December 02, 2024
Tommy Gilligan/Imagn Images
Saquon Barkley is up to a league-leading 1,499 rushing yards on the season.
In a matchup of two legitimate MVP candidates as well as the game's two best running backs, Saquon Barkley was the top skill position player on the field in the Eagles' win over Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Ravens.
Barkley rushed for "only" 107 yards in Baltimore, not quite at his record-breaking level last week against the Rams, but he was the Eagles' closer, putting the game away with a 25-yard touchdown burst in the fourth quarter:
It's not Thanksgiving anymore, but Saquon is still eating today 😮💨@saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/iN0zg8Tnei
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) December 2, 2024
Barkley has now rushed for 1,499 yards in 12 games, good for 124.9 yards per game. Both figures lead the sport. The same is true for Barkley's yards from scrimmage, as he's up to 1,766 on 147.2 total yards per game. In laying out the case for Barkley's MVP bonafides last week, I wrote that Barkley, in order to be the rare instance of a running back winning the award, would likely need to break some NFL records, maybe both rushing yards and yards from scrimmage.
Barkley is now on pace for 2,123 rushing yards over the course of a 17-game season, which would narrowly break Eric Dickerson's 1984 record of 2,105. Barkley is also on pace for 2,502 yards from scrimmage. That would leave him just seven yards short of Chris Johnson's 2009 record of 2,509. Not too shabby, obviously, but would that be enough to be the first non-quarterback to win the award in a dozen years?
The hardest test Barkley faces, maybe more than any defensive front out there on the field, is a voter base that, rather understandably, is predisposed to giving the award to QBs. That makes sense! It's long been a passing league and quarterback is the most important position in all of sports.
Barkley leapfrogged Jackson in the betting markets after the Eagles' 24-19 win in Baltimore, now holding the second-shortest odds of winning MVP on DraftKings Sportsbook at +350. A big issue for Barkley's candidacy is that the favorite, Buffalo's Josh Allen at -210, just had an outstanding performance of his own on Sunday Night Football. In a picturesque snow game, the Bills dominated San Francisco with the defining play of the game being Allen throwing for and catching a touchdown on the same play.
This is a "Heisman Moment" type of highlight for Allen's case for MVP:
WHAT THE?!?!?!?!
— NFL (@NFL) December 2, 2024
📺: #SFvsBUF on NBC/Peacock
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/tO1I6KTQRM
Again, if Barkley is going to buck the trend of QBs winning MVP, he's going to need to rewrite the record books. That's possible and the narrative could be there in a year where the story of the sport is the running back's redemption arc, but Allen winning his first MVP while playing for what looks to be the best Bills team of this era makes for juicy reasoning, too.
Philadelphia would assuredly take a Super Bowl win over regular season accolades, but, hey, at least it would make Giants fans even more angry than they already are.
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