July 24, 2025
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Running back Saquon Barkley during Eagles training camp at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday, July 23, 2025.
On the stat sheet, Saquon Barkley's historic year ended quietly.
The Kansas City Chiefs' defense stacked the box in the last game of the season to ensure that he alone wouldn't beat them, and it managed to hold the Eagles' star running back to just 57 yards on the ground and, really, one big 22-yard catch into goal-to-go territory.
"I was in hell, for sure," Barkley said of that day.
But it was OK. Jalen Hurts and the rest of the Eagles' offense had it more than handled, pummeling the once thought untouchable Chiefs, 40-22, in Super Bowl LIX to bring home Philadelphia's second championship in seven years.
"The beauty of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles, we have a lot of great guys around us," Barkley told the local media gathered at the NovaCare Complex on Wednesday following the first practice of training camp. "Whatever teams wanna do, it's kind of pick your poison."
Ultimately, Barkley's muted numbers in the Super Bowl will stand as a minor footnote in what was a game-changing 2024 across the board – they pretty much already do, now that the confetti's been swept up and the championship rings have been handed out.
Every week, Barkley was taking off for highlight reel plays, whether it was leaping over a tackler backwards or streaking toward the end zone in heavy playoff snowfall, and capturing the hearts of the city and Eagles fans everywhere in a way only a few other athletes have done before.
By the end, he was 2024's rushing champion and the Eagles' all-time single-season rusher with 2,005 yards, a back who fell a rest week and a 101 more yards shy of the NFL's all-time single-seaon rushing record, the league's Offensive Player of the Year winner a few weeks later, but above all, a Super Bowl champion to cap off what was a dream of a season in Philadelphia.
So how do you follow that up? Or even fully turn the page from it?
"We get asked that question a lot, like how do you mentally turn the page," Barkley said. "It's kind of easy. It's the nature of this game, it's the nature of this business, 'What have you done for me lately?'
"Whether you won a Super Bowl, whether you have a great year and you're All-Pro, what you did the year prior has nothing to do with this year coming up."
But it can set a standard and expectations, and also be framed by history.
Obviously, Barkley and the Eagles' main goal is to win the Super Bowl again, and on paper, they're in about as good a position as any reigning champ could be to defend the title.
Individually, though, Barkley is coming off that 2,000-yard season, which required a heavy workload to reach and is coupled with the fact that past running backs who achieved the feat produced varying results the following year, but never to those exact same heights.
"It's hard to do it in general," Barkley said of getting to 2,000 yards once, much less twice.
Health plays a major factor in that, and will for this coming season in general, as the Eagles try to keep their No. 1 running back's carries under control so that they can better make sure that he can endure the full 17-game schedule (and then some).
Barkley's own maintenance of himself will count for a lot, too.
He said back at OTAs in the spring that while he didn't alter his offseason program too much, the 28-year-old was prioritizing rest more and taking in advice from running back greats like Marshall Faulk and Edgerrin James, who took on a lot of wear and tear throughout their own respective careers.
On Wednesday, Barkley said that he hadn't spoken to Ravens running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 2,000 yards with the Titans in 2020, or any other living member of the 2,000-yard club about how they managed themselves following those respective record seasons.
He said he was leaning on the Eagles' training staff, along with his own team, to stay on his program.
And as long as it helps him to keep the Eagles in contention, he'll take whatever numbers it yields.
"For me, 2,000 yards is not the goal," Barkley said. "It's winning the Super Bowl and going out there and performing at a high level. I didn't come in with the mindset last year to rush for 2,000 yards. It kind of just happened, so just stay in the moment, take care of the little things, be consistent with my process, and be obsessive with my process, make sure that it's non-negotiable.
"If it's in the cards again, it is. If it's not, it's not."
Here's a look at all nine of the NFL's 2,000-plus yard rushers and the yardage they posted the following years to wrap up, noting that many of the far lower numbers were the result of injury:
| Leading Rusher | Record Season | Following Season |
| 1) Eric Dickerson | 1984 - 2,105 yds | 1985 - 1,234 yds |
| 2) Adrian Peterson | 2012 - 2,097 yds | 2013 - 1,266 yds |
| 3) Jamal Lewis | 2003 - 2,066 yds | 2004 - 1,006 yds |
| 4) Barry Sanders | 1997 - 2,053 yds | 1998 - 1,491 yds |
| 5) Derrick Henry | 2020 - 2,027 yds | 2021 - 937 yds |
| 6) Terrell Davis | 1998 - 2,008 yds | 1999 - 211 yds |
| 7) Chris Johnson | 2009 - 2,006 yds | 2010 - 1,364 yds |
| 8) Saquon Barkley | 2024 - 2,005 yds | 2025 - ??? |
| 9) O.J. Simpson | 1973 - 2,003 yds | 1974 - 1,125 yds |
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