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Saquon Barkley's Magnificent Revival

The Eagles running back has had a magical season, and has shown us his true potential for greatness after years of toiling away in New York

The most played highlight on the NFL’s TikTok account from this season is not a deep pass from Patrick Mahomes or a great catch from Justin Jefferson. It isn’t even a touchdown. It’s a play from a Week 9 matchup between the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles. On a swing pass from quarterback Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley makes a defender miss, then spins away from another, only to finish the play by hurdling over a third defender…backwards.

The play went for 14 yards and has been viewed over 33 million times on the platform. This year has been a memorable one for Barkley, his first as an Eagle. He led the league in rushing, broke the franchise record for rushing yards in a season, and came close to breaking Eric Dickerson’s league record for yards in a season. He is now an MVP finalist and headed to play in his first Super Bowl. It has been an incredible season for Saquon, a player who has always said and done the right thing and is now getting the validation that he has deserved for so long.

Draft Pick Gymnastics

Saquon Barkley played for three years at Penn State before entering the NFL Draft as a Junior in 2018. In two of those years, he led the nation in rushing touchdowns (18 in 2016, and 18 in 2017). He finished his college career as the school leader in scrimmage yards, scrimmage touchdowns, and rushing touchdowns. It is important to note that Penn State has a long history of producing NFL running backs such as Franco Harris, Larry Johnson, Ki-Jana Carter, and Curt Warner to name a few. So those records are no small feat.

As he entered the 2018 Draft, he was viewed as the best player available and was being compared to Barry Sanders. Any team that picked Barkley was viewed to have picked the right player. Or so it seemed. The issue for Barkley was that he was a running back. At the time, the running back position was in the early stages of the positional evaluation that we have seen manifest today. The position, once considered one of the most important in football, had been relegated to being one of the least important. This meant that a running back going high was not a given anymore.

Despite Barkley being viewed as the best player in the draft by many, his position was not the most important. Despite this, most mock drafts were projecting Barkley to go second to the Giants, with outlets like CBS Sports and PFF predicting he could fall to the seventh pick to Tampa Bay. When the Giants selected him, the reactions were mixed. Some liked the pick as it indicated that the Giants were ready to win games right away. Others, like CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco, gave the pick a C+. His reasoning fell into the conventional wisdom about drafting running backs at the time:

“I like the player and his skills, but value of position is a major concern in a deep draft of backs.”

By going second overall, Barkley became the highest drafted running back since 2006, when the Saints drafted Reggie Bush with the number two overall pick. And due to the criticisms and conversations over the importance and depth of the running back position, Barkley was in a way destined to fail as a Giant. He was selected ahead of quarterbacks that have had some success in this league: Josh Allen, Sam Darnold, and Lamar Jackson. He was also selected over some elite defensive players like Roquan Smith, Bradley Chubb, and Vita Vea.

There was also the added pressure of having to deal with these expectations in New York. Had it been Jacksonville or Carolina, Barkley could have likely flown under the radar for a couple of years. But because it was the Giants, and because it was New York City there was added urgency. On top of that, Barkley was born in the Bronx and lived there for four years before his family relocated to Pennsylvania. He went to a Giants team that was desperate to get back to their winning ways, a team that was asking him as a rookie to be their best skill position player right away.

Big Blue Turmoil

As rookie seasons go, Barkley’s first season in New York couldn’t have gone much better from an individual perspective. The team finished 5-11, its fifth losing season in six years. But Barkley was not the reason why. He played all 16 games, led the NFL in scrimmage yards, was second in receiving yards behind Ezekial Elliot, was fourth among running backs in receiving yards, and won Offensive Rookie of the Year. It certainly felt that Saquon was a part of the solution for the Giants.

Then the injuries started happening. It started in 2019 with a high ankle sprain that caused him to miss three games. Then the following year after two games he tore his ACL and strained his MCL against Chicago and missed the rest of the season. He then went on to manage a few minor injuries while with the Giants, most of which he played through. But he was developing a reputation as a player that was injury prone by many in the media.

