There were no shock factors during Saquon Barkley’s miraculous 2024 NFL season. Although the Philadelphia Eagles running back reached another level during his first season with the team, his ceiling was expected to be at this height. The height being one of the best players in the game overall.
To no surprise, Barkley recently topped a major list of running back rankings heading into the new season. As ESPN polled anonymous executives, coaches, and scouts, Barkley ended up with the most favorable votes out of any other player on the list.
One NFL personnel director told the publication that Barkley’s recent run was “expected.”
“He was always expected to be this,” an NFL personnel director told ESPN. “You can call it confirmation bias. Everybody thought he was a great player [at Penn State], and he proved what people thought he would be. It just took some peaks and valleys. And he was in a bad offense [in New York].”
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For years, the Eagles have had one of the best offensive lines in football. While they haven’t had a running back like Barkley behind the line in quite some time, the Eagles’ run game has found enough success to be a threat to defenses. A lot of that has to do with the holes the offensive line creates.
Since the LeSean McCoy era in Philadelphia concluded ahead of the 2015 NFL season, the Eagles have cycled through a handful of running backs. Ryan Mathews, LeGarrette Blount, Josh Adams, and D’Andre Swift each led the team in rushing yards for a season without repeating.
In 2021, Jalen Hurts pulled off a rare accomplishment by leading the Eagles’ offense in rushing with 784 yards. Miles Sanders was the only running back to be out in front for multiple seasons during that stretch, and he only exceeded 1,000 yards just once.
When Barkley stepped behind the Eagles’ offensive line, he averaged 5.8 yards per carry. Recognizing the difference-maker he was, the Eagles shifted away from the committee approach and fed Barkley often. As a result, he took on 345 carries. Barkley was the first Eagles running back to take on over 300 carries in a single season since McCoy.
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“Barkley got greedy in 2024,” ESPN wrote. “He clearly wanted every first-place vote in our 2025 poll. And he got all but one of them.”
The lowest vote? No. 2.
Barkley had a spectacular first season in Philadelphia, and there’s confidence he could continue playing at such a high level.
“He can go another few years with high-level play behind that [offensive] line,” the same anonymous director said.
Barkley exceeded 2,000 yards for the first time in his career with the Eagles. Remaining healthy through a busy season, the running back is in great shape as he looks to defend his team’s Super Bowl title.
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