Forget Tradition, Saquon Barkley Should Win MVP This Year

Tradition tells you that MVP is a QB award. A non-QB hasn't won MVP since 2012 when Adrian Peterson won it. Before that, LaDainian Tomlinson won it in 2006, Shaun Alexander won it in 2005, and Marshall Faulk won it in 2000. But outside those 4 RBs, every other MVP since the year 2000 was a QB. Saquon Barkley should break that tradition though.

What Barkley has done this year is nothing short of spectacular. At this pace, he is going to break the Rushing Yards record set by Eric Dickerson that has stood since 1984. Albiet it would be with 1 extra game played, but Barkley is actually on pace for fewer carries than Dickerson had.

If you project Barkley's production over a full season, he will finish with 2,151 yards, 47 more than Dickerson's record. He will also have 2,548 yards from scrimmage, 39 more than Chris Johnson's current record.

He just set an Eagles single-game record for rushing yards (255) and yards from scrimmage (302). Both numbers are top 10 all-time as well. he leads the NFL in Rushing Yards and yards from scrimmage. He has 12 total TDs, including 10 rushing, despite having many TD chances poached by the Tush Push.

To put it simply, he is fantastic this season. That great play is a huge reason why the Eagles are 9-2 and on a 7-game winning streak. The Eagles can comfortably coast to the 2-seed in the NFC and are neck and neck with the Lions for the 1 seed.

But unlike the Lions RBs, he does not have a partner in crime in the backfield. There is no Sonic and Knuckles. He is both, he is the hammer and the chisel, the power and the finesse. he does it all for them.

If he is not breaking through a brick wall to get tough yards after contact, he is exploding through the holes to get explosive run plays, he leads in the NFL in 30+ yard runs, 40+ yard runs, and 50+ yard runs. Derrick Henry leads it in 20+ yard runs, but then Barkley leads it in 10+ yard runs too.

He has 920 yards just in the second half of games. Only 2 other RBs have that many yards period, and he is doing it in 1 half. Barkley averages 7.9 yards per carry in the 2nd half this season.

The NFL wants to give it to a QB. Whether it is Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson, beating them out is going to be tough. The history of the award tells you all you need to know. If they can give it to a QB, they will.

So what will it take? NFL Insider James Palmer joined The Best Show Ever and discussed what he thinks Barkley will have to do to break that mold.

"You know what I think needs to happen, he has to break one of these records. He is on pace to break Eric Dickerson's record for most rushing yards, or Chris Johnson's record for yards from scrimmage. If you do that and set a historical record, it will be much more difficult to hand this off to Allen or Jackson. That almost has to happen."

The year Peterson won it, he did not set a record, but he came close. He finished just 8 yards short of Dickerson for the rushing yard record and put himself into 9th place all-time for single-season scrimmage yards.

12 years later, Barkley will have to do even more than that. He is going to need to break a decades-old record, maybe 2 of them. The award is bias towards QBs. They dont win the award 20 of the last 24 times by accident. But every now and then, a RB is so extraordinary they break the mold. AP did it over a decade ago, and if he keeps this up, Saquon Barkley should do it too.

He has the stats, he has the wins, and he has the wow plays. Find me any play as spectacular as this in the NFL this year.

That type of thing plays a part in who wins MVP. Barkley is putting on a show each and every week. He has won NFC Offensive Player of the Week 3 times, and this week will make it 4. He might break records.

All of that makes Saquon an MVP. If they don't give it to him this year, they might as well rename the award Best QB and get it over with. Because if Saquon Barkley is not an MVP, no RB can ever be one again.

The Eagles went into the bye week 2-2, and not many people had them as contenders. Since then, all they have done is win, literally. 7 games since the bye week, and they won all 7 of them. Most recently, they went out to LA and blew out the Rams.

Related: Eagles Impose Their Will On Rams, Like They Do To Everyone

For most of this winning streak, you could have argued their schedule was too easy. Browns, Giants, Cowboys, and Jaguars are all getting beaten by most teams. But even in that stretch, there were impressive moments. Beating the Bengals may not be impressive, but shutting down their offense is. And now they have beaten the Commanders and the Ramns in back-to-back weeks.

Looking only at their record, the Rams do not look like a tough opponent. 5-6 does not scream good team. but what that record does not show is they were 4-1 in their last 5 games, and the difference between their 1-4 start and that 4-1 period was getting healthy. The Eagles played a fully healthy Rams team. Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua were both on the field. And they beat them pretty easily anyway.

This Eagles team is legit. The defense continues to play like one of the best units in the league. The offense, even without Devonta Smith, imposed their will on an impressive Rams defense. The first half might have been close, but like they have every week, the Eagles just bust the game wide open in the second half, and fans got another relaxing 4th quarter where they didn't have to worry about a comeback.

Just how good are they though? Let's take a deep dive into the numbers to see what the Eagles are doing to the Rams, and to everyone else in their way.

