Saquon Barkley, the Philadelphia Eagles’ standout running back, plans to enhance his involvement in the passing game during the 2025 NFL season. This is an interesting strategic move considering he’ll likely attract more defensive focus, in part because of his extraordinary, record-setting rushing talents. Barkley wants to take the focus off how he’s used most by becoming an even more diverse threat, thus forcing defenses to play with uncertainty.
During his 2018 rookie campaign, Barkley proved he was just as dangerous as a dual-threat weapon. He logged 91 catches and amassed 721 receiving yards. These numbers mark his career highs in each stat. Last year, that production took a major dive. By year’s end, he was staring at just 33 receptions for 278 yards and two scores. This was his lowest total of catches. The only season in which it was lower was the 2020 season when injuries knocked him out for only two games.
Barkley’s prowess as a receiver is evident from his ability to make challenging catches, including a memorable one-handed grab in the flat. His combination of agility and speed is tough to stop once he gets into space as a field-stretcher. Barkley had an electrifying season, rushing for over 2,000 yards and becoming one of just nine players in NFL history to do so. Now, he’s just looking forward to using those skills in the passing game.
In the postseason, he was unstoppable, with 499 yards and five touchdowns. His phenomenal production broke their franchise records for rushing yards, regular season and playoffs combined, and carried the Eagles to their second Super Bowl championship. He was tremendously successful, but he faced brutal opposition in the Super Bowl. As accounthouse pointed out, the Kansas City Chiefs keyed on him big time, bracketing him all game long. According to ESPN Research, the Chiefs had seven or more defenders in the box on 38 plays during the game. They only blitzed him seven times on Sunday, employing this strategy to neutralize Barkley’s game-changing ability.
As training camp continues on, Barkley has been doing a lot of work through the passing tree and other receiving drills. He’s always lined up opposite the formation. With an impressive array of short, intermediate, and deep routes, he challenges defenders at all levels. Fellow Runnin’ Rebels, RBs AJ Dillon & Will Shipley support him in 2nd half crusade. Both of them have elite pass-catching abilities.
The Eagles’ offensive coordinator, Kevin Patullo, has acknowledged Barkley’s pivotal role in their offense. “We’ve kind of talked about that, he and I have,” said Patullo regarding Barkley’s workload. He noted the importance of Barkley’s ability to adjust to different game situations in order to use him to his full potential.
“It’s very game-specific. It depends on how the flow of the game goes and how we’ll use it. He does a really good job of knowing himself of when he needs to come out, when he wants to go back in,” – Kevin Patullo
For Barkley, those weren’t new experiences as he discussed defenses keying in on him extremely closely, most notably in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs. “Every time I go back and watch that game or see clips of it, I was in hell, for sure,” he admitted.
Moving forward, Barkley is aware of how he must change his game. It’s just a practice that I’m really comfortable with, something that I did a lot, especially early in my career. And I need to be able to change with it,” he said.
The Eagles’ offensive approach is poised to change dramatically. They’ll focus on keeping Barkley at the heart of their vision. Patullo noted the team’s depth of talent: “The beauty of playing for the Philadelphia Eagles is we have a lot of great guys around us, so whatever teams want to do, it’s kind of pick your poison.”
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