Eagles Make Saquon Barkley Highest-Paid Running Back In NFL History

The Eagles struck it rich with Saquon Barkley, and now they are making their All-Pro running and the league’s Offensive Player of the Year even richer. The two parties agreed to a contract extension on Tuesday that will make him the highest-paid running back in the history of the NFL, per a report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The extension is worth $41 million over the next two seasons.

In addition to his base contract, Barkley can also earn $15 million in incentive and escalators on the deal. He will earn $36 million fully guaranteed at signing.

The Eagles signed Barkley as a free agent last offseason to a three-year contract worth $37.5M. It’s a contract the Eagles didn’t have to touch, but after what Barkley did for them, they did right by him. It was something the New York Giants could not figure out how to do.

Without him, the Eagles probably don’t win Super Bowl LIX. With him, the Giants couldn’t figure out how to win. Period. New York had one winning season in the six years they wasted of Barkley’s career.

“I don’t know if I can get into rankings of (his top free agent signings),” said general manager Howie Roseman, a day before leaving for new Orleans, where the Eagles would thrash the Chiefs, 40-22 won win the championship.

“I don’t know if that’s fair to anyone, but he is a huge, huge player and person for this team. It wasn’t a hard trigger to pull. I think I’m being consistent with what I said in March. I was extremely confident in the player and the person. I’d like to say he’s exceeded expectations, but he’s always been one of the best players I’ve ever seen whenever I watched him and I’ve always known about what kind of person he is because it’s not hard to find that out.

“I’m really not surprised by any of this (season accomplishments), and I don’t say that in an arrogant way. It’s based on who he is. It’s nothing to do with me, because this is who he’s always been, and I’m so glad everyone gets to see that. I would just say, like, the person is as good as the player, and I’m not downplaying the player. That to me makes me proud.”

Barkley became just the ninth player in NFL history to put up more than 2,000 yards rushing in the regular season last year. His 2,005 yards rushing in 16 games is the eight-highest mark of the nine who went over 2,000.

He broke Terrell Davis’s 1998 rushing record for most yards in the regular season and playoffs with 2,504. He had seven touchdown runs of more than 60 yards, more than anyone else in NFL history.

And now he is being rewarded by the Eagles.

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