Eagles' investment in Saquon Barkley bringing immeasurable returns

PHILADELPHIA — Now is not the time, Saquon Barkley says. Reflection comes at the end of this season, no matter the meaningfulness of its milestones. He’s resisting the sound of them toppling like towers. He won’t peek at the panorama of his production. He’s only relishing in the power of his engine, the ever-passing historical markers and the privilege required to push this far.

It’s New Year’s Day. Barkley, the embodiment of his team’s last resolution, knows his regular season is ending one game early. The Philadelphia Eagles are locked into the NFC’s No. 2 seed, and their coach, Nick Sirianni, spent the final days of 2024 deciding whether Barkley would sit out an inconsequential playoff prelude. It was far from a meaningless decision. Before meeting with Barkley, Sirianni consulted owner Jeffrey Lurie, general manager Howie Roseman, assistant coaches and players — an organization that largely owes its resurgence to the running back who’d be denied a shot at history.

But Barkley isn’t dejected. He’s content with the backstory of the 100 yards that separate him from Eric Dickerson on the NFL’s single-season rushing leaderboard. I’m down to go for the record, Barkley told Sirianni. But I don’t care about it if we’re putting the team at risk. So, Barkley sat along with 18 other starters in an eventual 20-13 win over the New York Giants. He rested up against the franchise that might’ve never supported such a season. The Eagles plucked Barkley from their NFC East rival, placed him behind one of the NFL’s best offensive lines and set him loose within a run-oriented system that averaged the team’s most rushing attempts per game since 1951.

Sirianni couldn’t accept any risk of not having Barkley available for a postseason run, which will begin Jan. 12 in the NFC wild-card round against the Green Bay Packers at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles have never fielded anyone like him. Barkley shattered LeSean McCoy’s single-season team rushing record in 13 games. Barkley’s team-record 2,283 scrimmage yards contain the supernatural scenes of him scoring thrice in the Sao Paulo season-opener, leaping over a defender backward and out-dueling Derrick Henry in Baltimore. They account for the six fourth-quarter plays of the three games Barkley exited early, his opponents already pummeled, telling Sirianni, “Let the young boys eat,” instead of chasing a career-high in Week 7 against the Giants. They include the team-record 255 rushing yards Barkley logged in Los Angeles five weeks later, which prompted tight end Dallas Goedert to prank his teammate by hanging his own random drug test notice on Barkley’s locker.

Traveling Eagles fans have chanted “M-V-P” in nearly every city during Barkley’s season of self-actualization. Fifty AP voters turned in their ballots this week, and although the odds favor Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, there’s still a significant sense of recognition for a running back in what’s recently been a quarterback-only award. That Barkley is distinguishable within this league-wide disparity is what makes his impact on the Eagles distinctly impressive. Roseman’s department devotes decisions to market speculation. They pounce on trends they identify beyond the ticker tape. They embodied the league’s devaluation of running backs — ranking in the bottom 10 in positional spending in each of the last four seasons, per Over the Cap — then, when Barkley hit free agency, they sensed an opportunity so strongly, that they paid him more annually ($12.6 million) than any Eagles running back in history.

Assistant general manager Alec Halaby, whose roots are in analytics, said in August that the Eagles can’t perfectly pinpoint an individual’s impact apart from his team. Football, unlike baseball, doesn’t have a “hitter-pitcher interaction that we can really isolate.” But Barkley, behind an inferior Giants line, averaged more yards after contact per rush in six seasons (3.0) than the Eagles’ backs averaged in the same span (2.95), per TruMedia. He totaled a team-leading 62 plays of 20-plus yards since 2018. Barkley was an outlier in the market, Halaby said, an extreme in the continuum, “a special player that we thought could have a unique impact on the offense and the team as a whole.”

And Sirianni needed a spark. He hired Kellen Moore, along with two other offensive staffers, to remove the staleness from a system that stagnated during his team’s 2023 collapse. Sirianni always insisted a schematic overhaul wasn’t warranted. The Eagles fielded a top-9 offense in terms of EPA per play in each of their offensive-minded coach’s first three seasons. Sirianni still believed in a run-oriented system that leveraged dual-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts behind an enviable O-line to keep defenses guessing against the run and unlock explosive one-on-one opportunities in the passing game. Once Barkley entered the equation, Sirianni said it was “really open season on everything” when he and Moore started building out their playbook.

