Just one year into Saquon Barkley’s time with the Eagles. And it seems the running back has accomplished nearly everything.
A Perfect Season
Saquon wasted no time kicking the season off. Starting the season in Brazil with a 3 touchdown, 109 yard performance. With 435 yards in the team’s opening 4 games. Being 2-2 almost sounds like a fever dream.
As the Eagles figured out their offensive woes to start the season, Saquon’s year really took off. With 11 games over 100 rushing yards, and 5 of those games being over the 150 yard mark. Saquon was reaching numbers every week the Eagles could only dream of getting out of Miles Sanders or D’Andre Swift in years past. Including a 255 yard performance against the Los Angeles Rams.
In 16 games, Saquon totalled 345 rushing attempts, with 2,005 yards and an average of 5.8Y/A and 125.3Y/G. Only 100 yards short of Eric Dickerson’s 2,105 yard rushing record which gave the Eagles and their fans plenty of discourse ahead of week 18.
Of course there was ample opportunity for the Eagles to pad their stats during early season blowouts against the Giants and Cowboys. Where Barkley never saw a snap in the 4th quarter of those games.
Regardless, Barkley was rewarded for his incredible season with a handful of accolades. Being nominated to the Pro Bowl, as well as being awarded with 1st team All Pro, OPoY and 3rd place in MVP voting.
Rewarding Quick Success
The Eagles originally signed Saquon as a free agent with a 3-year $37.750M contract. With an average salary of $12.583M the Eagles struck gold with one of the leagues best running backs.
Less than a month after winning the Super Bowl, the Eagles doubled down and opened the check book back up. Extending Saquon to an additional 2 year contract worth a total of $41.2M. Making him the highest paid running back in the NFL (Christian McCaffrey $19m/year)
They’ll now have Saquon in the backfield for at least 4 more seasons.
Where Do You Go From Here?
The Eagles are already on top. The offensive core is signed to contracts for the next handful of years, with 13 draft picks coming in next April’s draft. Perfect to help the team load up on talent during the trade deadline.
So what’s next?
The pressure is off from blowing Super Bowl 57, forever cemented as winners of Super Bowl 59. The only thing now for the Eagles is to continue being a dominant team under Hurts & Sirianni and build towards punching their ticket to Super Bowl 60.
Photo Credit: Matt Slocum / AP Photo
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