The reigning NFL Offensive Player of the Year is looking for an encore. Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley rushed for over 2,000 yards during 2024’s Super Bowl-winning season. He can make history by doing it again in 2025.
In today’s NFL, most teams utilize a running back by committee approach when it comes to the ground game. Some don’t want to spend big money on the running back position. Others can’t find a back that can take on the workload. The Philadelphia Eagles did both when they traded for Saquon Barkley before the 2024 season.
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What can Barkley accomplish in 2025?
This year, Barkley can do something no other player in NFL history has done: rush for over 2,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. He rushed for 2,005 yards last year to join the exclusive club. His 2,504 combined rushing yards in the regular season and postseason set an NFL record.
Nine players in NFL history have rushed for 2,000 yards in a season. The list includes some of the game’s greatest legends. However, the days of the workhorse feature running backs, such as Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders, Terrell Davis and Adrian Peterson, are long gone. Today’s NFL is geared toward situational football, keeping players fresh and reducing injury risks. Barkley is not likely to touch the ball 482 times like he did last season, the most in the NFL since 2014.
Barkley, in his 8th season, credits a routine that requires him to use a daily planner with maintaining his consistency.
“It worked for me last year, so I’m not going to go away from it,” Barkley said. It’s the little things I have that go in my daily planner, from being detailed about what I’m doing in my schedule, writing down my small wins, and writing the things I want to accomplish throughout my day. If I can keep that consistency there, I can take it to the field.”
How is this season progressing?
Barkley is a little behind the 2,000-yard pace to start this season, rushing for a total of 148 yards in two games while averaging 3.7 yards per carry. In both games, defenses stacked eight and sometimes nine players near the line of scrimmage, forcing Barkley to grind out the yards.
That’s nothing new for him, but it means the Eagles offense often has to make adjustments between series. Barkley said the “chess game” is his favorite part of football.
“Throughout the game, you gotta find what’s working and what’s not working,” Barkley said. “Sometimes you gotta go on the sidelines and draw some plays up. We’ve done that in the past in big games, playoff games, that’s probably my favorite part, just the figuring each other out, especially in the running game. How they attack the running game and knowing when and where to make that cut.”
Who did Barkley learn from this offseason?
To be one of the rare feature backs still thriving in the NFL, it doesn’t hurt to get some advice from one of the best to do it. Barkley reached out to the league’s all-time rushing leader, Emmitt Smith, during the offseason to learn more about how defenses will play him.
“A lot of times, he was a step ahead,” Barkley said. “He knew how defenses were going to attack him and knew how to set it up. He was a one-cut back, so he knows what he likes.”
Smith rushed for 18,355 yards during his 15-year career, and Barkley said he learned valuable lessons from the Hall of Famer about career longevity and keeping his body healthy.
“I still pinch myself in moments like that,” Barkley said. “I got to go to my mom’s house that day and talked to my dad, I said, ‘you won’t believe who I was on the phone with’. Stuff like that to me, I still, my life doesn’t feel real when those moments happen.”
If everyone stays healthy – especially the Eagles’ massive offensive line, the biggest in football – Barkley has a shot at history. Philadelphia plays the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Barkley had his best performances last season in two games against them, rushing for 255 yards in the regular season and 205 more in the NFC divisional playoffs.