“Anything you’ve done, anything you thought about doing, anything you look at and say, ‘Man, could Saquon do this?’ The answer is yes, mostly,” Sirianni said.

He quickly corrected himself:

“Not mostly. Always.”

They expanded their zone-read attack, often exploiting the weak-side edge. Hurts and Barkley confounded the Giants in Week 7 with nine zone-read runs in which Barkley rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown. “I told you guys… how complementary of a piece I felt like Saquon was to us,” Hurts said then. The duo later pulled away from the Panthers in Week 14 while totaling 93 of their 209 rushing yards on zone reads.

Barkley’s proficiency as a pass-catcher (28.4 yards per game, eighth among RBs since 2018) also gave Hurts a much-needed option against the blitz. Hurts experienced an exponential improvement in EPA per dropback against five-plus rushers from 2023 (-0.06) to 2024 (0.28), per TruMedia, twice hitting Barkley for touchdowns on wheel routes, including an 18-yarder against the blitzing Green Bay Packers in Philadelphia’s first score of the season.

Barkley welcomed the weight of his role with the Eagles. He shouldered the blame for their 22-21 loss against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, when he dropped a third-and-3 pass at Atlanta’s 10 that would’ve ended the game with 1:46 remaining. The Eagles defense deserved more derision for subsequently allowing the Falcons to drive 70 yards in just six plays with no timeouts and score a game-winning touchdown. But Barkley wouldn’t absolve himself. “I let my team down today,” he told reporters. “I shouldn’t have put the defense in that position. If I make the catch, the game is over.”

After the Eagles’ alarming 2-2 start, Sirianni and Moore leaned even harder into Barkley. Sirianni, who’d only fielded 30 total plays out of the I-formation in his first three seasons, welcomed Moore’s frequent usage of Ben VanSumeren in fullback packages to combat eight-man boxes. Barkley rushed for 88 yards on nine carries in fullback-oriented runs in 2024, including a 41-yard run against the Giants. After VanSumeren, a reserve linebacker, suffered a season-ending ACL tear in a Nov. 29 practice, the Eagles remained committed to their proliferation of under-center looks, nearly tripling such snaps (174) from their total in 2023 (69).

We’re running the damn ball, the adjustment screamed. Conjoined with a top-ranked defense that forced the NFL’s sixth-most turnovers, the Eagles beat the Cincinnati Bengals and their top-ranked passing attack, plus three of the top-7 offenses in terms of explosive pass percentage (1. Ravens, 3. Packers, 7. Rams), per TruMedia. The aggressive structure empowered an offensive line that secured three Pro Bowl selections. “It’s very simple,” left guard Landon Dickerson said in Cincinnati. “If you’re in a fight, do you want to punch somebody in the face, or do you want to get punched?”

The Eagles knocked out their arch-rival Dallas Cowboys twice by a combined score of 75-13. They outscored the Giants 48-16 in a two-game sweep. Barkley rushed for 409 yards in his three games against those division foes, sitting out the majority (or all) of the fourth quarter each time. Kenneth Gainwell and Will Shipley totaled 28 carries in those fourth quarters, which, at Barkley’s 5.8 yards per rush, would’ve supplied the difference on the NFL’s single-season leaderboard between Barkley (2,005) and Dickerson (2,105).

A final shot at the Giants might have, too. But there were no regrets here on this New Year’s Day. “We’ll let Eric Dickerson have it,” right tackle Lane Johnson said. Barkley wanted the record for himself, for his linemen, for his family. He said his father took the news the hardest, since their last name would’ve been attached to history for as long as the record stood. But Barkley also knows there are caveats to history’s calculations. Dickerson’s name may be first in the record book, but according to Barkley, “the two most impressive” single-season feats belong to O.J. Simpson (1973), who rushed for 2,003 yards in just 14 games, and Barry Sanders (1997), who gained 2,053 yards in just 335 carries. Barkley is also aware that Terrell Davis owns the single-season rushing record if you include the length of the 1998 playoffs — a stretch of 2,476 yards that ended with a Super Bowl XXXIII title.

“That matters the most,” Barkley said. “That’s how I look at it. That’s how I tell my family: ‘We didn’t come here, I didn’t sign here to break Eric Dickerson’s record. We came to win a Super Bowl.’”

