Eagles locker room: Saquon Barkley and LeSean McCoy’s mutual respect; Johnny Wilson’s ‘big on team’ message

As the star running back at Whitehall High School, Saquon Barkley grew up learning the lore of LeSean McCoy.

Over 80 miles southwest in Harrisburg and nearly 10 years earlier, McCoy turned heads at Bishop McDevitt as he set the single-game school record in rushing yards (406) as a sophomore and the single-season school record in rushing yards (2,828) as a junior. Given both players’ roots in the state, from high school to college to the NFL, Barkley has a special perspective on the significance of McCoy’s impending induction into the Eagles Hall of Fame on Sunday.

“It’s kind of cool for him to be inducted into the Eagles Hall of Fame,” Barkley said Thursday. “Be a PA boy, Bishop, Pitt — we’ll let that one slide that he went to Pitt — and then play for Philly and have such a dominant performance and career here to be in the Hall of Fame. It’s like a dream of a lot of kids. For him to have that come true and to be able to witness that this Sunday is pretty awesome.”

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Long before he entered the NFL, Barkley witnessed the highlights of McCoy’s career with the Eagles from 2009 to 2014. The performance that epitomizes McCoy’s skill set, according Barkley, was the “snow game” victory over the Detroit Lions in 2013. As a winter storm turned Lincoln Financial Field into a snow globe and the gridiron into a Slip ‘N Slide, McCoy rushed for a single-game franchise-best 217 yards, including 57- and 40-yard touchdowns.

In Barkley’s mind, that game encapsulated everything McCoy was about on the field, including his ability to make defenders miss in the open field.

“There’s just nobody … him and Barry [Sanders], probably,” Barkley said. “I don’t know anyone who else cut like that. Stop on a dime.”

The fraternity of current and former NFL running backs is tight-knit, but Barkley said he and McCoy grew even closer when the 27-year-old running back signed with the Eagles in the offseason after six seasons with the New York Giants. In the summer, Barkley and McCoy hosted a Pitt-Penn State rivalry charity golf outing at Galloway National Golf Club, just outside of Atlantic City.

As Barkley reflected on the experience, he threw some shade at the man affectionately known as “Shady,” calling him awful at golf. But Barkley is self-aware, admitting that he’s awful, too. Even though they might not be golf pros, Barkley said he enjoys spending time with McCoy and talking football.

The respect is mutual — McCoy enjoyed seeing Barkley sign in the city that he called home for the first six years of his NFL career.

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“He was super excited for me,” Barkley said. “Felt like this could be a good spot for me, especially the part I’m at in my career. I think he’s been right so far.”

Eagles coach Nick Sirianni often incorporates motivational messages into his team meetings. Last week, he couldn’t take credit for his latest mantra that made the rounds on social media via a team-released video.

“I can’t be great without the greatness of others, period,” Sirianni said in the Saturday team meeting the night before the Bengals game. “Offense can’t be great unless the defense is great. Defense can’t be great unless the offense is great. I can’t be great without the greatness of others. It always comes down to that, right? Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us.”

Johnny Wilson served as Sirianni’s muse for that last line. The sixth-round rookie receiver has long-sleeve and short-sleeve shirts with the mantra emblazoned in small script above the chest. The shirts were released by Nike in collaboration with rapper and singer Drake as part of a collection of basketball apparel called “NOCTA.”

Wilson found the clothing line through an advertisement on Instagram. While he wasn’t entirely sure what Drake had to do with the motivational message, it resonated with him nonetheless.

“‘Sometimes you, sometimes me, always us,’” Wilson said. “I’ve just always been big on team. At the end of the day, you can have a great game. If we lose, all of us lose.”

The 6-foot-6, 228-pound receiver has worn the shirts around the facility for the last few weeks. Wilson thought Sirianni first took notice of the message when he wore it for warmups one day before practice without his shoulder pads on top. However, after practice, Sirianni informed him that he had already noticed it.

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“He always has some good sayings, but he’s never heard this one,” Wilson said. “So I reminded him about it. But I guess he already saw it.”

The slogan fit Sirianni’s messaging for the meeting about the importance of team as a collective, which has been a theme that both the head coach and Jalen Hurts have harped on since training camp.

“In football, it’s always going to come down to who’s the toughest,” Sirianni said Wednesday. “It’s always going to come down to who is most detailed. And it’s always going to come down to who has the best team. And I don’t mean players, I mean team, right? That’s just never going to change in football.”

Wilson doesn’t have any other shirts with inspirational messages in his wardrobe that Sirianni could use as inspiration for future team meetings, but that could change in the future.

“I’m gonna build on it later,” he said.

The Eagles play the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 9. Join Eagles beat reporters Olivia Reiner and EJ Smith as they dissect the hottest storylines surrounding the team on Gameday Central, live from Lincoln Financial Field.