This designation made his contract extension tricky. His last two years as a Giant were productive as he amassed more than 1,200 scrimmage yards in each season and scored a combined 20 touchdowns in that span. The Giants, unfortunately, could not get out of their own way. During Barkley’s time with the team, they went 34-64-1, and only made the playoffs once. Following that playoff appearance, the Giants opted to pay their quarterback Daniel Jones instead of Barkley, which set into motion a fracture between the team and its star running back.

Following the 2023 season, this is where Barkley stood in the Giants record book:

  • 4th in rushing yards

  • 6th in rushing touchdowns

  • 1st in rushing yards per game

  • 4th in receiving yards by a running back

  • 2nd in receiving touchdowns by a running back

More than the stats, Barkley was always a consummate pro, which is sometimes hard to do in an aggressive media market like New York City. He never complained to the media and never presented a feeling of turmoil while with the team. Much was made about the Barkley decision based on what we saw from general manager Joe Schoen from the off-season edition of Hard Knocks.

Schoen painted a picture that the team wanted Saquon back with an opportunity to match what he was offered on the open market. Barkley did that with the Eagles, and the Giants never matched. It is Barkley’s assertion that the team never had any intention of bringing him back, so he went to the team that was a good fit for him both from a financial and playing style perspective. He was back in Pennsylvania where it all started, but not before he angered some Giants fans on the way out.

The Running Eagle

When Barkley signed with the Eagles, there was a collective groan from Giants fans. Not only would they lose their best player, but they now had to play him twice a year because he signed with a divisional opponent. The Eagles were coming off of two seasons where they had back-to-back 1,000-yard rushers in DeAndre Swift and Miles Sanders. So, there was hope that if Saquon could stay healthy that he could be very productive. Whatever anyone expected, it was not close to what we saw this season.

Rushing for 2,000 yards in a season is rare for a running back in the NFL. Up until this season, it had only been done eight times. Saquon became the ninth player to accomplish the feat, finishing eight all-time in yards for a season with 2,005 yards, which was only 100 yards short of Eric Dickerson’s record.

And yet, the opportunity for him to get the yards were there. During a blowout earlier in the season, Barkley was given the opportunity to pad his stats by head coach Nick Sirianni and he opted to let the younger backs on the team get some reps. In the last week of the season, Barkley was rested for the playoffs instead of going for the record. As he has always been, he was a professional and did not fuss over the record too much.

The most fascinating thing about Barkley this season has been that he went from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the best ones and was the most important player in both situations. For a running back in 2025, this is highly unusual. Since 2015, there have only been two running backs that have placed in the top three of MVP votes: Todd Gurley who was 2nd in 2017 and Christian McCaffery who was third in 2023. Barkley has a chance to join them as he will be getting votes alongside quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen.

The Eagles this year have been carried by Barkley. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has had three-year lows in pass attempts, yards, and touchdowns. This is because they have relied so much on the running attack from Barkley that they have not needed to rely on Hurts as they have in the past. In the playoffs, Saquon has taken it up an additional level. He has an average of 147 rushing yards per game this postseason, which is shockingly 22 yards more than his season average of 125 yards per game (which led the NFL).

Many people have lamented that this Super Bowl between the Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs lacks true compelling storylines because it is a rematch from the Super Bowl a couple of years ago. I would argue that Saquon Barkley, his greatness, and the renaissance of what his career was is the compelling storyline. His journey from generational prospect to injury prone talent to being an MVP caliber player on a championship team has been incredible to witness.

The resurgence of Saquon Barkley is the kind of story that we love to hear as sports fans. It is something that will likely have books written about in the future, and for good reason. Barkley is the kind of guy that you love to root for. A person who has always done the right thing but has had circumstances get in the way of achieving his goals. But despite all of it, here he stands, hoping to cap off what has been one of the most memorable from a running back in the modern era. I for one, will be rooting for him to cap it all off with the vindication of hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.