The shrine appeared after the Eagles beat the Ravens in a frigid face-off between the NFL’s top running backs.

The Eagles offensive linemen hung two framed photos of Saquon Barkley near their lockers. Two titles were written on separate strips of athletic tape, one under each frame:

THE CHOSEN ONE

OUR SAVIOR

Before Barkley ever performed any on-field miracles, the Eagles locker room already recognized he was a football deity. He was an imposing figure with an established aura. Arriving at OTAs at 6-foot, 233 pounds, it was clear why former Giants wideout Odell Beckham Jr. once nicknamed Barkley “SaQuads.” There was no silent transition, backup Eagles guard Tyler Steen remembers. Barkley couldn’t have hid if he tried. His first weight room sessions revealed how hard he worked, Steen said. Teammates embraced yet another image-bearer. They responded to yet another credible voice in the room.

Come on. Let’s go. Come on.

The Eagles weren’t devoid of leaders. They were flush with established team captains of different kinds. Hurts, their stoic signal-caller. A.J. Brown, the embodiment of their explosivity. Brandon Graham, the effusive veteran and resident trash-talker. That Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, Darius Slay and Jake Elliott were also voted team captains apart from Barkley in 2024 says less about his omission than the established foundation he joined. Fresh off his first practice, Barkley said what struck him most was joining the huddle and seeing Hurts, Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert staring back at him. “That’s not a bad group to be a part of,” Barkley said.

But Barkley buttressed the team with his own brand of authority. Comfortable in the spotlight, earnest in his interactions, Barkley quickly became a mentor to the team’s young core and an ally to its proven pillars. Barkley, an avid golfer, organized outings to bond with dozens of players. The sport unlocked a bucket list meeting for Hurts. Barkley, Lurie and Hurts joined former President Barack Obama at Merion Golf Club in October. (Obama was in Philadelphia to campaign for Kamala Harris.) Golf was also a unifier for Barkley and Hurts. They teamed up to gift each offensive lineman a personalized golf cart for Christmas.

“He’s big on the camaraderie in the team,” said Johnson, who added Barkley and others get together for weekly dinners during the season. “I felt that from the very beginning. It usually doesn’t happen that quick. It usually takes a couple years.”

Barkley became an encourager within an organization that places a high value on player mentorship. Before Philadelphia’s Week 3 game against the New Orleans Saints, Barkley called over second-year defensive tackle Jalen Carter. “Why not today, bruh?” Barkley said in a team-captured video. “Make your mark, dawg. I’m telling you. I played against you. They are scared of you.” Carter recorded two tackles for loss in their 15-12 win. Rookie wide receiver Johnny Wilson said “every game, at some point, you’ll see Saquon walking by your bench and trying to hype up the team and keep everybody going.” When subs enter the huddle, Barkley’s belief begets more belief.

“He kind of just gives you that look,” Steen says. “Just kind of like, ‘Yeah, I need you.’ Like, you know what I’m saying? ‘Let’s go.’ ‘I trust you.’ And I think that kind of just gives us confidence, you know what I’m saying? Just kind of knowing that he believes in us and he trusts us, and that just kind of pushes us to just try to do even more.”

“You play a little harder when you know you’ve got Saquon in the backfield,” Wilson says. “You want to block harder. Just having built relationships with him in the offseason, it’s like, you know, that’s even nicer, knowing that I’ve got my dawg’s back. I want to do what I can to help him succeed.”

Barkley represents a notable presence on an active roster whose average age is 25. It’s a presence some Giants players miss. Tight end Daniel Bellinger told ESPN: “For me, the biggest part of losing Saquon was the locker room aspect.” Eagles rookie running back Will Shipley’s locker neighbors Barkley’s in the NovaCare Complex, The Linc and on the road. Barkley “is always pushing me to strive to be my best,” Shipley said. There’s always pointers. Square your shoulders up in the inside zone. On Duo, make sure you play cat and mouse with that linebacker. “A bunch of stuff outside of football, too,” Shipley said.

Trevor Keegan, a fifth-round rookie guard, spent the first 16 games of the season as a healthy scratch on the inactive list. Keegan said he was watching film before a game earlier this year when he felt someone tap him on his shoulder. It was Barkley:

Man, your time’s coming.

