EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — You have probably heard the Giants have a new running back. You may already be one of his 975,000 followers on Instagram. Perhaps you know he can squat 650 pounds and hurdle 6-foot defenders. Maybe you saw him — a lot of him — in ESPN the Magazine’s Body Issue.
His name, Saquon Barkley, has become more than a preseason buzzword. It is bordering on an infatuation.
And so the N.F.L.’s annual hype-a-thon — also known as training camp — has been kicked into overdrive at Quest Diagnostics Training Center, where the Giants are struggling to temper expectations for a rookie out of Penn State who is already reaching mythic status from a fan base eager to forget last year’s 3-13 season.