In his first year in Philadelphia, Saquon Barkley is playing at an MVP caliber and is on pace to have the best running back season in Eagles franchise history.
Barley, the former New York giantmade one highlight reel play after another during his first 11 games with the Eagles. Are monstrous performance against the Los Angeles Rams has catapulted him into the MVP conversation.
But could he win the award that has historically been given to quarterbacks, especially over the past dozen years?
The stats behind Barkley’s historic season
When Barkley signed with the Eagles in March, many wondered if he would have the “Christian McCaffrey effect” on Philadelphia’s offense. It’s safe to say he did.
From the opening match in Brazil Following the team’s most recent win over the Rams, Barkley has been putting together dominant performance after dominant performance. Without Philadelphia’s unstoppable “Brotherly Shove” game, he would have even better numbers.
In Sunday’s 37-20 win over the Rams, Barkley had two touchdown runs of more than 70 yards on his way to a career-high 255 rushing yards. The 255 yards broke the single-game rushing record in Philadelphia, set by Eagles ace LeSean McCoy in 2013 at Lincoln Financial Field during the infamous snow game against the Detroit Lions.
Barkley’s performance against the Rams helped him earn NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors for the fourth time this season. He is the first Eagle to earn this honor four times in one season.
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Barkley’s 255 rushing yards performance was the ninth-best single-game rushing performance in NFL history and trails former running backs like Adrian Peterson, Jamal Lewis, Walter Payton and OJ Simpson, among others.
In the win over the Rams, Bakley had 47 receiving yards, giving him a total of 302 scrimmage yards. That’s the most scrimmage yards in a game in Eagles history and the ninth-most in NFL history. Barkley also eclipsed more than 1,500 scrimmage yards (1,602) on the season, making him the fastest player to reach that milestone through the first 11 games with a new team in NFL history.
Barkley is also nearing a new McCoy record.
Through 11 games, Barkley has a career-best 1,392 rushing yards. He is about 200 yards away from breaking McCoy’s record of 1,607 yards in a single season, set in 2013 during Chip Kelly’s first season in Philadelphia. Barkley is averaging 126.5 rushing yards on 6.2 yards per carry. The Birds have seven games left in the regular season, so he’ll likely shatter it.
Who was the last running back to win the NFL MVP?
Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings was the last running back to win the MVP award – in 2012. Every year since then, a quarterback has taken home the hardware.
During his 2012 MVP campaign, Peterson rushed for 2,097 yards, averaged 6.0 yards per carry and had 12 rushing touchdowns. He also had 40 catches for 217 yards and one touchdown. Peterson did this a year after tearing the ACL in his left knee, but Barkley is on pace to surpass Peterson’s 2012 numbers.
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Barkley is on pace for 345 carries, 2,151 rushing yards and about 20 touchdowns. Barkley may have an extra game to play in if the Eagles don’t rest him, given the NFL’s 17-game regular season. When Peterson won the award, the NFL had 16 regular season games.
Barkley has a slight edge over Peterson through the first eleven games of their dominant seasons, respectively.
Peterson had 1,236 rushing yards, 185 receiving yards and seven total touchdowns. Barkley has 1,392 rushing yards, 257 rushing yards and 12 total touchdowns through the first 11 games.
Last season, McCaffrey pushed for the NFL MVP award, finishing third in the voting behind Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott.
McCaffrey had a league-high 1,459 rushing yards, averaged 5.4 yards per carry, 564 receiving yards and scored 21 total touchdowns for the San Francisco 49ers.
Other running backs to win the NFL MVP award since 2000 include LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander and Marshall Faulk.
Have the Eagles ever had a player win MVP?
Only one Eagles player has won MVP in franchise history: Norm Van Brocklin in 1960.
Van Brocklin, also known as the “Dutchman,” helped the Eagles win the NFL championship in 1960 when he won the MVP award. In his MVP season, he had 2,471 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and a quarterback rating of 86.5.
Since Van Brocklin won the MVP award, several Eagles players have finished second in the MVP voting. Jalen Hurts did it in 2022, Michael Vick in 2010, Donovan McNabb finished second in 2000 and Randall Cunningham finished second in the MVP voting in 1990 and 1988.
NFL MVP betting odds
Barkley isn’t the betting favorite to win MVP, but he’s pretty close. And he could improve his chances if he has a strong performance against the Baltimore Ravens this weekend.
FanDuel Sportsbook has Barkley tied for third with Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff at +700 to win the award.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is the betting favorite at +150, while Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is in second place at +250.
