Many are raving about the Philadelphia Eagles‘ signing of running back Saquon Barkley, but there is no doubt that the move comes with risks.
Gilbert Manzano of Sports Illustrated lists Barkley among the most likely free-agent signings to bust for his new team, buttressing his point by mentioning Barkley’s injury history and recent decline.
The Eagles handed Barkley a three-year, $37.5 million deal, making him the fourth highest-paid halfback in the NFL heading into 2024. The three halfbacks ahead of him? Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara and Jonathan Taylor.
McCaffrey has been considerably more productive than Barkley in recent seasons, and Jonathan Taylor is a couple of years younger. Meanwhile, Kamara has been a major disappointment for the New Orleans Saints since signing his contract extension.
While Manzano doesn’t go as far to say that Barkley’s deal will be as much of an albatross as Kamara’s, he finds it hard to believe that Barkley will perform as well as McCaffrey or Taylor next season.
Barkley is coming off of a rough 2023 campaign with the New York Giants in which he rushed for 962 yards and six touchdowns while averaging a pedestrian 3.9 yards per carry. He missed three games with an ankle injury, which has been par the course for the Penn State product throughout his NFL career.
Since entering the league in 2018, Barkley has played just one full season, which came during his rookie campaign. He tore his ACL in 2020, and since then, he has logged over four yards per carry just once.
If healthy, there is no doubt that Barkley is one of the best running backs in football, but that’s just the thing: he is rarely healthy, and now, he is 27 years old, which is not exactly young for a halfback.
Saquon Barkley could take Philadelphia’s offense to a new level. Or, Philly could end up realizing it would have been better off re-signing D’Andre Swift at a much cheaper price.
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