Saquon Barkley says C.J. Gardner-Johnson is easily the best trash talker on the Eagles

The only thing weirder than seeing Derrick Henry in that black and purple yesterday is former Giants running back Saquon Barkley rocking an Eagles jersey. In an Instagram post pinned to his profile, Barkley shared the caption quote, I'm trying to be what I'm destined to be. And he's hoping that destiny includes another Super Bowl for the Eagles at the end of this season. Now, if you've been watching the Giants on Hard Knocks, you'll see how that deal all went down. The Giants let him explore free agency. Even though these were his numbers, Barkley still racked up over 1200 scrimmage yards, nearly 1000 rushing to go along with ten total touchdowns. And here he is speaking with our Jonathan Jones on the change. Jonathan Jones, CBS sports alongside Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, Saquon yesterday I was with Derrick Henry and I was like, you kind of still have that fresh car smell on you. Now that you're with the Baltimore Ravens. We've known you with one team for so long. Does it still feel new to you? Is it is it a little weird hearing Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, not as much as when I first signed. I think I kind of got over that phase a little bit. And OTAs and minicamp, but it's just been so much excitement coming here. It's been so much love and support from the fans, from everyone in this organization, and I'm just excited to be here and getting to work with my teammates. If I tell you this is going to be an interview where we don't talk about your previous team, will that be okay with you? I would really, really love that. I appreciate that, okay. Well then let's talk about this team because you get out to that public practice in the Linc. Were you anticipating expecting the sort of love and support that you got out there, no. You never you never can expect that, you know, obviously I know what it's like being on the opposite side and coming for games, but to come to a practice, open practice and have 50,000 fans and then run out the tunnel and hear the love and support, like I said, I said yesterday in the local media, it kind of gives you like, a college feel, and just gives me something to be super excited about and looking forward to when we get out there in the regular season. And you don't want to lose in that place. You want to defend that place like it's home. That's kind of a mindset you had in college or for myself, when I was at Penn State, you didn't want no one to come to Beaver and beat you. You want to go out there and give those fans 110%. But, you know, those fans didn't really love you last year and the year before and the year before. Right Yeah. I mean, listen, it's Philly. It's true. You got to embrace it, they're going to be real with you, when I was on the other side, I got a lot of crap. Now I'm here, they're going to let you know when you're doing well, and they're gonna let you know when you're doing bad. But you got to embrace that. You got to buy into the culture. You got buying to the to the mindset of the city. And I think if we're able to have that mindset that, you know, just be real with each other and go out there and fight and compete at a high level, we're going to be able to go out in that stadium and take care of a lot of games. You've been a guy who, throughout your career, you've had some kind of shoulder, a lot of the workload. Now that you've come out here and there's just so many All-pros and Pro Bowlers, do you feel any differently or are you still going out and going about your business in the exact same way? Still going out about my business the same way, thankful for the teammates that I have. Thankful for the teammates I had in the past two. I never had that mindset, really, that's kind of how I'm built, you know, I train to try to be the best I trained to go out there and when asked and needed to make plays, be ready. And that same, same mindset here, I do know we have a lot of talent over here. All pros, Pro bowlers, pretty much every position, and that's fun. But at the end of the day, it's all about building that chemistry. How about building that brotherhood so we can go out there and compete with each other. And we have that mindset. I feel like we're gonna win a lot more games than that. Seems like you and Jalen Hurts have hit it off. Like, you guys have known each other for a long time. Did it click almost immediately? And what is that relationship like, yeah, I think I think it clicked because we have similar mindsets, and what's that? We want to win. We want to win. We want to be great. So those conversations come easy, and he also got a little, a little funny side to him that you won't see so much in the media, he's someone you can laugh with. You can make jokes with and someone that you can work with and compete with each other. And I think it started right in OTAs when I got here. And in the weight room, we're squatting against each other. We're out here talking crap, racing against each other, and I think that's important when you have two year leaders, especially a quarterback that's competing at a high level, everyone else is watching us, you know, you have no, no, no choice but to follow along. You talk about talking crap out here. Who's the best trash talker on the Eagles? I think that's the easy one, Chauncey Gardiner, I don't think that's that's I don't think it's not even close. I think it's even close. So they even practice. Like, I just went up to him and started choking him. Like, do you ever just anybody ever just want to do this to you? But it's good though I love it. He's passionate. He hasn't gotten under your skin yet. No, I mean, I played against him, so I know what he brings, but I love it. Like I was saying here, you need that. You need that energy. You need that passion, you can tell he really loves the game, and it fires up. It fires them up. And when you have, like I said, we have talent on both sides of the football. You have us going in practice and really going at each other is going to make the games a lot easier. And then I've heard some very good things come out of camp on Dallas Goddard. Yeah, I think that when we talk about top tight ends and I say we the media, maybe sometimes he's not on those lists or those names or whatever, but from what I'm hearing out of camp, we should be putting him on that list. What have you seen, yeah, I think I'm taking a different direction for me. Kind of being biased. His will to block. I know what he's able to do with catching the ball, but his will to block, you know, he's not scared to stick his face in there. He's really. He understands the scheme. He understands the blocking scheme, the run game. Have a conversation with him. He comes up to me, he's like, how you want me to place my hands and my head like, what do you want? You want me try to wash him down? You want me to try to open it up inside? Like we're able to have those conversations. So I always knew how talented he was. And you see that here and how he's performing in camp. But for me, I guess I'm kind of biased and being a running back. But his will to block its will, his will to stick his face in there and compete for us. And the last question I have for you coming out here, the vibe at camp, I'm seeing the fans, the fans have been great. We talked about the link earlier. I was expecting to see a lot of Jalen Hurts jerseys, expecting to see a lot of Devonte Smith jerseys. I came in like, man, I don't know if they've really printed up the 26. I don't know that people are going to be out in the Saquon Barkley. I was stunned how many 26 Philadelphia Eagles jerseys are out here? What does that mean to you, it means a lot. I think I kind of get a little cheat cheat code there because a lot of Penn State fans, probably have those jerseys. So I'm definitely I know Jalen and AJ and all those guys, probably a little more popular than me. But like I said, a lot of those Penn State fans that couldn't cheer for me when I was in New York are able to get my jersey. So it's a blessing to any time you can see whether it's a grown up, especially little kids, have my jersey and come up to me, and that's why I try to take my time, because, you know, there's not going to be forever. There's going to be a day. No one wants your jersey and no one wants your autograph. So take advantage of it. Now that's perspective right there. Saquon Barkley I appreciate the time for sure. Thank you. Thank you Jonathan Jones CBS sports alongside Philadelphia Eagles running back. That was our Jonathan Jones with Saquon Barkley one of the newest faces on this very different Eagles roster. Even from a coaching standpoint. Of course the Philadelphia Eagles went out and changed both their coordinators. So there will be a difference in staffing there. They brought back C.J. Gardner-johnson to be a menace in the secondary and in the trash talking, as well as taking a handful of players from MetLife in addition to Saquon Barkley, they also got a couple of jets in Bryce Huff and Mekhi Becton. Some questions on the O-line, but no question that Barkley huge addition to the