To say Saquon Barkley didn’t care for Nick Sirianni while he was still with the Giants would be an understatement.

“I couldn’t stand that motherbleeper,” he says now with a laugh. “I could not.”

It was after the Eagles’ 38-7 playoff win over the Giants in 2022 at the Linc that Barkley saw a video clip showing Sirianni hamming it up postgame clip in a way that could be perceived as somewhat obnoxious and annoying. 

Or extremely obnoxious and annoying.

It was pure Nick.

“He just went into the camera and he was like, ‘Yeah, it’s the playoffs,’” Barkley recalled.

“It was against us, right? And that kind of stuck with me for a very long time. And so I wasn’t a fan of him.”

About 14 months later, Barkley became an Eagle and Sirianni became his coach, and needless to say his opinion has changed just a bit.

Barkley spoke at length at his locker Wednesday about Sirianni, and it was an unprompted and impassioned soliloquy about his coach for the last two years. Called him the best coach in the league.

“He doesn’t get a lot of respect,” Barkley said. “I don’t know why he doesn’t kind of get the respect he should get, in my opinion. You really don’t hear about him. How long has he been coaching here? Five years? Who’s been a better coach the last five years than Nick Sirianni?” …

“Like, he’s so obsessed with the little things, and there’s a reason why this team has been super successful. So it’s been pretty cool to be able to go from going against him and not being a fan of him, and then seeing what he’s all about.

“He’s the perfect coach for Philadelphia. Like, what he’s standing for and how he operates. 

“I think, literally, when you think of someone in Philly and a Philly fan, if I had to picture a coach, it would be Coach Sirianni.”

What makes Barkley say Sirianni is the best coach in the NFL?

“Why not? What do you go off of? When people compare who’s the best and who’s not, for coaches, it’s about winning,” Barkley said.

“I mean, he would say himself, what makes a great coach is having great players. And obviously, the Philadelphia Eagles have been a great team since I’ve been here, going against them and now playing with them. 

“But there’s something to his standard that he sets, there’s something to the way he comes to work. Just how detailed and how obsessed he is with all the little things. There’s a reason why we do a really good job protecting the ball. There’s a reason why we do a really good job of tackling. That all stems from him.

“It starts with him. And then he trickles it down to the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, and then all the assistant coaches. And we … all take that message and make it work. 

“But he’s been doing a great job for the last five years. And it’s weird that you wouldn’t hear his name brought up. He probably doesn’t care about that anyway.”

This is when it’s brought up that Sirianni – who has the 5th-best record of any coach in history, has never missed the playoffs, has reached two Super Bowls and won one – has never finished higher than fifth in Coach of the Year voting.

“That’s insane,” Barkley said. “Yeah, I think that kind of just goes to my point. But I do know a lot of us on this team are very like-minded. We really, truly don’t care about the accolades. There’s only really one thing that matters. 

“And it’s pretty fun getting drunk on Broad Street. I think a lot of us want to do that again.”