How does Saquon Barkley physically stack up with this century’s top NFL running backs?

Ask his trainer, a former NFL scout or countless media outlets — Saquon Barkley is a generational talent.

Based on pre-draft measurables, he’s faster than LaDainian Tomlinson, more agile than Adrian Peterson and stronger than David Johnson. But we wanted to go more in-depth than that — we wanted to know how Barkley stacks up physically with all of this century’s top running backs.

Specifically, we compared Barkley to every running back since 2000 who led the league in yards from scrimmage. We wanted to see how their NFL Combine results compared to Barkley’s.

Here’s what we found:

Speed (Barkley: 4.40 seconds in 40-yard dash)

Barkley is faster than: 10 of 14 NFL leaders

Notable players Barkley is faster than: Ray Rice (4.42), LaDainian Tomlinson (4.46), LeSean McCoy (4.50)

Notable players faster than Barkley: Chris Johnson (4.24), DeMarco Murray (4.37), Edgerrin James (4.38)

Overview: Adrian Peterson turned in an identical 4.40, and he was 16 pounds lighter than Barkley at the time of his 40-yard dash. In fact, the three players faster than Barkley weighed an average of 24 pounds less than the former Nittany Lion. James was closest at 220 pounds.

Upper body (Barkley: 29 bench-press reps)

Barkley’s upper body is stronger than: 9 of 9 NFL leaders (5 did not take part in the bench press)

Notable players Barkley is stronger than: Brian Westbrook (26), David Johnson (25), Arian Foster (23)

Notable players stronger than Barkley: None

Overview: Since 2000, 539 other running backs have taken part in the NFL Combine. Only five have posted better numbers here than Barkley, with the Minnesota Vikings’ Jerick McKinnon setting the standard in 2014 with 32 reps. Barkley’s upper-body strength puts him at the top of the NFL’s overall best and, among all NFL running backs, puts him in the 98th percentile.

Lower body (Barkley: 41-inch vertical)

Barkley’s lower-body explosiveness is better than: 8 of 9 NFL leaders (5 did not take part in the vertical jump)

Notable players Barkley is more explosive than: LaDainian Tomlinson (40.5), Adrian Peterson (38.5), Tiki Barber (35.5)

Notable players more explosive than Barkley: David Johnson (41.5)

Overview: Barkley once again gets high marks in this category. Since 2000, among the 539 other running backs in the NFL Combine, only 10 have fared better than Barkley here. He’s in the 97.5 percentile. The Indianapolis Colts’ Christine Michael set the top mark in 2013 with 43 inches.

Body control (Barkley: 4.24 seconds in 20-yard shuttle)

Barkley has more body control/change of direction than: 2 of 8 NFL leaders (6 did not take part in the 20-yard shuttle)

Notable players Barkley’s body control is better than: David Johnson (4.27), Adrian Peterson (4.40)

Notable players with more body control than Barkley: Priest Holmes (4.14), DeMarco Murray (4.18), Ray Rice (4.20)

Overview: This is the one category where Barkley didn’t explode, but one mediocre time is hardly a red flag. After all, Adrian Peterson’s slow time (4.40) certainly didn’t seem to hurt the future Hall of Famer. Still, Barkley’s time puts him in the 56th percentile among players in the NFL Combine who took part in the drill — which was about half. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Le’Veon Bell posted an identical 4.24 in 2013.

Size (Barkley: 6-foot, 233 pounds)

Barkley is bigger than: 13 of 14 NFL leaders

Notable players Barkley is bigger than: Arian Foster (6-1, 226), Todd Gurley (6-1, 222), Edgerrin James (6-0, 220)

Notable players bigger than Barkley: Steven Jackson (6-1, 241)

Overview: There’s actually a bigger difference in size, at the NFL Combines, between Adrian Peterson (217 pounds) and Barkley (233 pounds) than Barkley and Jerome Bettis (248 pounds). Barkley is a lot bigger than most truly grasp; of the 539 other players who took part in the Combine since 2000, only 37 weighed more than Barkley.

This story was originally published April 15, 2018 at 12:34 PM with the headline "How does Saquon Barkley physically stack up with this century’s top NFL running backs?."