Saquon Barkley has much of a chance of winning the NFL MVP award as the Raiders do in hiring a coach who will survive more than two seasons. Barkley will have to settle for being the ninth player to rush for 2,000 yards and leading the Eagles into the division playoffs because he has one defect.
Barkley is a running back, who aligns behind the quarterback in more ways than one. Quarterbacks have won the past 11 NFL MVP awards and the Bills’ Josh Allen or the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson will make it 12. And a running back has not captured the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry in 2015.
No NFL team picked a running back in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft. The same was true in 2022. Only twice in the previous 40 years did teams take a pass on selecting a running back in the first round. Jonathon Brooks was the first to go last year at No. 46. Breece Hall was No. 36 in 2022.
Brooks would have likely gone in the first round had he not torn the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee as a junior at Texas. His rookie season with the Panthers lasted all of nine carries before the ligament tore again. Hall has also had his share of mishaps, the first being he plays for the Jets.
Barkley had the misfortune of spending six seasons with the Giants, who let him go as a free agent after investing $160 million in quarterback Daniel Jones. The Giants cut Jones on Nov. 22 and are stuck with $70 million in dead money. As the saying goes, “A fool and his money are soon parted.”
The Eagles will pay Barkley $37.75 million for three years. Jones made $46 million in 2023. Eleven quarterbacks made at least that much this season and Allen was not among them. Jackson was No. 8 at $52 million, trailing Trevor Lawrence (No. 4 at $55 million) and Tua Tagovailoa (No. 5 at $53 million). Allen made $43 mllion.
Christian McCaffrey was the highest paid running back at $19 million, making each of his 50 carries for the 49ers in an injury-plagued season worth $380,000. The Colts’ Jonathan Taylor was second at $14 million and Barkley third at $12.58 million, making $6,274 for each of his 2005 rushing yards.
With Barkley running wild, the Eagles became the first team since 2009 with 600 rushing attempts (621) in a season. The Eagles and Ravens both rushed for more than 3,000 yards, the first time two teams have done so in the past 25 years. One team has gained 3,000 in four of the past six years.
Neither the Eagles nor the Ravens would have made it without a 17th game. The Ravens had 220 yards in their regular-season finale against the Browns to finish with 3,189. The Eagles would have finished at 2,997 after running for 51 against the Giants with Barkley taking a well-deserved break.
The running resurgence has closed the gap between 1,000-yard rushers and 1,000-yard receivers. Sixteen reached 1,000 in rushing and 24 did so in receiving this season. That is the closest margin since there were 17 of each in 2010. Receivers have a 233-110 advantage in the past 10 seasons.
At least 10 teams have had a 1,000-yard rusher in each of the past three seasons, the longest such streak since a 22-year run from 1992 to 2013. The streak ended in 1991 when seven players ran for 1,000. There were just seven 1,000-yard rushers in 2021 before the current streak of 16, 12 and 16.
Running backs continue to have the upper hand in touchdowns with 13 scoring 10 or more this season. There were eight receivers to do so and the Bengals’ Ja’Marr Chase was the NFL leader with 17. Three running backs each scored 16 – James Cook, Jahmyr Gibbs and Derrick Henry.
Chase was the first receiver to win the scoring title since Davante Adams with 18 in 2020. There have been 57 running backs with 10 or more touchdowns in five of the past six seasons compared with 40 receivers. There was a tie in 2021 with eight running backs and eight receivers reaching 10.