“And I appreciated that,” said Keegan, who made his NFL debut in Week 18. “Everybody plays football, you know, to feel that adrenaline rush on game days. When I wasn’t getting that, it’s like, ‘Shoot, is football for me?’ Because living without football and not playing, you got a little guy on your shoulder telling you bad things. But it’s all about perspective for me. And you know I realized, man, I get to watch the greatest offensive line in the NFL in the world actually. I get to watch a running back who’s the ninth 2000-yard rusher. So just to be able to sit back, watch them and try to emulate them as much as possible, you know, it’s been really cool.”

Barkley exudes a sense of gratitude, his teammates say. After Barkley leaped over a Jaguars defender backward, a reporter asked Barkley how that even registered as a split-second option in his mind. “I gotta give credit to God, I ain’t gonna lie.” Reporters laughed. Barkley didn’t. “I do believe God blessed me,” he continued. “He blessed all of us, but I feel like God gave me the ability to play this position. He gave me some instincts. Sometimes, you just gotta let go, let God and let your instincts take over.”

Barkley’s expression held relevance once Dickerson’s record came within reach. When Dickerson found out in 1999 that he’d be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, he wrote on his calendar: Thank you God for this gift. Although some of the public perceived that Barkley and Dickerson would be combative over the single-season crown, the running backs shared a mutual respect for their threshold in history. Dickerson, who’s often expressed he wanted to retain his record, told co-hosts Bill Belichick and Jim Gray on the Let’s Go! show on SiriusXM that he called Barkley, congratulated him on joining the 2,000-yard club and told Barkley he’d wished he’d at least seen Barkley get a shot at breaking his single-season mark.

So do the Eagles offensive linemen. But they’ve at least got another photo for their wall. After Barkley broke the 2,000-yard mark against the Cowboys, he gathered with the linemen for a group photo in the locker room. Suddenly, Landon Dickerson reached down, picked Barkley up and cradled him in his arms. The camera clicked. They’re all grinning. They’re all flashing two fingers.

For 2,000 yards, yes.

But, with Barkley, they have a shot at winning Philadelphia’s second Super Bowl.

This photo of Saquon & the O-Line is everything to us 📸 pic.twitter.com/EUZcoQAjlg

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 29, 2024

Barkley’s fit in Philadelphia is no secret to the Packers anymore.

Green Bay’s fifth-ranked defense recalls the myriad ways Barkley’s newest weapon thrashed them in the Sao Paulo season-opener. But the Eagles don’t believe a rematch portends any predictability or any less offensive potency.

“A lot of things have changed for both teams,” Sirianni said on Monday. “So, I can’t answer what they think there or how they think there. I know they’ll be paying attention to Saquon like everybody else that we play pays attention to him.”

The Eagles are on track to again field their entire starting offense. Hurts, who suffered a Week 16 concussion, returned to practice with limitations on Wednesday. That the Eagles waived emergency quarterback Ian Book on Tuesday suggests they believe Hurts will be available on Sunday. If that trend continues, Philadelphia, with Hurts and Barkley in the backfield, will begin its fourth straight postseason run with an offensive talent pool that’s arguably this era’s best yet.

Still, like Barkley’s MVP chances, the Eagles must buck a quarterback-oriented trend to win their second Super Bowl. The NFL’s champions have recently won through the air. The Seattle Seahawks (Super Bowl XLVIII) are the only champions since 2006 with a higher run percentage (54.8) than its passing game. These Eagles (55.7) are running the ball at a substantially higher clip than the ones who won the city’s first Super Bowl in 2017 (45.6). The top seeds in the NFC (Lions, 47.7) and AFC (Chiefs, 38.6) both align with the league’s recent pattern.

If the Eagles indeed unseat the NFL’s established powers, they’ll have done it with a style of play that can’t easily be duplicated. They’ll have done it with a dominant defense that’s allowed the league’s second-fewest points per game (17.8). They’ll have done it with a formidable offensive line, a dual-threat quarterback and one of the best receiving tandems in the league. Most of all, they’ll have done it with a running back who exists beyond the reach of market speculations and trends.

The name Mailata muttered in disbelief, shaking his head after a September win against the Saints:

“Saquon motherf— Barkley.”

(Top photo: Cooper Neill, Kara Durrette / Getty Images)