how to be an elite running back. He’s a great coach, great father figure and an asset to any organization because of the person he is.”
Barkley has already gotten a glimpse of that, admitting he’s exchanged a few texts with Burns before running into him at lunch one day, where their bond began to form.
“I texted him, but then I was walking into lunch and he was sitting there,” Barkley told The Post. “We sat down to have an introduction for two minutes and we ended up sitting there for an hour talking about ball. He knows it. He’s been through it all with a lot of special running backs, and he sees a lot of similarities in me. The thing is he wasn’t harping on the good things I can do. He was harping on what I can improve on, which is right up my alley. Definitely exciting to have him as part of our team.”
Barkley finish the 2019 season with just over 1,000 yards, having missed multiple games due to a high ankle sprain. But despite the quality numbers, it was still considered a down year for No. 26.
