Saquon Barkley is a running back who has become a mountain climber. Soon, he should be the Eagles’ king of the rushing hill, ascending to a height nobody in team history could reach in a single season. After that, a mountain awaits.
Whether he can scale it will depend on those who vote for the MVP award. Clearly, Barkley belongs in the conversation. One problem, though. It’s believed to be an award that goes only to quarterbacks.
There have been exceptions, though. Can Barkley be one, too, and make it to the top of the NFL mountain?
The last non-quarterback to take home one of the game’s highest honors was in 2012 when Adrian Peterson did it. There were three other running backs who have done it this century – The Chargers’ LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006, the Seahawks’ Shaun Alexander in 2005, and the Rams’ Marshall Faulk in 2000.
You look at the numbers and you see why:
-Peterson: 2,097 yards with 12 touchdowns; 40 catches for 217 yards and one TD.
-Tomlinson: 1,815 yards with 28 touchdowns; 56 catches for 508 yards and three TDs.
-Alexander: 1,880 yards with 27 touchdowns; 15 catches for 78 yards and one TD.
-Faulk: 1,359 yards with 18 touchdowns; 81 catches for 830 yards and eight TDs.
With six games left, here are Barkley’s numbers:
-1,392 yards rushing with 10 touchdowns; 27 catches for 257 yards and two TDs.
“We’ll start worrying about (MVP) when the season is over,” said Barkley. “I love being in that conversation. It’s cool and all, but like I said, it’s a team sport. If you tell me I can have the year I’m having, win an MVP, but not win the Super Bowl, (I’d prefer the Super Bowl).”
The 255 yards Barkley put up in Sunday night’s 37-20 win over the Rams set the new Eagles single-game rushing record, breaking LeSean McCoy’s mark of 217 set in a blizzard of snow back in 2013. The 255 yards was also the ninth-highest total in NFL history.
Barkley ended with 302 total yards, which was also the ninth-highest amount in league history, and the most since Antonio Brown put up 306 in 2015.
There's a good chance Barkley could climb to No. 2 on the team’s all-team, single-season rushing chart in Sunday’s 4:25 game at the Baltimore Ravens. He is currently fifth with 1,392 yards.
In his sights:
-Wilbert Montgomery (1,402 in 1981)
-Ricky Watters (1,411 in 1996)
-Montgomery (1,512 in 1979)
The king of the rushing hill is McCoy, who put up 1,607 in 2013. Barkley should zoom past that by Christmas at the latest.
Barkley was asked in the postgame locker room if what he is doing is more than he could have envisioned when he chose to flee New York and sign a three-year deal with Philly in the offseason.
“To be honest, I’m not surprised,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d have this much success. …I’m thankful to be here. I’m thankful for the fresh start. A big reason why I wanted to come here … I think this is the spot where I could rewrite my story and show everyone what type of player that I feel like I can be and was meant to be.”
He never had that chance for whatever reason for a Giants team that hasn’t been able to get out of its own way for nearly a decade. So bad were those Giants teams Barkley played on that he said he has no idea what a championship vibe in a locker room feels like, such as the one currently coursing through the Eagles’ locker room.
“I don’t really know what that feels like,” he said. “I guess that’s a blessing in disguise. But we have a great group of guys here.”
