PHILADELPHIA -- A strong case can be made that Eagles star running back Saquon Barkley will be more active in the passing game in 2025 to counteract the attention he will receive as a rusher.
Barkley is fresh off a season for the ages in which he became the ninth player in NFL history to rush for 2,000 yards in the regular season. He added 499 yards and five touchdowns in the postseason to move into first place all time in single-season rushing yards, including playoffs, and led Philadelphia to its second Super Bowl title.
Those numbers would have been gaudier if not for the Kansas City Chiefs' heavy focus on him in Super Bowl LIX. The Eagles made it look easy with their 40-22 win, but it was a tough day for Barkley, who ran for 57 yards on 25 attempts.
The Chiefs had seven or more defenders in the box on 38 plays in the Super Bowl, per ESPN Research, their second-most such plays in any game in 2024. And they blitzed just seven times, likely in part to avoid getting gashed by Barkley. The Chiefs recorded a run stop win rate of 36.1% -- their second-best performance of the year -- and limited Barkley to 2.3 yards per carry.
"The Chiefs did a really good job. Every time I go back and watch that game or see clips of it, I was in hell, for sure," Barkley said. "But the beauty of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles is we have a lot of great guys around us, so whatever teams want to do, it's kind of pick your poison."
Jalen Hurts won Super Bowl MVP with his three-touchdown performance while demonstrating that the pass game, armed with standout players such as A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, can rise to the occasion when called upon.
But Barkley proved to be the offensive engine, and the Eagles will want to keep him central to the plans. One way is to get him the ball through the air.
And Barkley has been quite active as a receiver in training camp, lining up all over the formation and challenging defenders in short and intermediate distances as well as deep down the field.
Barkley has pulled in some difficult catches, including a one-hander in the flat, and has been predictably difficult to get a hold of once in space. He nearly secured a long touchdown pass from Hurts on a fly route, but rookie linebacker Smael Mondon Jr. knocked the ball loose at the last moment.
"It's something that I'm really comfortable with, something that I did especially early on in my career. And I've got to be able to adapt," Barkley said. "It's got to look different. What different looks like, I don't know, but I've got to be effective in many ways and that's in pass pro, that's catching the ball, that's running the ball, that's leading. The only thing that matters is winning football games. 'Whatever I can do to help,' that's my mindset."
Barkley had 91 catches for 721 yards in his rookie season in 2018, by far his career highs in both categories. Last season, he finished with 33 grabs for 278 yards and 2 scores, his fewest receptions other than 2020 when he played in just two games because of injury. There's room for a bump in pass-game production, even with Brown, Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert needing their touches.
Barkley will likely be joined in the backfield by AJ Dillon and Will Shipley, who also has some pass-catching skills. The Eagles will be mindful of Barkley's snap count after logging a career-high 345 attempts in 2024, but it doesn't sound like his playing time will be reduced dramatically.
"It's interesting. We've kind of talked about that, he and I have," offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said of Barkley's workload. "It's very game-specific. It depends on how the flow of the game goes and how we'll use it. He does a really good job of knowing himself of when he needs to come out, when he wants to go back in. So, a lot of that will be on him, obviously during games, and he's really good about paying attention to that."