2. Saquon Barkley's slow(er) start
Sorting through the most prolific 2025 NFL runners … where's Saquon?
Last year, Barkley averaged 5.8 yards per rush on his way to 2,005 yards and a third-place finish in the Most Valuable Player race. (Barkley is the fourth RB since Vikings Legend Adrian Peterson won the 2012 award to receive Top 3 consideration after DeMarco Murray in 2014, Todd Gurley in 2017 and Christian McCaffrey in 2023.) He averaged 3.8 yards before contact, as well as a broken tackle every 18.2 attempts.
It's been a starkly different story for Barkley six games into his second season with the Eagles, though.
The eighth-year pro picked No. 2 overall by the Giants in 2018 is averaging 3.4 yards per carry and 4.1 yards per touch for the defending champions – his lowest averages since posting two-game marks of 1.8 and 3.8 yards before a season-ending knee injury in 2020 interrupted consecutive 1,000-yard campaigns.
Entering Week 7, Barkley ranks 22nd in the league in rushing with 325 yards, trailing leader Jonathan Taylor (603) and the likes of fellow once-upon-a-time cast-aside running backs Javonte Williams (476) and Rico Dowdle (472), in addition to rookie thumpers Quinshon Judkins (383) and Cam Skattebo (338).
One regression from Barkley's historic year and quiet encore is his explosive outcomes. After tying for the NFL lead in 2024 with 25 run plays of 15 or more yards, and generating a breakaway run percentage of 41.6, Barkley has produced four such rushes in 2025 and a 21.2 BAY%, according to Pro Football Focus.
He's also dealing with contact earlier in his runs.
Barkley is averaging 1.9 yards before that first pop this season, which ranks 27th out of 37 players with at least 50 attempts. Comparatively, his mark of 3.8 yards last season was the highest for a running back with 200 or more carries since pro-football-reference.com began tracking that stat in the 2018 campaign.
Barkley's decrease in rushing YPG (minus-71.1) is on track to be the largest from one season to the next since 1933 per NFL Research (among guys playing in 75-plus percent of his team's games in each season).
Nevertheless, he's "the best back in the league," Flores remarked.
He's fast. He's physical. He has fantastic vision. And he can burn defenses in the pass game.
"We know what type of player Saquon is," said Flores, adding Barkley's 2025 totals are irrelevant to preparations. "It's just the history and the talent that's there; the explosiveness that's there. We've got a big, big challenge ahead of us. And I can't speak to what's going on. I'm expecting their very best effort and them at whatever their highest capacity is. I think that's what we're going to get.
"We've got to get more than one guy around him — two, three, four, five, as many guys as possible," Flores continued about the challenge Barkley presents. "Crowd noise – we could use that, too."