It's hard to look at Saquon Barkley's 2025 season with the Philadelphia Eagles and consider it anything other than a disappointment.
Now granted, he hasn't been bad per se, he will still finish out the 2025 NFL season with well over 1,000 yards, maybe as high as the mid 1,200s, but after going for over 2,000 yards in one of the single greatest running back seasons in NFL history, ranking at the lower end of the top-10 isn't the outcome many expected when Howie Roseman handed the Penn State product a raise heading into his second season in midnight green.
Fortunately, after taking a back seat in the Eagles' offense during the month of November, with his stats pretty much falling across the board during the Birds' losing streak, Barkley has found his sea legs in the month of December, rushing for at least 100 yards in two of the team's three games while averaging a very impressive 5.3 yards per carry on the ground.
After only recording one game with a rushing attempt longer than 19 yards through the first 12 games of the season, Barkley has gone for 40-plus twice in three weeks, going for 52 against the Los Angeles Chargers on MNF, and for 48 against the Washington Commanders in Week 16.
Is Barkley back? Has he unlocked that x-factor that his game has been missing all season long, or did he simply get lucky on two great runs, with his average over the three games dropping below 4.0 yards per carry with those two runs removed? For the Eagles' sake, let's hope it's the former, as it's clear Nick Sirianni still wants to be a run-first team, even if the team's attempts haven't directly correlated to production due to so many sub-3.0-yard runs.
Fortunately, Barkley and the Eagles have a chance to really pick up some ground in the penultimate game of the regular season, with their opponent, the Buffalo Bills, sporting one of the worst rushing defenses in the NFL.
The Eagles need to take advantage of the Bills' rushing defense
With 16 weeks of action in the books, the Bills rank 29th in rushing defense, allowing 5.4 yards per carry and 24 total rushing touchdowns since September, not-so-good for the 31st and 32nd-best marks in the NFL. Through 15 games of action, Sean McDormitt's unit has held only four of their opponents to less than 100 yards on the ground, with four, the Baltimore Ravens, the Atlanta Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New England Patriots all breaking the 200 rushing yard mark.
To make matters worse for Buffalo, they will be without two defensive tackles when they take on the Eagles, with DaQuon Jones and Jordan Phillips both being ruled out for the game, which, when coupled with their best defensive tackle, Ed Oliver, already landing on IR, leaves the team rather light in the middle of their defense.
Now granted, there have been games where the Eagles have faced off against below-average rushing defenses and didn't really exploit them. Barkley was held under 100 yards against the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in September, both of whom he had success against in 2024, and he only picked up 22 yards on the ground against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 12 despite the fact that 12 of their 15 opponents ran for over 100 yards on the season.
Fortunately, since going for over 100 against the Chargers, Barkley has seemingly been rejuvenated and has accepted that the best way to hit home runs is to consistently put bat to ball and force opponents to play him honestly, instead of charging to the sidelines to turn a potential small gain into a negative play. As a result of Barkley's new attitude, the Eagles are getting better field position on second and third down, which, in turn, makes life easier for Jalen Hurts and company, and the playbook opens up for Sirianni, Kevin Patullo, and company, with Dallas Goedert and DeVonta Smith reaping the benefits early on.
Throw that all together, and Week 17 could be the final piece in getting Barkley back on track in time for the playoffs.
Could the Bills go all-in on bottling up Barkley and set his late 2025 progress back to square one? Sure, the Denver Broncos went all-in on slowing down Barkley and held him to a season-low as a result. But considering the Bills' tendencies, personnel, and playoff standings, Week 17 might just serve as the perfect dress rehearsal for Barkley, where he can get success against another Super Bowl hopeful, put some good film on tape, and allow Tank Bigsby to run out the clock in the frigid cold of Upstate New York.
