- Saquon Barkley reached nearly 200 total yards vs. Washington on Thursday
- He’s up to 10 TDs on the year after leaving the Giants for the Eagles
Saquon Barkley was the star of the show in the Eagles’ 26-18 win over the Commanders on Thursday night, and many NFL fans had the same thought about him after game.
Barkley gashed Philly’s NFC East rivals for 146 yards and two touchdowns on the ground – adding 52 receiving yards – and has now topped 100 rushing yards in four of the past five games.
And after Barkley’s latest impressive performance, fans believe he should be firmly in the running for the NFL’s most prestigious individual award.
‘Saquon Barkley has entered the MVP conversation,’ one said on X.
‘Saquon Barkley is gonna win the NFL MVP. Lol great job, @Giants,’ another added of New York’s decision to let him leave in free agency.
Saquon Barkley put together another dazzling performance on Thursday vs. the Commanders
The running back totaled 198 yards and two touchdowns as Philly earned a vital win
A third fan said, ‘I’m still not sure how Saquon Barkley is not in the mvp conversation. [In my opinion] he right after Lamar [Jackson].’
Barkley also got some co-signs from ex-players, as former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III said the 27-year-old had ‘ran himself into the MVP Race.’
Longtime backup passer Chase Daniel also asked, ‘When do we put Saquon Barkley squarely at the top of every MVP list??Without Saquon, the Eagles are NOT the Eagles.’
After the Eagles’ win on Thursday, the team is up to an 8-2 record on the year and Barkley has a league-leading 1,137 rushing yards.
However, Barkley winning MVP would see him join an increasingly rare group of non-quarterbacks that have won the award.
The last such player to do so was running back Adrian Peterson in 2012, preceded by LaDainian Tomlinson in 2006 and Shaun Alexander in 2005 (both running backs as well).
All three of those players topped 1,800 rushing yards in their MVP seasons (with Peterson’s 2,097 the second-most ever in a single season), so Barkley may need to have a similarly spectacular year to thwart off the likes of Jackson and Josh Allen.
Those two are considered the main contenders for the award, while Barkley was not even in SportsGrid’s top six betting odds before his performance on Thursday.
Barkley will try to continue building his case for MVP next week when the Eagles take on the Rams.
