It might be time for Mike Tomlin and the NFL’s competition committee to take another look at the Eagles
I was told it was a violation of the spirit of the game for a team to line up and run a play that can’t be stopped even when an opponent knows it is coming. Isn't handing it to Saquon Barkley that?
Sorry to dig up the dead horse, but the NFL’s competition committee can’t ignore the Eagles much longer. Their unfair advantage has grown to insurmountable proportions. I realize that I’m not going to win many friends by saying this, but justice and fair play shouldn’t be parochial things. The Eagles have made such a mockery of the system that they’ve left the NFL with no other option.
It’s time to do something that probably should have been done last offseason.
It’s time to ban Saquon Barkley.
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just following the logic we heard all last season. Back then, I was told it was a violation of the spirit of the game for a team to line up and run a play that can’t be stopped even when an opponent knows it is coming. What does a Super Bowl title even mean if a team wins it by doing the same exact thing over and over and over again? This isn’t Madden NFL 95, right?
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Barkley sure is making it seem that way. Every time he touches the ball he looks like an early-bloomer at fifth-grade recess. Grown men bounce off him like they are subatomic particles with the same charge. I don’t know what a Large Hadron Collider is, but I assume it wears No. 26.
You want to talk about unfair advantage? Barkley just set the Eagles’ single-season rushing record in 13 games. He is already one of only 51 running backs to finish an NFL season with at least 1,623 yards and 266 carries. And he still has four more games left in the season. I mean, the guy is on pace to lead the NFL in both carries and yards per attempt. You know how many other players have done that? One. His name was Jim Brown.
“The acquisition of Saquon Barkley has got to be the most significant acquisition in the NFL in 2024,” Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told reporters earlier this week. “That’s what the tape looks like. He’s been dominant. Eye-opening at times, obviously. Highlight reel-caliber plays, long runs, touchdowns, etc. It starts there for us. If you don’t minimize him in some way, you’re not even going to position yourself to have a chance to be successful.”
The Steelers aren’t exactly strangers when it comes to great running backs. Tomlin knows that’s what he is going to be facing when his team arrives at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday. It’s been billed as the Pennsylvania State Championship. Who knows? It could go down as a preview of the actual NFL championship, with the Steelers at 10-3 and the Eagles at 11-2. Or, maybe the legacy of this game will be even greater.
Thing about Tomlin, see, is he’s on the competition committee. In fact, by the end of this season, the Eagles will have played seven of the 10 teams that are represented on the committee. Atlanta Falcons CEO Rich McKay watched Barkley rush for 95 yards on 22 carries but watched his team sneak out a 22-21 victory. Tampa Bay Bucs coach Todd Bowles also claimed a 33-16 win while holding Barkley to 84 yards on 10 carries. Dallas Cowboys chief operating officer Stephen Jones (14/66), Cincinnati Bengals executive vice president Katie Blackburn (22/108), New York Giants owner John Mara (17/176), and Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay (26/255) — their teams have been outscored by a combined 136-46 by Barkley and the Eagles this season. If you can’t beat ‘em, ban ’em!
That was the argument last season, wasn’t it? Everybody wanted the competition committee to ban the Tush Push because it gave the Eagles an unfair advantage. They were able to do something that could neither be stopped nor replicated. This year, that something is handing the ball off to Barkley.
To its credit, the committee ultimately resisted the whiners. After spending most of the season with their hand hovering over the ban hammer, McKay and Co. decided to keep the play with only a minor tweak, ruling that the “pusher” had to line up at least a yard behind the quarterback instead of touching him. Maybe there’s a similar solution to the Barkley conundrum. Just force the running back to line up a yard deeper on every play.
» READ MORE: Steelers coach Mike Tomlin calls Eagles RB Saquon Barkley the ‘most significant acquisition in the NFL′
Or, I don’t know, just thinking out loud here, but maybe I’m being ridiculous. Maybe I’m harboring an unhealthy amount of resentfulness over the silliness of the Tush Push debate last season. The best part of the NFL is the things you’ve never seen before. The second-best part is watching the league adapt to stop them. Case in point: Jalen Hurts has already been stopped five times in Tush Push down-and-distances this season (third or fourth down with 0-1 yards to go). Meanwhile, Daniel Jones and Jameis Winston are a combined 20-for-21. Weirder still: Barkley himself is somehow only 2-for-6.
So, no. The committee shouldn’t ban the Tush Push, and it obviously shouldn’t ban Barkley. It should focus on the NFL’s legitimate areas of concern.
Like banning Tomlin. At 10-3, the guy clearly is a witch.