ClutchPoints
In 2024, the Philadelphia Eagles turned in one of the best rushing seasons of all time.
Led by the one-two punch of running back Saquon Barkley and quarterback Jalen Hurts, the Eagles rushed for 3,048 yards and 29 rushing touchdowns during the regular season and added 818 more yards in the playoffs on the way to their second Super Bowl win in less than a decade.
Barkley earned all sorts of awards and accolades for his efforts, including the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, No. 1 on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2025 list, and the cover of Madden 2026, and despite rushing for 2,857 on the season, he was afforded a new two-year, $41.2 million extension from Howie Roseman for a job well done.
And yet, in 2025, Barkly hasn’t looked like a $20.7 million player, or even a $2.7 million player, but instead an over-the-hill performer who has lost that extra gear that made him so darn successful earlier in his career.
Now granted, some of that is to be expected, as Barkley led the NFL in rushing attempts and total touchdowns during the regular season and added 104 more touches in the playoffs on the way to a Super Bowl win. Even after missing time in New York, Barkley has still touched the ball 2,216 times during his career, which is a ton for a player who will turn 29 right around the Super Bowl.
Should the Eagles bench Barkley? On paper, one could make that argument, but football isn’t played on paper, with the interpersonal aspect of the game a big reason why Nick Sirianni has been retained by Jeffrey Lurie when his on-field results have struggled. Barkley is a captain, a very popular player in the locker room, and arguably the team’s best player when he’s hitting his ceiling. Even if he’s only averaging 62.2 yards per game on the ground, roughly half of his total from last season, on a 3.7 yards per attempt average, sending him to the bench or IR with a phantom injury could seriously impact a locker room that has already dealt with its fair share of issues in a negative way.
Fortunately, there is a solution to the Eagles’ issues that could allow them to have their cake and eat it too, keeping Barkley in the mix while allowing him to optimize his production instead of hammering out rush after rush in the hopes that one run or another will magically go for 50: Tank Bigsby.
Which Eagles player has the highest yards per attempt average so far in 2025? Is it Barkley? Or maybe Hurts? How about a dark horse like Will Shipley, or even AJ Dillon, who has only appeared in six games so far this season?
The answer is Bigby, who has recorded 164 rushing yards on 18 attempts for a 9.1 yards per carry average.
Now granted, the sample size...
