The Philadelphia Eagles are extending the contract of star running back Saquon Barkley. Saquon had only played 1 of his original 3 year deal with the eagles, and he has now added 2 more – making him an eagle for at least 4 more seasons.

Barkley signed a two-year, $41.2 million contract extension. Football analyst Adam Schefter pointed out that this makes him “the highest-paid running back in NFL history and the NFL’s first $20 million+ per-year running back”. He then added that “Barkley also has the ability to earn an additional $15 million in incentives and escalators” and that the deal included $36 million fully guaranteed at signing.

So what does this mean?

Well, this is a fairly unprecedented deal, especially for a running back (widely considered the most interchangeable position in football), but I think it speaks to the world-class management that we’ve come to know in Philadelphia and the player they know they have in Saquon. Howie Roseman (GM of the Eagles) is considered by many to be the best GM in the NFL and he appears to be rewarding Saquon for lifting the team to a new level this past year, and ultimately winning the Super Bowl. Sure they could have let the next two years play out and see how Saquon is looking in 2 years time and probably paid him less… but he deserved it now after the season he just had.

League wide implications? Well, it’s nice to see because the NFL is a copy cat league. Do not be surprised is GM’s across the league start valuing RB’s higher than they did in recent years. Running backs across the league should be thanking Derrick Henry, Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley for the season they just had. The 3 of them were free agents going into the past season and teams were not looking to pay a hefty amount for them because of the position that they play. However, the success that they had this year with new teams showed the value of a good running back and appears to have flipped the switch back into the favour of RB’s if they can prove they can stay healthy and help the team win.

That’s all for this one. Have a great day folks,

-E