3 Pressing Questions Facing Saquon Barkley, Tank Bigsby, And Eagles RB Situation

As Saquon Barkley goes, so does the Philadelphia Eagles offense.

That proved true in 2024 when Barkley rushed for 2,504 yards (regular season and postseason), which was an NFL record for rushing yards in a season. Barkley's historic performance carried the Eagles to a Super Bowl title.

Barkley wasn't the same player in 2025, and the offense sputtered. There were more factors than Barkley, but he wasn't as historicslly great as he was in 2024.

Heading into 2026, Barkley leads the running back position once again. The room is deeper with Barkley and Tank Bigsby in the fold, with a battle for the RB3 spot with Will Shipley, Dameon Pierce, and Elijah Mitchell.

The Eagles likely have their three running backs on the roster for 2026, but there are a lot of questions regarding the position. We're focusing on running back in our position-by-position series, asking three questions regarding the state of the position.

How can Saquon Barkley have a bounce-back season?

Barkley had a fine season last year. He wasn't great, but he wasn't terrible.

While Barkley rushed for 1,140 yards and seven touchdowns, the advanced numbers showed he wasn't effective. This isn't even counting the yards per carry dip from 5.8 to 4.1.

Barkley had a success rate of 45.0% on his carries, 41st amongst NFL running backs last season. He was 24th in yards before contact per rush (1.36), and 38th in yards after contract per rush (2.71). This is out of 49 qualified rushers. He also had negative rush percentage of 24.3% -- third highest in the NFL amongst 49 qualified running backs.

So how can Barkley improve those advanced numbers? The Eagles offense has changed, which Barkley will run more outside zone than in the past. This may tailor Barkley's game more, allowing for more explosive plays -- similar to 2024.

Of course, the offensive line has to be healthy for this all to work. If the Eagles have a healthy Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, and Lane Johnson, Barkley will be better just from those three blocking in front of him.

Teams are going to stack the box to stop Barkley. He faced an eight-man box on 31.1% of his carries, 13th in the NFL. Barkley averaged 3.5 yards per carry with an eight-man box, which was 18th in the NFL. Barkley will be better prepared to handle an 8-man box if the offensive line is healthy.

Good bet Barkley has a bounce-back year if the offensive line is healthy. He may rush for 1,500+ yards this year with an offense tailored to his favor.

Is Tank Bigsby going to have an expanded role?

Bigsby is a luxury behind Barkley. The Eagles wanted to find an upgrade at RB2 last season and landed on Bigsby, who took advantage of teams game planning for Barkley.

Since defenses tried to stop Barkley, Bigsby prospered. Bigsby had 58 carries for 344 yards and two touchdowns in 16 games with the Eagles, averaging 5.9 yards per carry.

Bigsby made the most of his opportunity at the end of the season -- having 39 carries for 176 yards and two touchdowns in the final four games (4.5 yards per carry). This was a player who had just one carry in his first six games with the Eagles.

There are going to be more carries for Bigsby on merit, but Barkley is the highest-paid running back in the NFL at $20.5 million a year. The Eagles are going to give Barkley as many touches has he can and run Barkley into the ground -- as this could be the final year of Barkley's contract.

Bigsby will get more carries than last season, but that's just a total amount. He averaged 5.7 carries in his final 10 games last season, which seems like a reasonable number.

Will the Eagles carry four RBs this year?

The Eagles had four running backs on the final roster last season, carrying AJ Dillon around for the whole season even though he only played seven games. Dillon had 12 carries for 60 yards, but didn't have a single carry after Week 6.

How the Eagles kept Dillon around was intriguing, considering he was overtaken by Bigsby and just was taking up a roster spot. Will the Eagles actually keep four running backs again?

Highly unlikely, considering there are other positions that are deeper on the roster. The Dillon roster spot may flip to Uar Bernard, who will basically be a redshirt player this year.

The battle for RB3 will be between Will Shipley, Dameon Pierce, and Elijah Mitchell -- but Shipley is the clear frontrunner for the job. Pierce and Mitchell are basically battling for a practice squad spot, a veteran fourth running back to stash around and occasionally elevate for game day.

Hard to see the Eagles keeping four running backs this time around. Four running backs will be on the team, but three on the active roster.

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