Why Saquon Barkley has struggled, and why the Eagles are optimistic for a break out vs. the Giants
When the Eagles and Giants squared off in Week 6, Saquon Barkley rushed for his third-highest total of the season.
He finished with a meager 58 yards, which tells you a lot about how Barkley’s second year in Philadelphia has gone.
Barkley has been held below 100 yards on the ground in each of the Eagles’ seven games. Through his first seven games in 2024, he rushed for an average of 109.4 yards, more than double his average of 52.7 in 2025.
Despite the dip in production, there is a sense of optimism in the NovaCare Complex that Barkley could be close to breaking out, as a rematch with his former squad looms Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field.
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Much of the hope comes from the Eagles’ offensive performance last weekend in Minnesota, where the passing attack erupted behind an under-center, play-action flavored game plan.
The wrinkle wasn’t revolutionary, but it did give the Eagles a new look.
“It’s going to be fun or interesting to see how teams play us now,” said left tackle Jordan Mailata. “We can go under center and pass the ball, we can go under center and run the ball, so it’s going to be fun. I hope [opponents] respect one or the other. They have to now.”
Why have Barkley and the run game struggled so much?
First, defenses are playing them differently this year.
It’s been obvious live and on film that the Eagles are getting fewer lighter boxes to run into. Last year, the Eagles faced a light box 44.9% of the time, which ranked 15th in the NFL.
This year, there’s been a 20% decrease to 36.8%, which ranks 29th.
It’s a numbers game the Eagles are losing, particularly when it comes to their preferred zone blocking scheme — especially when defenses have five- and six-man fronts.
“When you go against a six-man front, now it’s one-on-one everywhere, and then there’s a guy sitting back there for the running back that’s unblocked,” said left guard Landon Dickerson.
Expecting all five offensive lineman to win their one-on-ones is a tough ask, and, in some cases, tight ends or a sixth offensive lineman are acting as a tight end.
One way to counter a heavy front is with gap scheme runs.
On a very rudimentary level, gap scheme runs, unlike zone runs, have pullers: an offensive lineman pulling as the lead blocker. These types of plays were responsible for some of Barkley’s most explosive rushes last year.
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In gap schemes, the blocks are designed for a specific gap. In zone runs, the linemen block zones and work to the second level to create multiple lanes that the running back can choose to run through.
“I think zone, it’s pretty simple,” said Mailata. “If the play is an inside zone left, you’re stepping to an inside zone to your left.”
The inside zone run can come in many forms and has been a staple of offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland’s run scheme since he first arrived in Philadelphia in 2013. Every team runs it, but he may teach it better than anyone.
The Eagles, however, are having a hard time executing it this year because of the heavier boxes they’re facing and more five- and six-man fronts, and also because defensive coordinators are coming up with exotic strategies to slow the inside zone run down.
By running into bad looks on early downs, the Eagles haven’t done themselves any favors. It has burdened the line, forced Barkley to cut away from the flow of the blocking, and instead made him try to beat defenders on his own.
This chain reaction is essentially what happened last Sunday when the Vikings defense, after the Eagles enjoyed modest success in the run early, adjusted on the Eagles’ third drive and started stacking the line.
The Eagles, however, had a counter of their own. Even though their initial production on the ground diminished, it still served a means to an end.
They came into their matchup with the Vikings wanting to establish under-center runs so that they could eventually use play-action passes downfield. It’s an obvious way to beat stacked boxes — to keep linebackers and safeties from cheating to stop the run.
The Eagles didn’t do much of it through the first six weeks of the season, but right tackle Lane Johnson, along with fellow linemen Dickerson and Mailata, advocated for more under-center plays during the mini-bye that followed the Eagles’ loss to the Giants on Oct. 9.
“It’s really beneficial for us,” Mailata said. “It’s just protecting our C.Y.A. — cover your [butt]. That’s the way I see it. There’s so much potential. You don’t know if it’s a pass, if it’s a run, if it’s a play-action.”
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Jalen Hurts said after the Vikings game that he also recommended more under-center plays.
Through the Eagles’ first six games, he was under center only 14% of the time, throwing out of it only once.
In Minnesota, the Eagles were under center 41% and threw out of it four times. Hurts completed those passes for 121 yards, including the 79-yard touchdown pass to receiver DeVonta Smith that opened the second half.
“I think, conceptually, there’s a way to do quarterback run game from under center,” said Hurts, who usually ranks in the top five in the NFL in shotgun or pistol plays. “It’s just a matter where we are creatively, in what positions we put ourselves in.
“Not to get too much into schemes, it’s just more so how we choose to attack a team that week, and the level of execution that week.”
With receiver A.J. Brown (hamstring) already ruled out this Sunday, the Eagles will be down a key playmaker.
Barkley, who’s averaging just 3.3 yards per carry and ranks 36th out of 40 qualifying running backs with the expected points added number of -22.3, doesn’t want to hear about defenses focusing their efforts on him.
“No, I don’t, I don’t agree with that,” said Barkley, cutting off a reporter who asked about the premise.
He said he was brought here to make plays, and right now, he’s not giving the Eagles enough of them.
“I’m taking too many negative runs, and I own that. It’s not because I rushed for 2,000 yards last year. I hate that narrative. We just had a different attitude, had a different mindset.”
Barkley already has 21 negative-yard runs this year, accounting for 18.6% of his 113 carries — nearly double his percentage from last season.
Barkley said after the Eagles’ 28-22 victory in Minnesota, the bottom line matters more to him than rushing numbers.
“Am I satisfied? No. We’ve got a lot of room to improve, but it’s good to get a win in a tough environment.”
There were a lot of questions about Barkley’s workload this season following the near-500 total touches he had in 2024.
There’s also the matter of his age. Barkley turned 28 in February. While that number is young for most, it’s around the time that running backs often start to decline.
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According to the NFL’s NextGen Stats, Barkley’s rushing yards-over-expected, an advanced metric that measures how many more yards a player gains than expected, is -0.1. Last year, the mark was a superlative +1.6.
He’s also seen his average yards after contact drop from 3.4 to 2.8, and he’s averaging about three fewer touches per game in the regular season (a decline that could be related more to the run game’s ineffectiveness than the Eagles’ taking a decided approach to reducing Barkley’s carries).
Despite the decrease in his raw numbers and advanced analytics, Barkley still looks explosive and elusive enough on film.
“You guys see somebody different?,” Dickerson said. “He looks the same to me. I don’t think somebody killed him and started dressing up as him.”
Eagles coach Nick Sirianni refused to buy into Barkley’s own claim that the run game starts and ends with him.
“It’s on all of us,” Sirianni said. “We’re working like crazy to figure it out, and I think we’ve had some good thoughts. Now, we got to go put it to work.”
