Saquon Barkley

Saquon Barkley is a Pro Bowl running back for the Philadelphia Eagles who helped lead the team to a Super Bowl title in 2025. He is one of the top backs in the National Football League, demonstrating an almost unprecedented combination of speed, power, and theatricality.

Early years

Barkley was born in the Bronx to Alibay Barkley and Tonya Johnson, but the family, including his four siblings, relocated to Coplay, Pennsylvania, about 53 miles (85 km) north of Philadelphia, when he was a boy. His father was a former boxer, and his great-uncle Iran Barkley had been a middleweight boxing world champion. Barkley’s dad wanted him to be a boxer too. “I was pretty decent, and if I’d stuck with it maybe I could have been really good,” Barkley wrote in a piece for The Players’ Tribune in 2018. “But I didn’t have that love for it, you know? Like my dad and my great uncle did, or how I love the game of football.”

Even as a boy, Barkley would tell his mother that he would make it in the NFL one day and promised to buy her a house. (It was a promise he kept when he was drafted into the NFL in 2018.) But she encouraged him to have a plan B. Barkley was small for his age and was often frustrated that he wasn’t growing as fast as other boys during adolescence. In eighth grade he wanted to quit football, but his dad talked him out of it. That proved to be sound parental advice. When Barkley got to Whitehall High School, he ran for 3,646 yards and scored an astounding 63 touchdowns. He then played college football at powerhouse Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), where he continued to excel, rushing for 3,843 yards and 43 touchdowns. Barkley also proved to be a solid receiver in college, catching passes for nearly 1,200 yards.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

A quick start to a pro career

The New York Giants selected Barkley with the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft. “The thing that makes him different is he’s got the feet and speed of a little guy with the power and strength of a big guy,” said Dave Gettleman, the Giants’ general manager. “That’s what makes him so darn unique. He’s different. It’s like he was touched by the hand of God, frankly.”

The Giants, who were 3–13 the season before they drafted Barkley, improved to 5–11 in his first year with the team, when he finished second in the league in rushing yards (1,307) and set an NFL rookie running back record for receptions (91). Barkley was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and was selected for the Pro Bowl, the first Giants running back to earn that honor since Tiki Barber in 2006. Barkley had another good year in 2019 but suffered a season-ending injury early in 2020 that limited him to just two games.

In 2021 Barkley averaged just 3.7 yards per carry, but he returned to form in 2022, rushing for a then-career-high 1,312 yards while helping the Giants to their first winning season and first playoff berth since 2016. New York won its first-round game against the Minnesota Vikings but lost in a blowout to the Eagles, 38–7. In 2023, in what proved to be his final season with the Giants, Barkley’s numbers again slid after he suffered a high-ankle sprain that limited his playing time. The Giants fell to 6–11 for the season.

Stardom in Philadelphia

In March 2024 the Eagles signed Barkley, then 27, to a three-year, $37.5 million free-agent contract after negotiations with the Giants failed to produce a deal. “I think for the point I am in my career, just to be able to get a fresh start is good,” Barkley said at a news conference. “I feel like I’m a special player. I feel like I still got a lot left and I got a lot to prove, and I just can’t wait to get on the field with those guys…and show it to the world.”

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

That Barkley did in 2024, his first season in Philadelphia. He won NFL Offensive Player of the Year, rushing for 2,005 yards and becoming one of only nine players in NFL history to reach the 2,000-yard milestone. He was a highlight-reel fixture, recording a dominant 255-yard, two-touchdown game against the Los Angeles Rams and managing to hurdle backward over a Jacksonville Jaguars defender in week nine in a play that would land him on the cover of a Madden NFL video game the next year. He had a chance to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 rushing yards, set in 1984, but chose to rest in the regular-season finale to save his energy for the playoffs.

In the team’s three NFC playoff games, Barkley averaged nearly 150 rushing yards per game, including a dynamic 60-yard touchdown run on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage in the NFC championship, a 55–23 rout of the Washington Commanders. That set up a Super Bowl rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs, who had won their 2023 matchup, 38–35, in Super Bowl LVII. This time the Eagles romped to a 40–22 win in Super Bowl LIX. The Chiefs focused their defense on stopping Barkley, and, while he was limited to 57 rushing yards on 25 carries, that opened up things for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, who completed 17 of 22 passes. Barkley’s total rushing yards—regular season and playoffs—set a record with 2,504.

His numbers weren’t quite as good in 2025, when he finished 10th in the NFL in rushing with 1,140 yards. The Eagles returned to the playoffs with an 11–6 record, tops in the NFC East, but fell in the Wild Card round to the San Francisco 49ers. Entering the 2026 season, Barkley said in an interview that he wants another Super Bowl ring: “Once you get the opportunity to win a Super Bowl, have that confetti fall on you, hold that trophy and have that parade, you kinda get like greedy. I just want to feel that again and I don’t care how it happens.”