NFL coordinator shares criticism of Eagles' Saquon Barkley after down season

Running back Saquon Barkley and other Philadelphia Eagles offensive players endured a down 2025 NFL season before the club unceremoniously parted ways with much-maligned offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo this past winter. 

Former Green Bay Packers quarterbacks coach Sean Mannion is now serving as the Eagles' OC. On Monday, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler spoke with one unnamed NFL coordinator about what Barkley is and isn't at this stage of his career. 

One knock has often hovered over Saquon Barkley

"My only criticism is that he doesn't always produce when things aren't completely clean," the coordinator said about Barkley. "That's dating back to the Giants. Tends to need things perfectly set up for him."

Barkley featured for the Giants from 2018 until he joined the Eagles following the 2023 season. StatMuse shows that he ended the 2024 regular season with a league-best 2,283 total yards from scrimmage en route to winning the Offensive Player of the Year Award while playing under then-OC Kellen Moore, who left the Eagles to become head coach of the New Orleans Saints in February 2025. To compare, Barkley was 15th in the league with 1,413 total yards from scrimmage last season. 

That said, one high-ranking personnel official with an NFL team doesn't blame Barkley for what the ball-carrier didn't accomplish with the 2025 Eagles.

"I'm not going to penalize him for a terrible all-around offense last year," the official said about Barkley. "He's still a three-down weapon, and if I needed a running back for one season, I'm still taking him [No.1]."

There are some concerning Saquon Barkley stats from 2025 season

Fowler asked "league executives, coaches and scouts" to rank the NFL's top running backs for the article. Bijan Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons topped the list, followed by Jahmyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions and Barkley. 

However, Fowler noted that Barkley's "four runs of 20-plus yards were 13 fewer than the previous year" and that Barkley's "rushing yards over expected, as charted by NFL Next Gen Stats, went from second in the NFL in 2024 to 24th last season." 

How Barkley plays under Mannion could ultimately help determine whether or not Jalen Hurts is the Eagles' starting quarterback at this time next year. Rumors about Hurts' future will seemingly hover over the Eagles at least until he resumes taking regular-season snaps this coming September.