In the first half of games, Saquon Barkley is decent. He averages 4.4 yards per carry and has 3 TDs. Not spectacular, but quality production. In the second half of games, he is unstoppable though. He has 922 yards and 7 TDS on 116 carries. That is 7.9 yards per carry. 

By the way, that 920 yards is the 3rd most in the league. Not the 3rd most in the second half, the third most period. Only Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs have more than 920 rushing yards this season. In the second half alone, he is the 3rd best running back in the league. Add in his first-half numbers, he has 207 more rushing yards than the next guy, Henry, and his 126.7  rushing yards per game is nearly 20 yards higher than Henry at 107.7.

This speaks to the Eagles' basic game plan. They wear teams down.  They beat you up, and eventually the dam breaks. And once it breaks, there is a flood. It is why they lead the NFL in 2nd half-points per game at 16.8. They play old-school physical Football. And most modern defenses are not built for that, as teams went smaller to try to counteract the explosive offenses of the modern era.

The Rams gave the Eagles' defense a little bit more trouble than most teams have. Not too much. They still held them to just 14 points before a garbage-time TD. But we are talking in relation to the past several games, where they just completely shut other offenses down. The Rams were able to move the ball a bit on the Eagles.

But no one could have expected the Eagles' defense to never give up yards. What matters is how you adjust. And after not forcing a third down in the entire first quarter, they were much better the rest of the game. In the next 7 drives, they gave up just 118 yards. That is 16.9 yards per drive. I took the final drive where they scored a garbage time TD out because at the point the game was over. But in the drives where the pressure was on, the defense was great. They were particularly great in the 2nd quarter.

Puka Nacua had his way a little bit, and the Darius Slay concussion is something to monitor as they were picking on Isaiah Rodgers a ton. But they faced the tough test of the Rams passing attack and mostly passed with flying colors.

Jalen Hurts is not putting up huge pass numbers. partly because the Eagles have the most balanced attack in the league, and run the ball more than any other team. So he is throwing less, and therefore, has fewer yards than a lot of other top QBs. But look a little deeper, and you will see just how efficient he is.

For one, he has just 1 interception in the last 7 games. A big deal given his penchant for throwing them last year and in the first 4 games this year. But more than that, he is not even throwing many incompletions. In those 7 games, he averages just 6.6 incompletions per game. His completion rate was over 70% in 4 of the 7 games. Most of his incompletions by the way are throwaways.

Hurts might not blow anyone away in the box score. But he is playing very well, and giving this Eagles offense exactly what they need. Oh and for what it is worth, he was a perfect 5 for 5 over the middle of the field.

We saw Quinyon get his toughest matchup last week with having to stick to Terry McLaurin all game long. He passed that test with flying colors. This week it was Cooper DeJean's chance. Cooper Kupp spent most of his time in the slot, that was where he lined up 65.9% of the time. So DeJean saw him more often than anyone.

Dejean was targeted 4 times and gave up just 11 yards when covering Kupp, per PFF. He also wound up on Puka Nucua a few times. And while he did give up 1 18-yard gain, he also had a tremendous play where he broke up a pass to Nacua. By the end, he had given up just 38 yards to Nucua, better than most of the Eagles' secondary did.

Now Mitchell did get beat once and gave up his 1st TD of the season to Cooper Kupp. But 1, it was in garbage time when the Eagles switched to a soft zone, so it is hard to blame him fully. And also, Quinyon gave up just 21 yards before that drive, including only 14 when covering Nacua.

The two rookie corners faced another tough test, and they looked fantastic. It is time to stop saying they are being tested, and just acknowledge they are fantastic players. Even if they do hit a speed bump at some point, there is no reason to doubt them going forward.

Nick Sirianni takes a lot of heat, often deserved. But you have to give the guy credit, all he does is win. He had 1 awful 1-6 stretch last year, but outside that the dude rarely ever loses. He has his team 9-2 this year. But even more impressive is what he does on the road. He is 5-1 this season, but 23-9 since taking over as the Eagles Coach. That is a road winning % of (.719). Only Andy Reid has a better road record during that span.

It was actually pointed out to Sirianni last week heading into the game, and this was his response.

"We take pride in that. I just think that speaks volumes of our players and coaches that they handle that. I didn’t know that stat. That’s a cool stat, and we take pride in that. That’s just another opportunity to lock arms, and go at it together, and try to battle all game and win.”

Flaws and all, we need to acknowledge the guy knows how to win. He has his finger on the pulse of that team. The locker room loves him. He may occasionally baffle us, but if it leads to wins, who cares?

The Rams blocking plan was simple. Don't let Jalen Carter beat you. They double-teamed him 62.9% of the time on pass-rushing snaps per Next Gen Stats. At one point in the game, that rate was 79%. And he was still disrupting the game, and the Rams still probably got away with some holds against him.

The guy is playing nearly every snap right now, and he gets double-teamed on the vast majority of them. Yet you will still notice him making an impact. He is not exactly stuffing the stat sheet, but anyone who watches the game knows how much of a game-wrecker he is. What Carter is doing directly leads to sacks and pressures for his teammates.