The Philadelphia Eagles know they have one of the best running backs in the league with Saquon Barkley, and he showed last season that if you just give him the ball, he'll make magic. By the end of the season, Barkley had over 2,000 yards, and everyone is looking to see if he can pull it off again.
For the Eagles, they want to be careful with how much they use him, and they want to use him in the right situations as well. Every running back who's reached 400 or more touches in a season since 2000 hasn't repeated their production the following season. There is one question that the Eagles ask when it comes to Barkley's workload, according to ESPN's Dan Graziano.
“Their question would be: What, exactly, do you want us to do about it?” Graziano wrote.
Offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo says he and Barkley have talked about the running back's workload.
“I think it's very game-specific. It depends on how the flow of the game goes,” Patullo said. “He does a really good job of knowing himself, of knowing when he needs to come out, when he wants to go back in. So a lot of that will be on him, obviously, during games, and he's really good about paying attention to that.”
Since Barkley knows when he needs a rest, the Eagles won't have to worry about pulling him themselves, which can make their lives easier.
Will Saquon Barkley get more touches this season?
Barkley already had a good workload last season, and it looks like it might get heavier from the early looks of training camp, according to Eliot Shorr-Parks of 94 WIP.
“No Eagles practice today, but one thing that has really stood out to me in these first few days of camp is how much they’re using Saquon Barkley,” Shorr-Parks said. “I think we all thought coming off this historic season with how many times he touched the ball they were going to run it less this year – and maybe they will, maybe the defenses will force them to run it less, but if you look at the numbers for Saquon in the first few days, he’s clearly getting more touches than I expected.”
Barkley was definitely a key part of the Eagles' offense last season, and there were some games where he won them mostly by himself. If he's up for the workload again, the Eagles wouldn't mind, but he also needs to know when it's time for a break.
