PHILADELPHIA - Although it’s probably a good idea to place any Saquon Barkley retirement talk on the back burner, the All-Pro running back’s recent musings with former Eagles’ defensive end Chris Long should highlight why everyone should stop talking about pitch counts with the superstar.
First, the nuts and bolts of what Barkley, 28, said on the Green Light podcast.
“I’ll probably be one of those guys that [retirement] would be out of nowhere,” Barkley said. “I’ll probably just wake up one day, whether it’s next year or two years or four years, and I’d be like, ‘It’s over.’”
For those who don’t know, Barkley is a student of NFL history, and he’s favorite runner is Barry Sanders, who walked away at 31 as one of the most prolific runners in league history with plenty of gas left in the tank.
More so, Barkley said any decision like that might happen “next year or two years or four years,” so there's little reason to panic. The obvious inference there is that Barkley wants to go out on top like his idol, and if he feels his game slipping “outta nowhere,” could pop up quickly.
The real story here is Barkley’s usage after a season in which he touched the football an astonishing 482 times through a Super Bowl LIX win.
Most believe that the Eagles have to scale that back, considering the history of running backs who touch the football that much.
However, Nick Sirianni answered that question 1,000 times last season and take the over on that number for 2025 despite the head coach’s consistency on the matter.
The Eagles manage Barkley during the week in the regular season. He doesn’t do much in the spring, and training camp is more of a sharpening-up environment for the “2K Sa.”
In-game, the equation is simple – win by hook or by crook.
"If we have to run it 40 times, we will, if we have to throw it 40 times, we will,” Sirianni has said.
The Eagles just won a Super Bowl by riding the game’s best offensive line and the brilliance of Barkley.
The idea of scaling that back before opponents prove they can adjust and stop a formula that produced 16 wins in 17 games is antithetical to Sirianni’s belief system.
A potentially shortened career for Barkley puts even more emphasis on the Eagles’ taking advantage of the NFL’s best runner while they can, not extending an imaginary career window that may not even exist with manufactured pitch counts.
