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    • Saquon Barkley for NFL MVP? The Eagles RB case isn’t as good as you think
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    Saquon Barkley for NFL MVP? The Eagles RB case isn’t as good as you think

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    The greatness of Saquon Barkley is undeniable.

    There’s no denying that he saved his career by signing with the Philadelphia Eagles this year — or, put another way, by escaping the New York (Little?) Giants. There’s no denying that we’re all being treated to appointment football now that he’s been given some deserved primetime podiums – starting with his Eagles debut in South America (of all places) in Week 1 to his pair of big performances over the past twelve days – transcendent abilities worthy of being compared to the (almost) incomparable Barry Sanders when Barkley came out of Penn State in 2018.

    But should he be the NFL MVP in 2024? I have to deny him that.

    It’s completely understandable to pair him with the league’s premier award for football excellence — even though no running back has won it since 2012; Adrian Peterson is the only runner to be so honored in the past eighteen years. But to see how Barkley followed up his scintillating showing of Week 11, when he broke the Washington Commanders by burning their defense multiple times in the fourth quarter, to his tour de force Sunday night – a career best (and club record) of 255 rushing yards and counting than 300 in total for a national audience is the stuff of legends (and bronze busts) – sparking debates, shifting the bets and tapping into our (temporary) obsession with the shiny object du jour.

    Even Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay fueled the discussion after his team’s 37-20 loss.

    “He’s as good as a slash runner, to be able to work edges and then clear corners and finish,” he said after watching Barkley make LA’s late-game defensive gambles oh-so futile.

    “That’s why he had the production he had, and that’s maybe why he’s had an MVP-type season so far.”

    Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said of No. 26: “He has everything you look for in a back. He was great, and he was great tonight.”

    Perhaps at some point Barkley’s candidacy will become undeniable. With the advantage of the 17-game regular season, he’s on pace to do what Peterson couldn’t quite accomplish 12 years ago: break Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 yards, set over 16 games in 1984. Barkley is on pace for 2,151, and the Eagles (9-2) may need him for all 17 games in an effort to overtake the Detroit Lions. (10-1) in the race for home field advantage and a first-round bye on the NFC side of the playoffs.

    However, I have already taken a deep breath since seeing Barkley as Hollywood’s leading man for an evening.

    Again, the man is great. The production, the reliability, the unassuming demeanor, the breakaway speed, the ankle-breaking cuts, the reverse hurdle – it’s exactly the kind of package we crave in our sports stars. And it certainly feels like Barkley has made the Eagles better.

    But they also made him better. Waaaaa better.

    Philadelphia is on a seven-game winning streak and trails only the Lions in the NFC. Conversely, this has been the Eagles’ season for the past three seasons worst 11-game start (they were 10-1 in both 2022 and 2023, when Barkley was still toiling in Gotham).

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    With all due respect to Shady McCoy, Brian Westbrook, Wilbert Montgomery and others, Barkley is probably the best defenseman the City of Brotherly Love has called its own since Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren delivered the franchise’s first two of four titles. three quarters of which a century ago. (And with all due respect to Van Buren – he scored the only points in a snowstorm in the 1948 title game and ran 196 yards over the Rams in the championship round of ’49, LA apparently a historic breeding ground for Philly backs – but I’m would take Barkley.)

    But let’s not forget that the Eagles’ real MVP(s) are almost certainly the five men doing the primary blocking for Barkley, a symphonic mauling led by legendary offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland. This was a unit that paved the way for Miles Sanders, Barkley’s former Nittany Lions teammate, to rush for 1,269 yards in 2022, after which he signed a hefty contract with the Carolina Panthers… and hasn’t been heard from since. This was a group that helped D’Andre Swift put together his only 1,000-yard season in the NFL last year before joining the Chicago Bears. This is a quintet known for creating the infamous “tush push” – Philly’s frontal offense that produces first downs and touchdowns in short-yardage situations almost without fail.

    Even after the retirement of iconic center Jason Kelce — following a 2023 campaign that ultimately fell apart with something akin to a locker-room mutiny as Sirianni put his staff on the spot — Stoutland somehow seems to be the frontrunner to have made five better. Cam Jurgens has capably replaced Kelce. Following New York’s Barkley, Mekhi Becton – a first-round washout as the Jets’ left tackle – has reinvented himself by taking over the right guard spot vacated by Jurgens and, along with Jordan Mailata, gives Barkley a pair of 360-pounders to run after. According to the NFL analytics website PFF, Mailata is the league’s top left tackle. Left guard Landon Dickerson is likely headed to his third straight Pro Bowl, and right tackle Lane Johnson could be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when he’s done.

    Now it’s Barkley, averaging almost 50 rushing yards more per game than he did during his time with the Giants, who are the beneficiaries of this steak-and-cheese grinder that routinely pulverizes opponents into submission.

    I was able to personally witness the formula as the Eagles ruthlessly attacked the commanders. Barkley was steady, if fairly unspectacular, for most of that evening at Lincoln Financial Field – until the dam broke and he ran for a pair of touchdowns for 62 yards in a 20-second span in the final five minutes of the game. time frame of 20 seconds. He finished with 198 yards from scrimmage.

    Chicken? Egg? Hammer? Scythe? Line? Barkley?

    “We’ve found a rhythm offensively,” Johnson told me when I asked about their approach and success.

    “We like the big, explosive plays. We like to give the ball to Saquon and physically beat teams up front. If you can do that, it opens up the passing game and weakens the pass rush when you attack guys like we do. Complementary football.”

    And Barley is an additional piece here. That’s not to deprive him of even an ounce of the honor he’s due, but…

    ▶ For some reason, quarterback Jalen Hurts still does most of the dirty work in the short yardage: eight of his team-leading 11 TD runs from 1 yard. (Barkley’s TD runs average 31 yards – great, including two of 70+ against the Rams – but he hasn’t cleared it from the 1-yard line yet.)

    ▶ Call it a quirky stat if you want, but the Eagles are 8-0 when Pro Bowl wideout AJ Brown is available, but 1-2 without him. And Barkley dropped a very catchy pass against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 2, which he himself cited as the reason why Philadelphia lost.

    ▶ A defense full of blossoming stars — one that fell apart and perhaps even folded in 2023 following the departure of coordinator Jonathan Gannon for the Arizona Cardinals’ top job — now sits in first place in the overall standings, with grizzled assistant Vic Fangio the has leadership.

    ▶ Even Sirianni seems to have gotten out of the way enough that his employment status is no longer a weekly discussion point. And say what you will about the polarizing HC, but he has a very enviable 43-19 regular-season record and is headed to his fourth playoff appearance in four seasons — most of that success, of course, predating 2024 .

    Barkley is a superstar, a unicorn at his position, likely an eventual Hall of Famer. He is an extremely valuable player for the Eagles.

    He also plays tailback for a team that less than two years ago would have been just one questionable call away from beating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 57…without him.

    With the most profuse apologies to Mr. Barkley, the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen, the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and perhaps even Detroit’s Jared Goff should probably sit pretty low – none of those teams are likely to survive without their respective quarterbacks, while the Eagles have already done that. proven to be championship caliber pre-Barkley. In a quarterback-driven league that tends to reward that all-important position appropriately, one of them will — and should — probably be the 2024 MVP.

    Sorry, Saquon.

    ***

    Follow Nate Davis of USA TODAY Sports on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.

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