The Philadelphia Eagles will take the field Sunday to try to win their second NFC championship in three seasons. It’s a huge win for an organization that is constantly evolving and had to undergo a significant bit of retooling after a second-half collapse last season.
No one factor is why Philadelphia finds itself in the middle of another Super Bowl push. The defensive revival, accomplished by transforming a unit that got old and was highly beatable to end 2023 into a unit now flush with young talent at all three levels, is a significant factor. Changes in the coaching staff are also right at the forefront.
However, I don’t think anyone can seriously assert 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 generally met with positive reviews by the NFL universe, save those stuck in overly dogmatic views about running value and replaceability. It went even better than anyone could have projected.
The Eagles were No. 1 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 those on his own in just 16 games, making him the ninth back in NFL history to clear 2K. A whopping 41.6% of his yards came on explosive runs. He was one of only three backs — Derrick Henry and Jahmyr Gibbs were the other two —with 200-plus carries to clear 36%.
The real value in Barkley’s addition, which almost no stat can truly quantify, was his ability to call games in second halves with massive long runs.
We saw that in the Divisional Round win with a 78-yard scamper in the fourth quarter that ultimately put the game out of reach. It wasn’t the first time we saw it this season, Philadelphia is hoping it won’t be the last.
Barkley recently revealed that this has been a part of his game via a club he’s added to his bag. He spends time setting up defenders early in the game only to rip through holes with fury on his way to game-sealing runs.
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley took advice from Marshall Faulk to purposely not hit a hole in the first half to continually wear down the opposing DL.
“In the third quarter, when I see that same hole, that’s when I hit the home run.”
Saquon and #Eagles running game going with that… pic.twitter.com/cHSEdG7cU6
— Ashlyn Sullivan (@ashlynrsullivan) January 19, 2025
A great back can help you salt a win away late in contests. Make no mistake, Barkley has been that force for the Eagles when they have a lead by smothering any hope the opposing offense can have enough drives to mount the comeback. Barkley ranks first in carries among backs in the second half of games and second in first downs (50).
A legendary talent at the running back position can end the game on his own with explosive runs, no matter the setup. Barkley is the only running back to gain over 50% of his second-half yardage on explosive runs this season. According to Fantasy Points Data, Barkley averages 6.64 yards per carry on gap scheme runs and 6.67 on zone runs in the second half of games. He is the lone back to average over 6.0 in both.
The Eagles were already a dynamic rushing ecosystem prior to Barkley’s arrival. Philadelphia ranked first in rushing EPA and success rate between 2021 and 2023. We’ve seen backs like Miles Sanders and D’Andre Swift have successful seasons for this team behind a fantastic offensive line and ground game coordinated by Jeff Stoutland during this stretch.
In a strange way, that might have been what caused some to miss out on how special this pairing was going to be for the Eagles.
Again, it’s not to say that people were necessarily sleeping on Barkley. His acquisition generally had a high approval rating, especially as the running back market has collapsed in recent years, and he was still a top-five fantasy running back in consensus ADP this summer. He often went on the Round 1 to 2 turn. That said, the success of the ecosystem for mid-tier running back talents and the presence of Jalen Hurts as an option in short yardage, along with the usual concerns about mileage, did end up slotting his imagined ceiling south of where he finished in 2024.
The ecosystem was still as elite as ever. Despite the loss of Jason Kelce, the offensive line performed at a dominant level. If you don’t absolutely geek out watching Jordan Mailata pulling out in space or Mekhi Becton blasting open holes at right guard during this revival 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 averages an outrageous 4.43 yards before contact per carry in the third and fourth quarters. You afford a special athlete like Barkley that much space to build up speed … the results speak for themselves. The Eagles are first in overall rushing EPA once again this season and Hurts is still a factor via the Tush Push on critical down and distance plays. That’s all fine and well but there’s no question this year feels different and it’s best expressed in those explosive, field-flipping plays.
The general NFL public and certainly the fantasy community still have not given proper credit to how much a special talent at the running back position can maximize an already strong rushing ecosystem. Just because we’ve seen something operate at a high level, doesn’t mean there aren’t greater heights yet to come. The best example of the lack of value placed on this can be best displayed by the fact that you could have easily built a fantasy team with a Barkley (11th overall ADP) and Derrick Henry (17th overall) or Jahmyr Gibbs (13th overall) start at the turn last year.
There’s a reason those three names keep coming up in this exercise. All three of those teams had the makings of great run games with results on the field before those backs arrived. However, dropping that type of special talent into the equation further weaponized an already strong ecosystem. 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 run games and the pursuit of that weaponization has been my obsession for the better part of the last 10 months, as I’ve imagined it will be the finishing-piece phase in great team-building for contenders in the current NFL landscape.
No matter how this season ends for the Philadelphia Eagles, they got a special campaign out of their wildly successful acquisition. Barkley’s been an explosive, game-ending threat for what was already one of the best ecosystems prior to his arrival. It was a wonderful lesson in run game maximization and a bit of pure joy to see a player like this, who previously slogged through some rough offenses, get to operate with a team at the highest level.
However, it was also a lesson to keep it simple. For all the fancy stats and advanced football concepts you can break down, we all knew Saqoun Barkley was a special back. And it was fairly obvious that the Eagles would be a top-level offense in 2024, even if they struggled down the stretch of the prior season.
Great player, great team, great results. Sometimes, it can indeed be that easy of an equation.
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