The Philadelphia Eagles’ addition of Saquon Barkley provides another game-changing talent who will command the ball in an offense that already boasts A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.
Head coach Nick Sirianni noted on Tuesday that he’s not worried about how Barkley will fit because he’d make any offense better. The Eagles will spend the offseason figuring out the best way to deploy the dual-threat back.
“Any time you get really good players, it’s always exciting,” Sirianni said while attending the Annual League Meeting, via the team’s official website. “I always say this: The secret to good coaching is get good players and we got a really good player. We’re figuring the different ways we can use him. That doesn’t necessarily mean that every way he’s been used in the past is how we’re going to use him. There might be some things that are untapped. There might be some things that we’ve never done that we can do now. Might be things that he’s never done.
“That unknown gives us a lot of options and ways to incorporate Saquon, because he has that kind of skill set. There are a lot of things that can happen as we put this all together.”
When healthy, Barkley is a field-tilting force who can gash on the ground and is a force in the passing game. During his rookie season, he generated 1,307 rushing yards and 721 receiving yards on 91 catches. Barkley never got close to those pass-catching numbers again in the next five years in New York, but the talent is there.
When asked about the Barkley addition, Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie compared the running back to former Eagles greats LeSean McCoy and Brian Westbrook for what they brought to the passing attack.
“I think with Saquon, one of the things we always talk about, whether it was LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook, is the value of a running back is it’s not even the word of the title ‘running back.’ You have to be a great passing attack running back as well. For us, it’s got to be multifunctional,” Lurie said on Tuesday, per the team’s transcript. “And he exhibited a very special skill set both in the running and the passing game that we think certainly can be maximized by being on a team with better skill positions, quarterback, offensive line. So, it was a strategy to go.”
The Eagles went from spending low on RBs the past several years to handing Barkley a contract that averages $12.583 million. Lurie dismissed the idea that the Eagles went from being stingy at the position to overindulging, noting that his club has never shied away from paying the right players.
“I know people think, well, we don’t spend on the running back position,” he said. “That’s never really been the case. We would do it very carefully. So, LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook, those are instances of players that are really multi-purpose running backs that improve the passing attack, improve the running attack.
“And it’s, I think, (GM) Howie (Roseman) said it, it’s hard to find exceptionally talent players. If you think about it, what we pay Saquon Barkley, take another position of what that’s getting in the league and you tell me, is it better to pay Saquon that kind of money or a player at a different position that’s getting the exact same amount of money? That’s a decision. And Howie led the way there and felt that Saquon was the right way to spend that money.”
Now it’s on Sirianni and his staff to make that money spent worthwhile.
