JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jarrian Jones remembers a steady stream of messages and questions about Saquon Barkley’s extraordinary backward hurdle.
“Everybody DM’d me like I’m supposed to be mad or something,” Jones recalled Wednesday. “I don’t give a damn. He made a good play. It is what it is.”
Jones has been trying to move on for two years. It’s impossible this week, with the Jaguars hosting Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles (2-2) at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday. It’s the first meeting between the teams since Barkley leaped Jones during a 14-yard reception that ranks among the most acrobatic — more like insane — plays in NFL history.
It’s unclear if Barkley will even make the overseas trip, let alone play, while dealing with a right hamstring injury that knocked him out of last week’s game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Jones will be in the starting lineup for the Jaguars (3-1), although he downplayed wanting another shot at the three-time Pro Bowl running back.
“Any team we play, I would hope that they’re at their full capacity so when we win they don’t have an excuse of, ‘Oh, this person didn’t play or nothing like that,’” Jones said. “I hope nothing too crazy is wrong with him. He’s a great player.”
Barkley was at his best against the Jaguars in Week 9 of the 2024 season. He finished with 199 yards from scrimmage, including 159 yards rushing, and had the play of the day — maybe even the season.
Barkley delivered a nasty spin move that left him slightly sideways, forcing him to jump and then leapfrog backward. His rear end sailed over Jones’ lowered head, leaving mouths agape on both sidelines and around the NFL.
“It happens to the best of us,” Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen said. “I’ve made somebody’s highlight tape before. But somebody’s also made my highlight tape. That’s just the way the game goes.
“Regardless, I’ve never seen that before and that was kind of crazy. I could not appreciate it during the game. During the game, I was like, ‘Don’t even think about it.’ After the game, I was like, ‘Damn, this dude really just jumped over another dude.’ He’s a heck of a player.”
The leap became an instant hit in Philadelphia, which went on to win the Super Bowl in Barkley’s first season with the team.
The image could be found on T-shirts, hats, billboards, beer bottles, Christmas ornaments and even adorned the cover of several books written about the championship season. Barkley also later recreated the leap for the cover of Madden NFL 2026 – without Jones.
“That was kind of hard, for real,” Jones said. “That (stuff) was hard. I seen it, and I was like, ‘Damn, they didn’t even put my number on there.’ The play was fine to me. I don’t really have no problem with him.”
Jones rarely hears about the leap anymore. He leads the Jaguars with five pass breakups and has become one of the team’s top cornerbacks in his third NFL season.
“The more plays I make, I don’t hear about it,” he said. “It was my rookie year. I was still wet behind the ears. I didn’t really know nothing. I’ve made so many plays since then that I don’t even think about that one no more.
“He might go down as top-five-best running back of all time. I’m not really mad about that. It’s like if Julio Jones caught a pass on me. It’s Julio Jones, you know what I’m saying?”
Barkley has 182 yards rushing and no touchdowns this season, but the Jaguars know what he’s capable of — on the ground and in the air — when healthy.
“It was obviously freaky, and you don’t necessarily plan for that as a defender in that moment,” Jaguars coach Liam Coen said. “But that’s the kind of player he is. That’s the type of stuff that he’s been able to do. You can’t coach it. You’re definitely not practicing it. It’s instincts.”
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