Eagles star ready to swoop up fantasy football titles for owners with high ranking

Imagine spending the whole offseason reviewing the tape of all the players in the NFL and prepping for the all-important fantasy football draft. Who would be the number one overall pick? It could possibly be Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley.

The NFL's number one fantasy football player a season ago appears to have everything in place for another run at being the top player virtually. Fantasy football is a different beast, though, and on-field success will get a player far, but more factors come into play in determining who is the best in fantasy.

Pro Football Focus writer Nathan Jahnke shared his 2025 fantasy football running back rankings. Barkley made the top five, but wasn't able to beat out Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs. The third-place ranking of Barkley is reflective of how he is still great, but may not be able to hit the home run plays he did in 2024.

"Barkley was the second pick in the 2018 draft, finished as the overall RB1 as a rookie and then faced five mixed seasons with the New York Giants before joining the Philadelphia Eagles. He led the league in carries in Philadelphia despite not playing in Week 17. While he didn’t score touchdowns from the one-yard line thanks to the tush push, he more than made up for it with a ridiculous number of long touchdown runs. His long touchdown rate is bound to regress, which will make it harder for him to repeat as the RB1."

Barkley is still a valuable asset in fantasy football

Last season, Barkley dominated the NFL with a league-leading 2,005 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns in 16 games. He also had 278 receiving yards and two additional touchdowns to add to his Pro Bowl, All-Pro, and Offensive Player of the Year award.

In fantasy, Barkley finished first at running back and overall with 322. He hadn't completed that high in fantasy football since his rookie season in 2018, when he was the second-best running back and overall player.

The tricky part about Barkley is that he is going to lose those short-yard touchdowns with his quarterback, Jalen Hurts, taking them on the Tush Push play. Barkley was more reliant on long touchdowns to hit the mark he needed to.

It may be more than likely that Barkley will not be able to replicate the 2,000-plus yards he got last year, but he is still going to put up big numbers. With the amount of work the Eagles have done during offseason workouts to include running backs in the passing game, it might only mean Barkley could see more touches through the air than on the ground.

Eagles fans will have no trouble selecting Barkley at the top of their fantasy drafts, and the rest of the virtual owners would be smart to do the same.