NFL Free Agency: Saquon Barkley Heads To Division Rival Eagles.
Saquon Barkley is the latest RB to find an unexpectedly large bag in free agency.
The deal makes Barkley the league's fourth-highest-paid RB, as only Alvin Kamara ($75 million), Christian McCaffrey ($64 million) and Jonathan Taylor ($42 million) have contracts with a higher total value. Not too shabby for the same guy who barely got a raise from the franchise tag last season upon threatening to hold out.
However, it's worth wondering if the Eagles are signing up to pay the 2024 version of Barkley, or the ghost of years past. Don't get it twisted: Barkley has been solid over the past two seasons, but it's still been a far cry from the man who looked like the best player at the position back in 2018.
Of course, the Giants have hardly been a model offensive environment in recent years. PFF’s reigning 30th-ranked offensive line has largely been a liability outside of LT Andrew Thomas, while Daniel Jones hasn’t exactly helped decrease the amount of attention defenders can pay to the run game considering he joins retired NFL commentator Matt Ryan as the only two QBs with an average target depth south of seven yards over the past two seasons.
Barkley is still just 27 years young and has managed to play at least 13 games in all but one of his six career seasons. He certainly should represent an upgrade from the likes of D'Andre Swift and Kenneth Gainwell, although this Eagles offensive environment hasn't been all that conducive to high-end fantasy success for RBs due to Jalen Hurts' tendencies to:
- Scramble instead of checking down: Hurts has fed Eagles RBs just 246 total targets since taking over the starting job in 2021 – the eighth-lowest mark in the NFL.
- Take control of the offense at the opponent's goal line: Eagles RBs rank 30th in carries from the one-yard line (10) over the past three seasons.
Nobody is doubting the Eagles’ ability to rack up points; just realize their RBs usually haven’t been the ones benefiting in fantasy land. Maybe the absence of future Hall of Fame C Jason Kelce changes the offense’s philosophy on the goal line, but then again losing Taylor Swift’s future brother-in-law also represents a rather brutal downgrade for PFF’s reigning No. 1 ranked offensive line.
The newfound presence of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore could also change the team's philosophy around the goal line, but if not: The tush push represents a REAL problem to Barkley's overall fantasy upside.
Look for Barkley to still make some explosive plays and receive plenty of touches between the 20s, but his current standing as the RB8 over at Underdog seems awfully optimistic. Guys like James Cook (RB10), Isaiah Pacheco (RB11) and Rachaad White (RB12) are cheaper and could simply see more fantasy-friendly workloads than Barkley, even if they aren't quite as good “real-life” talents.
And then there are the Giants, who suddenly have 92% of their 2023 RB rush attempts available. They join the Cowboys, Chargers, Raiders and Ravens as the most fantasy-friendly remaining landing spots out there for an RB.
Ultimately, the Giants’ reigning 30th-ranked scoring offense isn’t an RB away from having all their problems fixed; good on them for not blowing the bank on a formerly great player who wasn’t overly helping move the needle last season anyway.
