ClutchPoints
The Philadelphia Eagles are headed back to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years. Oddly enough, it will be a rematch against the Kansas City Chiefs, who they faced back in Super Bowl LVII. The Eagles will now look to capture just their second Super Bowl title ever. Philadelphia will have a new weapon this time in hopes of ending the Chiefs reign: Saquon Barkley.
It took until his seventh NFL season, but Barkley has finally achieved the stardom everyone thought he would have coming out of Penn State. The previous hiccups could only be accounted from two things: injuries and being drafted to the New York Giants.
It took a move from only a team like the Giants in order to make this all happen, though. New York decided to let Barkley, their best player, go to their division rival in the Eagles, who already had a stacked roster to begin with, during the offseason. The result seemed obvious, and sure enough it came true, with the Eagles now one win away from a Super Bowl title and Barkley looking like a favorite to win the league’s MVP award.
Seasons like the one Barkley is about to wrap up just don’t happen all that often, if ever. Considering the circumstances the 27-year-old has had to overcome to get to this point, there’s room for argument that this is the best season for a running back in the history of the NFL.
This is an excellent question, no? The Giants, who have been far from looking like geniuses over the last several years, have been given an exclamation point on their foolery with Saquon Barkley’s standout season. It’s not as if the New York brass, like general manager Joe Schoen, didn’t expect their former first-round running back to be good still. They knew that, even Schoen acknowledged he was the team’s best offensive player on Hard Knocks. What they probably didn’t expect Barkley to do was have one of the best seasons by a running back in NFL history.
Obviously, Schoen and the Giants didn’t have any say-so where Barkley went once he hit free agency. However, the fact he even made it to the market was a massive blunder on their part. Him being quickly swept up by the Eagles only added to the sting. It proves that the Eagles, first and foremost, wanted to commit to Barkley, unlike the Giants. Secondly, it proves they wanted to win—something that seems to be undecided upon in New York.
But this entire situation is what makes this season by Barkley so incredible. Rarely ever would a team allow their best player, especially offensive, to hit free agency like Barkley did. Him ending up in the same division, on one of the best teams in the entire league, that just punched their ticket to the Super Bowl, only accentuates everything. That’s simply not supposed to happen. And...
