It would be easy to make the case that 2024 was the year of the running back in both the NFL and college football. Philadelphia Eagles running Saquon Barkley became just the 9th running back in NFL history to top 2,000 yards in a single season. Just a couple of days later, Boise State's Ashton Jeanty would finish his season with 2,601 yards on the ground, only 28 yards shy of breaking Barry Sanders' long-standing single season record.

After the dust on each of their respective seasons has settled, Barkley is able to celebrate both a Super Bowl title and arguably the greatest season ever by a running back while Ashton Jeanty prepares to enter the NFL Draft, where he'll likely be selected within the first dozen or so picks of the 1st Round. And on Friday, we learned that Jeanty and Barkley are linked beyond their 2024 successes.

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“He's a great player. I've been watching him since he was at Penn State. I've always thought of him as one of the best running backs in the league,” Jeanty said of Barkley. “And congrats to him on a great season and getting in the right situation and opportunity. Just the ability to make guys miss, and make that first guy miss in space are kind of similarities in our game.”

According to Pro Football Focus, the NFL's 2024 Offensive Player of the Year forced 62 missed tackles and had 46 runs of 10+ yards, including seven touchdown runs of at least 50 yards in the regular season and postseason combined. Not to be outdone, Jeanty set the NCAA record for forced missed tackles in a season — 151, per The Athletic's Dane Brugler — and averaged at least 10 yards per carry in four separate games during the 2024 season.

Jeanty won't be selected as high as Barkley (2nd overall) was in the 2018 NFL Draft, but whoever does draft him will be hoping that the Boise State star can step in and become just as impactful of an offensive weapon as Barkley has been when healthy during his NFL career.