Saquon Barkley was the NFL's best offensive player last year, winning the AP and Sporting News awards honoring him as such. He became the ninth man in league history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a season.
He also helped the Philadelphia Eagles go 4-0 in the playoffs with 499 rushing yards, culminating in the team rolling to victory in Super Bowl 59 over the Chiefs. That game also fell on Barkley's 28th birthday, capping a historic first season with his team.
Barkley and the Eagles are 4-1 in trying to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but his numbers through Week 5 haven't come close to matching what he did in '24. Although he is producing a little more as a receiver, there's been s sharp dropoff in his rushing production.
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Here's looking at the disparity of the two seasons and explaining why Barkley is slumping:
Saquon Barkley stats 2024 vs. 2025
Barkley has been a different runner this season, going from the fast track to cleaning 2,000 yards rushing to needing to rev up to make sure he gets at least 1,000 again.
Here's looking at the stark contrast between last season and this one, based on Barkley playing only 16 games, given he rested in Week 18 of '24:
| Statistic | Barkley in '24 | Barkley 16-game pace in '25 |
| Rushing attempts | 345 (21.6 per game) | 266 (16.6 per game) |
| Rushing yards | 2,005 (125.3 per game) | 854 (53.4 per game) |
| Rushing YPA | 5.8 (career high) | 3.2 (career low) |
| Receptions | 33 | 54 |
| Receiving yards | 278 | 410 |
| Scrimmage yards | 2,283 | 1,264 |
| Total touchdowns | 15 | 13 |
Three reasons for Saquon Barkley's 2025 slump
Wear, tear and a little bit of age
Barkley is racking up the mileage with about a year and a half until he turns 30. Even though Barkley has missed 26 games because of injury or rest since being drafted No. 2 overall by the Giants in 2018, he still has averaged about 270 touches per season.
Last year, Barkley led the league with 345 carries and 378 touches in his 16 games. He had 91 carries and 13 catches in the playoffs, bringing those totals to 436 and 482 over 20 games. That comes up to near 24 touches per game, a high volume in the modern NFL for any back.
Barkley had to play one month longer than most running backs. History has shown that kind of workload can lead to a slowdown or worse, injury attrition. With the same kind of work, former Titan Chris Johnson dropped from 2,006 rushing yards in 2009 to 1,364 in 2010. Adrian Peterson followed his 2,097-yard season with the Vikings in 2012 with 1,266 in 2013.
There's a reason no player has rushed for 2,000 yards twice in their career, because of the toll it takes just doing it once. Back-to-back seasons doing that are impossible. It's shocking how less explosive Barkley has looked at times in '25, with so far no runs longer than 17 yards. He had 17 rushes of 20 or more yards in '24.
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Eagles' offensive line woes
There has been no issues with their stud blockers on the outside, left tackle Jordan Mailata and right tackle Lane Johnson. They have been their typical rocks in both run blocking and pass protection.
But the work in the interior, with banged-up left guard Landon Dickerson. struggling center Cam Jurgens and overwhelmed Tyler Steen has been well below par. They're not doing the same work together between the tackles to get Barkley pounding like he did last season. "Tush pushing" for Jalen Hurts remains effective, but that's more of a short-yardage success. There hasn't been room for Barkley to get chunk yards, especially with defenses focused on taking him away from the Eagles' offense first and taking their chances with Hurts passing.
Less effective rushing volume
The Eagles haven't fed Barkley the ball enough. They forgot to run with a lead in the second half against the Broncos with Nick Sirianni, leading to a blown lead and the first loss of the season. They are giving up on the run too early after some frustration with Barkley slow out of the gate.
Because of that, they are trying to manufacture more Barkley opportunities in the open field with more throws to him, also in part because the wide receivers, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, are struggling to connect with Hurts on downfield passes. Barkley's most explosive play of the season did come against Denver, a 47-yard scoring catch and run on a wheel route.
With five fewer rushing attempts per game on average, Barkley isn't getting the chance to build momentum to help play closer in the second half. He's not getting enough work against worn-down or tired defenses, which often lead to those big-play rushing bursts.
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Sirianni's play-calling has been off, but the symbiotic relationship between the passing and running games is off. When Barkley is shut down on the ground, it means that Brown and Smith do their thing. That's happened, however, in only one game, against the Rams in Week 4.
If the run is not setting up the deep pass the way the Eagles would like, then not stretching the field will lead to a more compressed offense where the defense can squeeze on the Eagles. It's not a coincidence that Hurts has a career-low 6.4 yards per passing attempt at the same Barkley is being stuffed.
Barkley needs Hurts to get Brown and Smith going as their usual dangerous receiving threats. The fact that tight end Dallas Goedert is bailing out Hurts more often than usual through the red zone isn't a good development for the ceiling of this offense.
The Eagles getting back to their high rushing floor with Barkley is critical and that's what in turn will see better stats for Hurts, Brown and Smith.