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Despite turning 28 in February, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley believes his best season lies ahead in 2025. As he prepares for what he thinks will be another career year, Barkley is aware that training smarter is much more crucial with age than training harder.
Ahead of his eighth season in the league, Barkley is finally taking some pressure off the gas during his offseason workouts, he told ESPN's Tim McManus. The player jokingly referenced by fans as “SaQuad” is making a concerted effort to lessen his hard lifting sessions to focus more on his health.
“You've just got to be smarter, right?” Barkley said, via McManus. “You have your moments when you go in there and you grind, you push it. But the majority of these days [are] just mobility, conditioning, doing all the things to get your body in shape to perform at a high level. It was a lot of workload last year, but my body feels great, so that's the most important thing.”
Barkley said his altered regimen has him feeling fresh and as if he were “entering his prime.” Barkley admitted feeling compelled to push himself harder after seeing workout videos from his peers in the past, but is now focused solely on himself.
Running backs often go viral for their workout videos, but few could match Barkley in that department. His raw strength and power have been on display from the moment he went viral for repping a 400-pound power clean as a freshman at Penn State. Barkley still frequents the weight room — he recently went viral again for squatting 585 pounds — but at a much lower rate than he had before.
Saquon Barkley leads Eagles into 2025
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Through his first six years in the league with the New York Giants, Barkley developed a reputation as one of the most talented but injury-prone running backs in the league. He finally reached his true potential in his inaugural year with the Eagles, becoming just the ninth player in NFL history to notch 2,000 rushing yards in a single season.
Barkley's historic campaign made him the league's rushing leader, NFC Offensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career. His elite play was a major factor in the Eagles' dominant Super Bowl LIX victory that ended the Kansas City Chiefs' three-peat bid.
Coming off their title victory, the Eagles made no major roster changes in the offseason and will run it back in 2025. Even with the “tush push” still in the playbook for at least one more year, Philadelphia's offense will revolve around Barkley again.
