Saquon Barkley has been everything Howie Roseman envisioned when the Eagles’ general manager went off script at the running back position to give significant money to a player the organization believed was more of a weapon than the average NFL RB1.
An awe-inspiring combination of size and speed hidden in plain sight for six seasons with the poorly constructed New York Giants, Barkley has shown everything he was once expected to be as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
The tough runs inside the tackles, an ability to finish with physicality, pass-protection skills from a foregone era, and the home-run ability to change a game in the blink of an eye.
Barkley is a dropped pass away from being an MVP favorite through three games.
The Penn State product enters Week 4 with an NFL-best 351 rushing yards, is No. 2 in yards-per-carry at 5.6, tied for the league lead with five touchdowns, and his 34 points are the most of any positional player in the league.
Project that out over 17 games and Barkley would be at historic numbers – 1,989 rushing and 300 more receiving for a total of 2,289 yards from scrimmage.
As enticing as all that sounds, Barkley would need 414 total touches to get to those numbers at the current efficacy rate, something that is likely unsustainable.
Through the small sample size of three games, Barkley is holding up well.
“It doesn’t feel any different,” the star runner said of his early season average of 24 touches per game. “You can have games where you have like 10 touches and be more sore than in games in which you’ve had 30 touches. It’s all about the hits. It’s all about the shots you take, and it’s all about the type of game that it is.”
For now, Barkley feels good entering Week 4 at Tampa Bay where another heavy workload is projected with star receivers A.J. Brown (hamstring) and DeVonta Smith (concussion protocol) ifft for the contest and estimated as missing Wednesday's walkthrough practice.
“I’ve been fortunate enough that through the first three games, my body still feels pretty good,” said Barkley.
Even “pretty good” comes at a cost in the NFL, according to Barkley.
“[It’s] also having that mindset that it’s football, everybody’s sore, everybody’s hurting, and it’s only going to get worse,” Barkley admitted. “You’re not going to be 100%. From the second you come in here for camp, that 100% is over, whether you have 25 touches, you play 70 snaps or you play 5.”
The counterintuitive notion here is that the Eagles need Barkley for the long haul. That means backups Kenny Gainwell or Will Shipley will have to take some of the heavy lifting off of Barkley’s plate.
To date, Gainwell has only six touches on offense in three games (10 if you count kickoff returns) and Shipley has yet to get an offensive touch (the rookie has returned two kicks).
It may not be possible this week against the Buccaneers but coming out of the early Week 5 bye the Eagles will need to be more disciplined with Barkley, perhaps adopting a three series to one ratio for the superstar vs. his backups.
That’s because the end game isn’t about numbers, it’s about a championship.
