Eagles beat reporters weigh in on the Saquon Barkley signing

Saquon Barkley’s eventual arrival to the NovaCare Complex to sign a three-year, $37.75 million contract will signal a significant shift in the team-building philosophies that have guided the organization for the last decade.

After spending each of the last four seasons in the bottom 10 in money allocated to the running-back position across the league, the Eagles are now going to spend more on Barkley next season than they did on their entire running back room in the last two years combined.

The $37.75 million question: Will the production justify the cost?

The Eagles’ rushing offense has been quite good the last few seasons without an elite running back at the center of things. It ranked No. 5 in efficiency last season and in 2022 led the NFL in the metric, tracked by FTN Fantasy. Perhaps this move will help avoid a drop-off with Jason Kelce now retired and Jalen Hurts contributing less to the running game — Barkley will certainly be an improvement over both D’Andre Swift and Miles Sanders — but the value proposition is reason for pause.

It’s fair to wonder if adding a $12 million back, even one as talented as Barkley, will prove to be a wise use of resources. For every team like the San Francisco 49ers, who added one of the best backs in the NFL to an already-loaded offense with great success, there are teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens that instead drop in a young running back on a cheap rookie contract and get high-level production. It’s what the Eagles had the last two seasons without issue and what made the Barkley signing so surprising in the first place.

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Howie Roseman steals Saquon Barkley, Bryce Huff from New York

None of this is to say Barkley isn’t a difference-maker. His drop-off in production last year can be explained away by the New York Giants’ terrible supporting cast, and his injury concerns the last few years may be a bit overstated. He has missed seven games in the last three seasons with an extensive workload.

It’s not as if $12.6 million annually is going to leave the Eagles cap-strapped, either, but it does have an obvious effect on other, more impactful positions. The annual cost between Barkley and edge rusher Bryce Huff, the Eagles’ two big signings Monday, equates to the $30 million the Giants will now pay two-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Brian Burns annually for five years. The Giants had to give up second- and fifth-round picks to acquire Burns from the Panthers on Monday, sure, but investing so much in an elite player at a premium position is more akin to what the Eagles have done in the past.

The Eagles took an important step toward keeping their offense among the league’s best by signing Barkley and injected some serious life into a group that grew “stale” last season. But there’s plenty of reason to believe that spending that money could have been maximized elsewhere.

There’s a degree of finger-crossing going into this deal.

Eagles fans have gone through it in the last week, losing Kelce and Fletcher Cox to retirement and watching 2023 starting running back Swift reportedly agree to terms with the Chicago Bears. The excitement likely returned to an extent when the Eagles agreed to a three-year, $37.75 million contract with Barkley, a former Penn State star who played his high school ball in Whitehall, Pa. Barkley was the top player at his position set to hit the market on Wednesday when the new league year begins.

But those good vibes come with a price tag. There’s an argument to be made that spending big at running back is not wise for a litany of reasons, including the league’s shift to the passing game and durability concerns at the position, and Howie Roseman has typically heeded that advice. Still, there’s no denying that the 27-year-old Barkley is one of the most talented running backs in the league, both in the running game and in the passing game, and he deserves to be compensated accordingly.

He was going to get paid somewhere, and Roseman apparently saw his potential with the Eagles under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to be worth the investment and the risk. Perhaps in an ideal situation — and playing behind the Eagles’ offensive line is typically as ideal as it gets — Barkley can make an impact similar to what Christian McCaffrey has had with the San Francisco 49ers. McCaffrey is 247 days older than Barkley and has two years remaining on his deal.

Even with a lackluster Giants offensive line in front of him, Barkley still put up fine numbers over the course of his six-year career when healthy. He surpassed 1,000 all-purpose yards in four seasons, which unsurprisingly does not include the 2020 season in which he suffered a torn ACL in the second game of the year. He’s also a strong pass blocker, a trait that the Eagles will covet when protecting Hurts from the blitz.

But can Barkley stay healthy and productive? Those will be the biggest questions that underscore his career in Philadelphia. Roseman is taking a big swing in an effort to reap a big reward, and if it works out, the decision will look great in hindsight. If not, the Eagles will be paying for the investment down the line with little to show for it.

» READ MORE: Saquon Barkley fires back at Tiki Barber after former Giant says Barkley is ‘dead’ to him

A week ago, the Eagles having interest in Barkley seemed unlikely. Roseman has spent little in terms of salary-cap space and draft picks on running backs since returning to personnel power in 2016, and there was not much reason to believe he wouldn’t approach the position the same way — even if Swift left in free agency. But further reporting and a closer look at free agency and the upcoming draft made it clear there was more than just smoke to a Barkley-Eagles pairing.

After the former New York Giant agreed to a three-year, $37.75 million contract on Monday, I went into detail to explain why Roseman would spend more than normal on a running back. The short version: The Eagles thought he was worth it because of his three-down capabilities. But without knowing the particulars of the deal yet, the numbers aren’t that outlandish, especially considering the 13.6% increase in the cap this offseason. Barkley just turned 27 and if most of his $26 million guaranteed comes in the first two years, which is likely, the Eagles can move on before he plays in his 29- and 30-year-old seasons.

» READ MORE: Eagles signing Saquon Barkley isn’t that far from Howie Roseman’s philosophy on running backs

But Roseman is more concerned with the immediate future and Barkley should be more productive in the Eagles offense than he was playing behind one of the worst lines in the NFL. He is also an upgrade over Swift as a receiver and a blocker. The Giants used Matt Breida more to help with blitz pickup as last season wore on, which is a concern. But the Eagles still have Kenneth Gainwell to assist on passing downs.

The biggest worry with Barkley is that he is more the recent version of himself than the one pre-ACL injury. He has played through his share of injuries, including high ankle sprains, but has missed his share as well. He’s still explosive, but he hasn’t displayed the video game-like moves as often as he did in his first two seasons. A Barkley who is 90% that guy is still better than most. And he may benefit from a change of scenery after six mostly losing seasons with the Eagles’ NFC East non-rivals. But paying running backs top dollar is always a risky investment and thus it’s hard to completely endorse Barkley’s signing.