Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley knew he needed to adapt.
After logging a career-high 345 regular-season carries last year, 50 more carries than his previous high set back during the 2022 campaign with the New York Giants, and tacking on three playoff games and the Super Bowl, Barkley and the Eagles are justifiably and understandably aware of the outsized workload and impact he had on last season’s Super Bowl run.
That’s why, even when his instinct was to continue mashing the gas pedal through the floor as he always had each offseason, Barkley took a much different approach from stepping off the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art following the Eagles’ Super Bowl parade through the team’s offseason program.
“It wasn’t hard because everyone I trust told me basically to sit my a** down for a little bit,” Barkley told reporters.
Just because Barkley took some time to recuperate and recover from a season in which he came 100 yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record doesn’t mean he rested on his laurels.
When Barkley got back into the weight room, and onto the field to resume his training for the 2025 campaign, the 28-year-old adapted his approach and focus.
“You’ve just got to be smarter, right? You have your moments where you go in there and you grind, you push it,” Barkley said. “But the majority of those days is just mobility, conditioning, doing all the things to get your body in shape to perform at a high level. It was a lot of workload [last year], but my body feels great, so that’s the most important thing.”
Both the Eagles and Barkley will look to strike a balance between maximizing their most prolific and difference-making offensive weapon, and keeping him fresh for what Philadelphia hopes is another deep postseason run.
How Jalen Hurts Fits Nick Sirianni, Eagles’ Philosophy and Culture
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and head coach Nick Sirianni stood together on the podium in February, in New Orleans, as Super Bowl champions but the relationship wasn’t always on such sturdy hollowed ground.
Throughout the Eagles’ 2023 season, and especially amid a disastrous closing stretch of the season, there were reports of the relationship between Hurts and Sirianni being a bit of a tumultuous one, as head coach and quarterback struggled to get on the same page following an offensive coordinator change shortly after falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII.
Fast forward two seasons and one Lombardi Trophy later, and the Eagles’ duo ranks among the top in the NFL as the 2025 campaign nears.
“Opposites attract,” FOX Sports’ Henry McKenna write, ranking Hurts and Sirianni as the No. 5 coach-quarterback duo in the league. “Hurts is the calmest, chillest, most understated superstar in the NFL. Nick Sirianni is a ball of energy and emotion. And they don’t always seem to like each other, but they love the same things and that’s how they keep their love alive. I think it’s because Howie Roseman lives in the space between the two guys, linking Sirianni and Hurts with personnel that suits both of them. Because you know … Philly also has Saquon Barkley, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, among others. It’s one big family, fitting for the City of Brotherly Love.”
The Eagles return one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the sport, as Philadelphia begins its title defense.
However, regardless of the pieces of the puzzle surrounding Hurts and Sirianni, the Eagles continuing to get top-tier play from their quarterback could be the biggest key towards adding a third Lombardi to the trophy case at One NovaCare Way.
Jalen Hurts’ MVP Case
The 2024 season may have been Hurts’ most consistently dominant, and he certainly rose to the occasion in a 40-22 blowout of the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, but it was far from his strongest statistical campaign.
Hurts, 26, enters the 2025 season looking to build on a 2,903-yard season with 18 touchdowns to five interceptions which powered a 103.7 passer rating, representing the highest of his career.
Over at NFL Media, veteran analyst Judy Battista predicts Hurts could be a darkhorse candidate to win MVP.
“The reigning Super Bowl MVP,” Battista writes. “Hurts was uneven last season but finished second in MVP voting in 2022. He has plenty of weapons in the passing game — A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert — but with so much of the offense running through Barkley, Hurts might not be able to amass the type of statistics that draw the attention of MVP voters, despite leading one of the NFL’s best teams.”
The pieces are in place around Hurts, including Barkley’s presence to take significant pressure off the six-year-veteran quarterback both in the passing game and the ground attack to take major strides. If Hurts and the Eagles are even more dominant in 2025 as they were in 2024, Battista’s prediction could prove prophetic by February.
