The Philadelphia Eagles will take the field on Sunday to try to win their second NFC championship in three seasons. It’s a big win for an ever-evolving organization that had to undergo a major overhaul after a collapse in the second half of last season.
No factor is because Philadelphia is in the middle of another fight for the Super Bowl. The defensive resurgence, achieved by transforming a unit that was aging and highly beatable through the end of 2023 into a unit now loaded with young talent at all three levels, is a significant factor. Changes in the coaching staff are also in the foreground.
However, I don’t think anyone can seriously claim that this Eagles team would be in this position if they didn’t sign Saquon Barkley in free agency.
Barkley’s pairing with the Eagles was met with generally positive reviews from the NFL universe, save for those caught up in overly dogmatic views on career value and replaceability. It was even better than anyone could have projected.
The Eagles were number one in rushing EPA during the regular season and led the league in rushing yards gained by running backs with 2,384. Barkley himself contributed 2,005 of them on his own in just 16 games, making him the ninth running back in NFL history to surpass 2K. A whopping 41.6% of his yards came on explosive runs. He was one of only three running backs (Derrick Henry and Jahmyr Gibbs were the other two) with more than 200 carries to clear 36%.
The real value of Barkley’s addition, which almost no statistics can really To quantify, it was his ability to decide games in second halves with long and massive runs.
We saw it in the Divisional Round win with a 78-yard run in the fourth quarter that finally put the game out of reach. It wasn’t the first time we saw it this season, Philadelphia hopes it won’t be the last.
Barkley recently revealed that this has been part of his game through a club he added to his bag. He spends time setting up defenders early in the game only to furiously open holes on his way to game-sealing runs.
Eagles running back Saquon Barkley took Marshall Faulk’s advice to not purposely make a hole in the first half to continually wear down the opposing DL.
“In the third quarter, when I see the same hole, that’s when I hit the home run.”
Saquon and #eagles racing game that goes with that… pic.twitter.com/cHSEdG7cU6
—Ashlyn Sullivan (@ashlynrsullivan) January 19, 2025
A great racer can help you achieve a victory at the end of competitions. Make no mistake, Barkley has been that force for the Eagles when they have a lead by stifling any hope that the opposing offense could have enough momentum to mount a comeback. Barkley ranks first in carries among running backs in the second half of games and second in first downs (50).
A legendary talent at the running back position can single-handedly finish the game with explosive runs, no matter the setup. Barkley is the only running back to gain more than 50% of his yards in the second half on explosive runs this season. According to Fantasy Points Data, Barkley averages 6.64 yards per rush in the gap scheme and 6.67 on zone runs in the second half of games. He is the only runner who averages more than 6.0 in both.
The Eagles were already a dynamic running ecosystem before Barkley’s arrival. Philadelphia ranked first in rushing EPA and success rate between 2021 and 2023. We’ve seen running backs like Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift have successful seasons for this team behind a fantastic offensive line and running game coordinated by Jeff Stoutland during this stretch .
In a strange way, that might have been what made some miss how special this pairing was going to be for the Eagles.
Again, it doesn’t mean that people were necessarily sleeping in Barkley. His acquisition overall had a high approval rating, especially since the running back market has tanked in recent years, and he was still a top-five fantasy running back in the ADP consensus this summer. He often participated in the Round 1-2 shift. That said, the success of the mid-level running back talent ecosystem and the presence of Jalen Hurts as a short-yardage option, along with the usual mileage concerns, ended up placing its imagined roof south of where it finished in 2024. .
The ecosystem remained as elitist as ever. Despite the loss of Jason Kelce, the offensive line performed at a dominant level. If you’re not crazy about watching Jordan Mailata go into space or Mekhi Becton opening holes at right guard during this resurgent season, we just don’t agree on how to enjoy the sport. With all those second-half stats I mentioned above, it’s worth noting that Barkley is averaging an outrageous 4.43 yards before contact per carry in the third and fourth quarters. You give a special athlete like Barkley so much room to develop speed…the results speak for themselves. The Eagles are first in overall rushing EPA once again this season and Hurts continues to be a factor through the Tush Push on critical downfield and deep plays. That’s all well and good, but there’s no doubt that this year it feels different and is best expressed in those explosive plays that change the field.
The general NFL public and certainly the fantasy community has yet to give adequate credit to how much a special talent at the running back position can maximize an already strong running ecosystem. Just because we’ve seen something perform at a high level doesn’t mean there aren’t greater heights to come. The best example of the lack of value placed on this can best be shown by the fact that a fantasy team could have easily been built with a start of Barkley (11th overall) and Derrick Henry (17th. ° overall) or Jahmyr Gibbs (13th overall). back last year.
There’s a reason those three names keep showing up in this exercise. The three teams had great games with results on the field. before Those backs arrived. However, including that kind of special talent into the equation weaponized an already strong ecosystem even more. Credit should also be given to the 49ers for making a similar move with Christian McCaffrey and ushering in this new way of looking at rushing environments. Analyzing these types of running games and the search for that weaponization has been my obsession for most of the last 10 months, as I imagined it will be the final phase in the great team building for contenders in today’s NFL. landscape.
No matter how this season ends for the Philadelphia Eagles, they got a special season thanks to their blockbuster acquisition. Barkley has been an explosive, game-ending threat in what was already one of the best ecosystems before his arrival. It was a wonderful lesson in maximizing the run game and a bit of pure joy to see a player like this, who previously endured some tough offenses, come to operate with a team at the highest level.
However, it was also a lesson in keeping it simple. Despite all the fancy statistics and advanced football concepts you can break down, we all knew Saqoun Barkley was a special running back. And it was pretty obvious that the Eagles would be a top-tier offense in 2024, even if they struggled down the stretch last season.
Great player, great team, great results. Sometimes, in fact, it can be such an easy equation.