There are seasons that change the way a player is remembered.
For Saquon Barkley, 2024 was one of them. Philadelphia knew what they were doing when they picked him up from the New York Giants. They knew that there was much left to be untapped in Barkley after his return in 2022 after two years of seasons plagued with injuries.
The team’s offensive line provided openings before anyone knew the ball had even left the center’s hands. More than 2,000 yards on the ground. A few less than six yards per carry. 15 touchdowns running the ball. A Super Bowl trophy. All of that in your first year with the team is about as much as anyone could expect.
Then the calendar flipped.
Did We Already See the Best of Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia?
Barkley’s Numbers Plummet in 2025
The funny thing about football is how quickly opinions change. One year you’re the player everyone wishes their team had signed. The next, people start wondering if your best football is already behind you.
That’s where Barkley finds himself now.
The raw numbers from 2025 weren’t terrible by any stretch. Plenty of running backs would gladly trade careers for a season like the one Barkley just had. The problem is nobody compares him to the rest of the league anymore. They’re comparing him to the version of himself that dominated the year before.
That’s a comparison almost anyone would lose. It also ignores something important.
Go back and watch the tape instead of the stat sheet. The difference jumps off the screen.
In 2024, Barkley often reached the line of scrimmage with room to make a decision. Sometimes he wasn’t touched until four or five yards downfield. That’s a running back’s dream. The following season looked nothing like that. Defenders were arriving almost immediately, forcing Barkley to dodge traffic before he ever had a chance to build momentum.
The numbers explain why.
During the 2024 season, Barkley averaged an incredible 3.8 yards before first contact, the best mark in football. Last season, that number dropped all the way to 1.7.
Think about that for a second.
That’s more than two yards disappearing before Barkley even had an opportunity to make someone miss.
Running backs don’t control that. Offensive lines do.
Inconsistency at the Offensive Line
Philadelphia’s wasn’t the same group. Cam Jurgens spent the offseason working back from surgery. Landon Dickerson battled through his own health issues. Lane Johnson missed time, and suddenly the unit that made life look easy the year before wasn’t nearly as dominant.
It showed up every Sunday.
The Eagles didn’t always help Barkley, either.
There were stretches where it felt like the offense forgot what made him dangerous in the first place. Instead of repeatedly letting him attack downhill, Philadelphia asked him to spend more snaps detached from the formation, lining up wide or working from the slot. The Eagles runnin back has always been a capable receiver, but that’s never been where he’s at his best. He’s most dangerous with the ball already in his hands and defenders reacting to him, not waiting for a route to develop.
Has Barkley Lost a Step?
None of this is meant to suggest Barkley hasn’t lost anything.
He’s another year older. Every running back eventually slows down. That’s part of the position. The question is whether the decline everyone thinks they’re seeing belongs to Eagles running back or to the circumstances around him.
Philadelphia has already answered that question internally.
If the Eagles believed Barkley was fading, they wouldn’t have committed to him through the 2028 season. Teams don’t hand out contract extensions based on nostalgia. They do it because they believe the player can still help them win. That’s exactly what makes 2026 so interesting. Not because Barkley has something to prove.
Because the Eagles do.
Can they rebuild the environment that turned him into the most dangerous runner in football? Can the offensive line stay healthy? Can the coaching staff resist the temptation to get too creative and instead lean into what Barkley does better than almost anyone in the league?
Maybe that’s the better way to frame this entire conversation. Everyone keeps asking whether we’ve already seen the best of Barkley. Maybe the real question is whether we’ve already seen the best version of the Eagles around him.
Those aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Main Image: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
