The NFL offseason always features plenty of twists and turns. There is always a ton of activity in the spring when players swap teams thanks to free agency, the NFL Draft, and player trades. The Athletic’s Dianna Russini recently dropped a couple of interesting nuggets about what could have been in a recent article.
Philadelphia Eagles RB Saquon Barkley (26)
The Houston Texans were reportedly in the mix for RB Saquon Barkley in free agency. As many fans saw on HBO’s Hard Knocks: Offseason, Barkley left the Giants to seek a better deal in free agency. Russini reports that Houston was aggressively in pursuit of Barkley, but was eventually priced out by Philadelphia.
The Eagles ended up paying Barkley nearly $13 million per season on a three-year deal. This puts Barkley in the top five RBs in the NFL in terms of average annual value. Other top earners at RB include Christian McCaffrey ($19 million), Alvin Kamara ($15 million), Jonathan Taylor ($14 million), and Josh Jacobs ($12 million). Barkley and Jacobs were two of the best RBs to hit the open market in quite some time. This caused many to assume that they would have monster paydays. It turns out that was completely right.
The Texans upgraded their RB room this offseason by trading for Joe Mixon from the Bengals. Mixon was about to be cut, but the Texans swooped in and sent a late-round pick to acquire him.
Mixon also signed a three-year, $27 million contract extension with the Texans after being traded.
Everything seemed to work out well for both teams in the end.
Mixon ran for 159 yards and a touchdown in his Texans debut. Meanwhile, Barkley ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns in Brazil, adding 23 yards and a touchdown through the air.
It is hard to imagine that the Texans could have added Barkley to their already awesome offense.
Regardless, both NFL fanbases are thrilled to have their new running backs.
